MASTER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND FOOD
SECURITY
FOOD SECURITY MODULE
FOOD SECURITY:
HISTORICAL CONTEXT,
DEFINITION, GOVERNANCE
George-André Simon
3 - 4 June 2016
Food Security:
Historical context
Five main periods since 1930
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
1930 – 1945 Post WW1 and League of Nations
1945 – 1970 Post WW2, UN, FAO, surpluses
1970 – 1990 International Food Crisis
1990 – 2007 Golden years of Food Security
2007 – …. Price volatility - End of surpluses ?
…..Towards ending hunger ?
1. 1930 – 1945: Post WW1- L. of N.
1930: Yugoslavia proposes to the League
of Nations to review food situation
in all countries of the world.
1935: 1st report of “Nutrition and Public
Health” prepared by specialist in
Health and Nutrition.
Food shortages being looked at from the
Health and Nutrition point of view.
1935 first report on hunger and malnutrition
in the world concluding:
- an acute problem in poor countries due to
… food shortage;
- need to develop and coordinate national
nutrition policies – food needed to
improve health.
But at same time also first interest in:
- regulating international food commodities
markets;
 prority goes to trade !
2. 1945-1970: FAO, Surpluses
1943: Hot Spring Conference
1945: FAO established
Objectives:
Increase agricultural production
Improve nutrition
1946: First World Food Survey:
There would not be enough food for
one third of the world population.
.
Some demographic data
1946 World Population = +/- 2.4billion
people of which one third (33 percent) or
about 800 million people would not have had
enough food (macronutrients).
-
1996: estimates of undernourished
population = 840 million people (13 percent
of total world population of 5.8 billions.)
-
The world has thus been able to
feed an additional 3.4 billion
people between 1945 and 1996.
After second world war:
Serious concerns about level of production
And self-sufficiency of some countries
= post war trauma

Policies to increase production and selfsufficiency (North America and Europe)
Successful, these policies will generate…?
Food surpluses …generated by new policies
and which had to be managed:
 Creation of:
- USA: Section 416 (1949)
- FAO Committee on Commodity Problems
(1952)
- FAO Consultative sub-Committee on
Surplus Disposal (CSSD) (1954)
- USA: PL 480 (1954)
- UN/FAO: WFP (1961/63)
Late sixties: Diminution of the cereal
stocks worldwide, increase of the food
demand by the USSR and the Indian
sub-continent and increase in prices;
CEREALS STOCKS WORLDWIDE
BEGINNING STOCKS, 1960/61-2007/08
Corn
Wheat
Rice
6,0
Polynomial (Corn)
Polynomial (Rice)
Months of World Consumption
5,0
4,0
3,0
2,0
1,0
0,0
1960/61 1964/65
1968/69
1972/73
1976/77
1980/81
1984/85
1988/89
1992/93
1996/97
2000/01
2004/05
GRAINS PRICES ON GLOBAL MARKETS
(REAL 2005 US$)
1400
1200
MAIZE
RICE_05
1000
WHEAT_US_SRW
SOYBEANS
800
600
400
200
0
3. 1970 – 1990 International Food Crisis
1972: bad climatic conditions,
1973: Sahel drought and food crisis
OPEC increased the prices of oil

- increase of food commodities prices
- reduction of stocks
- problems for dev. Countries: import bill
and food aid
(Situation similar to 2007/08 – 2010/2011)
GRAINS PRICES ON GLOBAL MARKETS
(REAL 2005 US$)
1400
1200
MAIZE
RICE_05
1000
WHEAT_US_SRW
SOYBEANS
800
600
400
200
0
.
How to address the increase
of prices and decrease of
stocks
UN World Food Conference Rome 1974:
- Recognition that FS was a common concern
of mankind
- FS defined on the basis of availability:
“Availability at all times of adequate
world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to
sustain a steady expansion of food
consumption and to offset fluctuations in
production and prices”
- Establishment of several institutions:
- IFAD, World Food Council
- CFS, GIEWS, CFA, IEFR
1980’S
1979/81: Amartya Sen:
 Theory
 Access
 Sen
of Entitlements.
to food
at FAO in …. 2013 !
1986 DEFINITION OF FS
“Access of all people at all times to
enough food for an active, healthy life”
World Bank, 1986: Poverty and Hunger: Issues and
Options for Food Security in Developing Countries.
Access first (and not availability)
 All people : individual approach
 The problem is not production, it is poverty

