The proposal is aimed at speeding up the response to hunger crises and curbing the worst impacts of high food prices
LONDON (AlertNet) - West African nations and the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) plan to test a regional emergency food reserve aimed at speeding up the response to hunger crises and curbing the worst impacts of high food prices.
The proposal will be considered by G20 finance and development ministers in Washington at the end of September, as part of the influential nations' action plan on food price volatility and agriculture agreed in June.
The food reserve initiative - which could release stocks to 11 low-income West African countries with food deficits, as needed - comes at a time when world food prices are hovering near record highs and a severe drought has left 12.4 million people in need of urgent aid across large parts of East Africa.
"When there is a supply shock, the emergency reserve could make food available very quickly and for a certain period of time so that (countries) can have ready access to that food," Chris Moore, director of hunger solutions strategy for WFP, told AlertNet. "So we are looking at something that is small and targeted, and would be available to poor countries to use to assist their most vulnerable populations."
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been selected as a partner for the pilot programme because it is already working on plans for a regional reserve. In addition, the region is likely to suffer recurring shocks from high and volatile food prices, which economists expect to persist in the coming years driven by climate change and a soaring global population.
WFP's Moore said that, if approved and implemented successfully, the scheme could be rolled out to other regions where food emergencies regularly arise, with the support of the international community.
The emergency stocks will be distributed through existing channels, including food safety net programmes, where possible, and international agencies will work to strengthen regional and national authorities' capacity to manage the reserves themselves.
Even with such a system in place, crises requiring global aid will not become a thing of the past, Moore cautioned.
"But once that assistance comes, it's coming into a situation where there has already been a robust response and you aren't dealing – as often we sometimes are - with households who have already sold their productive assets, are already starving and already in bad situations," he said. "So this kind of thing could really play a valuable role, both in helping to respond initially but also to ensure that the response doesn't have to be as long."
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE?
Some aid experts, however, have criticised the proposed scheme as too little, too late - and in the wrong place.
Soren Ambrose, international policy manager with ActionAid in Nairobi, said the plan had been watered down after opposition from some G20 countries. And it should have been tried out earlier in hunger-hit East Africa, where it could have made a real difference, he added.
"If we had had effective coordination of (food) reserves... we probably wouldn't be seeing the levels of malnutrition among (Kenyan) children we are now. It would have taken the edge off the crisis," he said.
ActionAid is also advocating for international investment in an enhanced system of national and regional "buffer reserves", which would be larger and more effective in controlling price fluctuations than emergency stocks.
In a paper released in June, the aid agency pointed out that a number of price stabilisation reserves already exist, and were used to control prices in 2007-2008, as in Bangladesh, India and China. Other countries, including several African nations are looking to strengthen existing local and national grain reserves or introduce them, it noted.
At the regional level, there are a small number of fledgling initiatives that aim to address food emergencies, tackle poverty and boost food security - mainly in Asia. But they have drifted and require high-level political support to get them working effectively, the report said.
Yet, according to Ambrose, some G20 nations - including the United States, Canada and Australia - are refusing to support food reserves specifically intended to regulate prices because they could distort international markets.
"They are concerned about their food exporters, and their ability to make profits. The idea of doing something that interferes with market prices is anathema," he said.
PRICE VOLATILITY TOOL
Besides emergency food reserves, the G20 is looking at other initiatives to help offset the impact of high and volatile food prices on the world's poor. One that has already been launched is an early warning system for excessive food price variability managed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
The online tool is updated daily and alerts policy makers and humanitarian agencies to periods when there is unusual volatility in the prices of wheat, corn and soybeans. It supports the design of emergency humanitarian food reserves by providing a trigger mechanism for country-level contingency plans, including whether and when to release grain reserves, IFPRI said.
"With better and more precise information, (decision makers) can devise policies to mitigate the impacts of volatility on both producers and consumers, particularly the poorest consumers in developing countries," IFPRI research fellow Carlos Martins Filho said in a statement.
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