NEW YORK (Nov. 17, 2009) — As the World Summit on Food Security gathers in Rome, serious questions remain as to its potential to deliver real change. The expressed aim of the summit is to “strengthen commitment from world leaders to eradicate hunger by 2025 and to address the root causes of the present situation through the full implementation of the Human Right to Food.”



There’s hope that world leaders will rise to the challenge and show the political leadership so necessary in a world with more than 1 billion hungry people. But the final draft of the summit declaration is less than inspiring.



Clear targets are notable by their absence. The draft commits to "substantially increase the share of official development assistance (ODA) devoted to agriculture and food security based on country-led requests.” But it fails to set a target or a timeframe for this. Equally missing is the target of eradicating hunger by 2025. Instead it re-iterates the commitment to reaching the millennium development goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015—a goal which itself is now looking out of reach.



The Summit is taking place 18 months after soaring food and energy prices led to food riots in over 30 countries and a year after the onset of the global financial meltdown. The combined effect of these crises has been to increase the number of hungry people in the world by some 150 million to FAO’s estimate of 1.02 billion in 2009—more than one-sixth of humanity.



Although international food commodity prices have declined in recent months, they are still 24 percent higher than in 2006 and 33 percent higher than in 2005. Prices have settled at levels too high for many people in developing countries, a point highlighted by the 2009 Global Hunger Index recently published earlier this fall by Concern and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).



On the bright side, the draft statement recognizes that food security is a national responsibility and that governments of food insecure countries must make it a high priority in their national programs and budgets. The share of spending on agriculture and rural development in national budgets and aid programs has fallen dramatically in the past 20 years. This trend must be reversed.



The declaration calls for improved international coordination and governance. The Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition—an idea promoted by the G8 group of developed countries—and a reformed Committee for Food Security – promoted by developing countries—are seen as central to improved governance and accountability for delivering on promises to achieve food security. But it is not clear how these institutions will actually do their jobs.



The Summit will also commit to adopting a twin-track approach to tackling hunger, consisting of direct action in the short term to help the most vulnerable and medium to long term action to eliminate the root causes of hunger. Concern has strongly advocated for a greatly increased commitment to tackling severe acute malnutrition, which kills 1-2 million children annually, and for preventing chronic malnutrition by a focus on pregnant women and children under two years of age.



Will fine words spoken and commitments made then be acted upon? The record of World Food Summits, dating back to 1974, does not bode well. A key difference this time is that the food price crisis of early 2008 may have brought home to political leaders in developing and developed countries that food security is directly connected to political stability. It makes both eminent political and economic sense to plan and invest in increased food security.



Tom Arnold is CEO of Concern Worldwide, the international humanitarian organization.



Concern works in 28 of the world’s poorest countries, including 17 sub-Saharan African nations, and reaches some 25 million people. The organization’s goal is the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty and the reduction of suffering. The organization’s programs focus on emergency relief and long-term development work in the areas of health, HIV and AIDS, livelihoods and education.