= the solution is not FAO, it is WB
4. 1990 – 2008 Golden years of FS
Following the 1980’s: the “lost decade for
development”, and the fall of Berlin war,
the 1990’s started with fifteen
international conferences among which:
- 1992 International Conference on
Nutrition
- 1994 Marrakech Conference and
creation of WTO
- 1996 World Food summit
1996 World Food Summit
Heads of States and of Governments approved the
Rome Declaration on Food Security that included
the new definition of food security as well as the 7
commitments and the Plan of Action:
“Food Security exists when all people, at all
times, have physical, [social] and economic
access to sufficient, safe and nutritious
food to meet their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life”
THE 4 DIMENSIONS OF FOOD SECURITY
 Availability
 Access
 Utilisation
 Stability
Availability
Availability is defined as the amount of
food that is physically present in a country,
an area or a household through all forms of
domestic production, commercial imports or
purchases, including informal cross-border
trade and other illicit operations as well as
food aid.
Access
For logistics, economical or socio-cultural
reasons people may not have access to the
food that is available.
The three types of causes for the lack of
access to food are:
a. physical
b. financial
c. socio-cultural
Utilization
It is not sufficient that food be available
and accessible to people to ensure that
people have a “safe and nutritious”
diet.
Food has to be of good quality and safe.
Food needs to be properly preserved,
processed and utilized.
Stability
The conditions described for the three
basic dimensions of food security
(availability, access and utilization) do
not have to occur only at a single
moment in time but need to present at
all the time and with sustainability.
THE FOUR DIMENSIONS OF FOOD SECURITY:
A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Availability
• Domestic
production
• Food imports
• Food stocks
• Food aid
Access
• Transport and
Logistics
• Market
facilities
• Poverty
• Purchasing
power
• Socio-cultural
organization
• Food
distribution
Utilization
• Food quality
• Food safety
• Cooking
• Food conservation
• Quality of water
• Health/sanitation
education
• Care and feeding
Stability
• Stability of three
other dimensions
• Weather
variability
• Political and
economical
factors
(Man made
emergencies)
• Price
fluctuations
THE 1996 PLAN OF ACTION
“This Plan of Action envisages an ongoing
effort to eradicate hunger in all countries,
with an immediate view to reducing the
number of undernourished people to half
their present level no later than 2015, and
undertake a mid-term review to ascertain
whether it is possible to achieve this target
by 2010. “
The 2000 Millenium Summit
The Summit approved 8 Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), the first of
which was:
-
Eradicate Hunger and Poverty with
targets that were:
- Reduce by half between 1990 and 2015
the proportion of world’s population that
suffer from hunger;
- Reduce by half between 1990 and 2015
the proportion of the world’s population
whose income is less than one dollar a
day
5. 2008:PRICE VOLATILITY END OF SURPLUSES
Unforeseen increase in food commodities
prices reduces access to food…
… but not to the extend stated.
GRAINS PRICES ON GLOBAL MARKETS
(REAL 2005 US$)
1400
1200
MAIZE
RICE_05
1000
WHEAT_US_SRW
SOYBEANS
800
600
400
200
0
CEREALS STOCKS WORLDWIDE
BEGINNING STOCKS, 1960/61-2007/08
Corn
Wheat
Rice
6,0
Polynomial (Corn)
Polynomial (Rice)
Months of World Consumption
5,0
4,0
3,0
2,0
1,0
0,0
1960/61 1964/65
1968/69
1972/73
1976/77
1980/81
1984/85
1988/89
1992/93
1996/97
2000/01
2004/05
Reactions to commodity prices crisis:








2008: Establishment of the HLTF on GFS
2008: High level conference on climate change,
Rome
2009: High level meeting on Food Security for all,
Madrid
2099: G8 Summit in L’Aquila
2009/2010: increased food commodity prices
instability, risk of a new prices crisis
2009: World Summit on Food Security, Rome
2009: new Committee on World Food Security
2010: Creation of the High Level Panel of Expert
(HLPE)
New Committee on
World Food Security
From FAO to Global
 Relations within the UN System
 New Governance Global Governance
 Role of Civil Society

all this to be seen during lessons on
Governance with Nora McKeon
WHAT HAPPENED SINCE 2010?
2011 Establishment of the UN Food
Security Cluster within the Humanitarian
Community,
 2012 Approbation of a new Food
Assistance Convention,
 2012 creation of AMIS (Agricultural
Market Information System)

 2015
Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals
Adopted on 25 September 2015: 17 new
Sustainable Development Goals
 SDG
1: End poverty in all its form
everywhere by 2030
 SDG 2: End hunger, achieve food security
and improved nutrition and promote
sustainable agriculture by 2030
SDG 2:
END HUNGER, ACHIEVE FOOD SECURITY
End hunger and ensure access by all people, in
particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations,
including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food
all year round;
 End all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by
2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting
and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and
address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls,
pregnant and lactating women and older persons;
………………
 Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of
food commodity markets and their derivatives and
facilitate timely access to market information,
including on food reserves, in order to help limit
extreme food price volatility

GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY GOVERNANCE
LOCAL FOOD SECURITY GOVERNANCE
Top Down
Global
Regional
National
Community
?
Bottom Up
Global
Regional
National
Community
GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY GOVERNANCE
LOCAL FOOD SECURITY GOVERNANCE
 Global
Governance = Global policy
 Local Governance = Close to people
 Final aim of Global Governance is to
apply to people but HOW ?
GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY
GOVERNANCE
LOCAL FOOD SECURITY GOVERNANCE
 Fundamental
role of the civil society
 Establishment
of local Food Security
authorities
 Link
between global and local
governance
Thank you