Looking Ahead:
Touching Human Freedoms and the World’s Economy
continued from previous page

Considering that poverty eradication is a major goal of members, and that it has stimulated a UN system-wide response, FAO contributions focused on the rural sector are not provided in isolation but are an integral part of the broader effort. Critical to the attainment of better rural living standards will be investment in improved access to safe water and sanitation, power supplies, health services and education. From this vantage point, FAO will seek further integration of its action within the UN system.

While poverty eradication should theoretically result in food security for all, there are compelling reasons for focusing directly and immediately on addressing undernourishment and malnutrition. Inadequate dietary intake that persists over time poses a serious threat to health, prevents normal growth and development in children, reduces mental capacity and lowers productivity of able-bodied adults, thereby contributing significantly to the conditions that prevent individuals from moving out of poverty.

The challenge for countries affected by widespread undernourishment and for FAO in its efforts to assist them is to address this need in an era of diminished state intervention and to obtain, allocate and administer resources for “safety nets” and related programmes that ensure access to sufficient, safe and nutritionally adequate food in both urban and rural areas.

FAO is well situated to develop and adapt social safety net concepts and methods, making use of a multidisciplinary approach that combines social and economic, as well as technical and legal, expertise. The Inter-Agency Working Group on Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS) brings together the UN organizations, bilateral agencies and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) most concerned with the various aspects of the issues that FIVIMS addresses. The challenge is to increase the resilience and capacity of countries and their populations to cope with the impacts of disasters that affect national and household food security and, when disasters do occur, to contribute to emergency operations that foster the transition from relief to recovery of the food and agricultural sectors.

The comparative advantage of FAO in humanitarian assistance is directly derived from the expertise, knowledge and experience it has accumulated as a technical agency. It has a demonstrated technical capability for natural resource monitoring and for facilitating, with others, international efforts in forecasting, prevention and mitigation of natural calamities. Within the United Nations system, it has recognized leadership for early warning of food shortages through the Global Information and Early Warning System, as well as for its Emergency Prevention System for transboundary animal and plant pests and diseases, including control of locusts and other migratory pests.

FAO conducts, jointly with the World Food Programme, crop and food supply assessments, as well as household food security and nutritional status assessments, and has well-established links with all UN agencies concerned with humanitarian assistance, as well as with regional organizations, national governments and international and national NGOs, particularly for early warning and food and nutrition assessments. Response to emergencies and early post-disaster recovery assistance is provided within the framework of emergency aid coordination and management mechanisms established within the UN system, including the Security Council and including major cooperating humanitarian aid agencies.

In the field, NGOs are also included as the main implementing partners of FAO, particularly in complex emergencies. Resources for this type of work will continue to be sought from bilateral and multilateral funding sources, as well as from regional and international financing institutions, committed to providing support to reconstruction efforts. Among the challenges addressed is that of facilitating the full and informed participation of all FAO members in the further development of an appropriate regulatory framework in the areas of the Organization’s mandate, with due regard to the special concerns of developing countries and those countries with economies in transition.

The components include:

• within the spheres of FAO competence, providing a forum for policy debate and negotiations on the international regulatory framework at the global and regional levels, and servicing international instruments as required;
• developing international standards and other measures for the implementation of the international regulatory framework in the areas of food, agriculture, fisheries and forestry;
• ensuring that with respect to natural resources, environment and trade, the specific needs and concerns of the food, agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors are adequately reflected in international instruments, and that appropriate sectoral policy advice is provided to the relevant fora; and
• enhancing the contribution of international agricultural trade to food security, by monitoring and analyzing trade information, addressing issues of trade and market development for food and agricultural products, and improving members’ capacities, with particular reference to developing countries and countries with economies in transition, to participate actively in negotiations in relevant international fora dealing with natural resources, environment and trade.

FAO is ideally placed to provide a global and neutral forum for the further development of the international policy and regulatory framework for food, agriculture, fisheries and forestry. Through the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, FAO has recognized competence in facilitating negotiations by Governments of international instruments on aspects of biological diversity of relevance to food and agriculture. The International Plant Protection Convention provides a neutral forum for international cooperation in the negotiation and harmonization of policies for protection of plants and plant products from pests. Food safety standards adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission and plant health standards developed under the aegis of the Convention are recognized by the World Trade Organization as reference points for the international trade system. FAO also has a unique structure of intergovernmental commodity groups through which Governments consult on agricultural commodities.

FAO possesses a proven capacity for advising its members on the implications of the international policy and regulatory framework, including for food and agricultural trade, for related national policies and legislation, and for providing technical assistance in the formulation and implementation of such policies and legislation.

This capacity is based on its capabilities in analyzing developments and projecting trends in food, agriculture, fisheries and forestry, and its familiarity with the international policy and regulatory framework, including its application at the national level. It derives strength from the synergy between its normative and operational programmes.

The natural partners for the Organization with regard to national policy and regulatory frameworks are Governments. FAO also maintains a dialogue with civil society and the private sector on these matters and will continue to do so. Cooperation with the Inter-Parliamentary Union will be further developed. Partnerships will be maintained with technical and trade organizations on the technical content of the assistance provided; this ranges from arrangements whereby organizations provide technical support to FAO assistance activities. FAO will also seek to mobilize donor funds to support member Governments’ action in these fields.

Meeting the needs of growing and increasingly urbanized populations will require for the foreseeable future both substantial increases and qualitative adaptations in the domestic supply and availability of agricultural products. A core requirement, especially in developing countries, is to raise productivity in the crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry sectors, where the adoption of improved technology can bring about rapid and major increases in production and producers’ incomes. In addition, the economic and institutional operating conditions of all agriculture-based activities, including processing and marketing systems, need to be improved so as to enhance the overall efficiency and adaptability of those activities. Particular attention needs to be paid to the role of women in production, processing and marketing.

As agriculture is increasingly commercialized, there is a growing need to focus on improving production support services, including input supply and rural finance. A dynamic production sector also requires efficient marketing, post-harvest and processing systems, with associated demand signals guiding farmers’ decisions. The challenge is to create a policy and institutional environment that encourages resource mobilization, more efficient support institutions adapted to changing conditions and more accessible to users, and greater responsiveness to the market on the part of farm, fisheries and other production units, agribusinesses and marketing enterprises. The focus of FAO work in this area will be on providing countries with appropriate policy options and enhancing their ability to choose and implement them.

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The Chronicle acknowledges with deep appreciation the cooperation and support received in preparing this special section from the Food and Agriculture Organization, Director-General Jacques Diouf and his team, including Christina Engfeldt, Nick Parsons and Sharon Lee Cowan of the Information Division. In particular, we owe a great debt of thanks to John Riddle and his colleagues, including J. Herbert, for their guidance, imaginative counsel and arranging of briefings and interviews essential to this venture. Catharine M. Way and Diane Young of the Information Division placed before us the vast photographic resources of FAO and arranged for their transmission, while Gabriel Stergiou of the FAO library and his colleagues researched and made available important archival material.