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	New Food Crisis “just one bad harvest away” Actionaid warns G20 by ActionAid International & agencies   June 2010   New Food Crisis “just One Bad Harvest Away” Actionaid Warns G20.   Anti-hunger group ActionAid has warned G20 ministers that the world is one bad harvest from a recurrence of the 2008 food crisis. It urged Agriculture Ministers meeting in Paris this week to take urgent action to stabilize food prices, including slashing biofuel production and mobilising a system of regional food reserves to help buffer the worst hit. High oil prices, an increase in biofuel production, commodity speculation and a lack of political leadership means that as many as 34 million people are at risk around the world from poverty and hunger if prices continue to rise.   With countries like the U.S. imposing biofuel mandates that are steering 40% of its corn crop to producing biofuels instead of feeding people, the era of food surpluses is over. The ministers must act now to reverse the mandates and subsidies that are driving biofuel production.   Marie Brill, ActionAid hunger expert said: “We are one harvest away from a major food crisis which will push tens of millions more poor people into hunger and destitution. The price of food staples like maize and wheat has doubled in the past year. We can`t wait until there are hungry children on our TV screens before we take action”   “Biofuels are not the answer to the climate and energy crises and our increasing addiction to them is robbing people of basic food security. The world cannot let some starve so that others can drive.”   ActionAid’s new report, A Second Global Food Crisis, highlights the most recent statistics on food production, food prices, and world hunger. We may not yet be in a crisis, but the price shocks of the last year have us walking a tightrope between tight markets and widespread hunger. Instead of receiving the support they need, the women farmers and smallholders who are the key to food security are paying more for basic food, and enduring increased poverty and stress because of it.   Direct evidence from the from two recent surveys by ActionAid staff in 20 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America confirmed that many poor families are severely affected by the drop in food production due to weather conditions and high local prices. Among the 50 local areas surveyed in Africa poor families are eating less nutritious food – cutting out vegetables, milk and meat. In many places they only eat one meal a day.   The Agriculture Ministers will be considering a proposal from the World Food Program (WFP) for the coordination of regional food reserves, which would position emergency supplies near the most vulnerable people.   Sameer Dossani, ActionAid’s hunger campaign coordinator in Asia said:   “The G2O’s priority should be to save lives, time and money. Buffer reserves can prevent price volatility from becoming a crisis. To stop the food crisis, Agriculture Ministers must endorse the World Food Programme’s proposal to coordinate regional food reserves”.   June 2011   Food Price rises could "devastate the World"s Poor", by Rupert Neate.   After a 40% rise in global prices over the past year, droughts and floods threaten to seriously damage this year"s harvest.   Food prices will soar by as much as 30% over the next 10 years, the United Nations and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have predicted.   Angel Gurría, secretary-general of the OECD, said that any further increase in global food prices, which have risen by 40% over the past year, will have a "devastating" impact on the world"s poor and is likely to lead to political unrest, famine and starvation. "People are going to be forced either to eat less or find other sources of income."   The joint UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and OECD report predicted that the cost of cereals is likely to increase by 20% and the price of meat, particularly chicken, may soar by up to 30%.   World food prices are already at a near-record high as droughts and floods threaten to seriously damage this year"s harvest. The report said the global harvest is in a "critical" condition and warned that prices will continue to rise until depleted stocks are rebuilt.   Global food prices hit a record high in February, prompting demonstrations across the world. The last extreme food price rise in 2008 led to riots in 20 countries across three continents.   Gurría called on world leaders to ban speculators from pushing up food prices. The G20 will meet in Paris next week to thrash out a deal aimed at imposing strict rules on trading in food commodities and policies that distort global food market.   French president Nicolas Sarkozy has repeatedly attacked hedge funds and specialised financial institutions for pushing up food prices. "Speculation, panic and lack of transparency have seen prices soaring," he said. "Is that the world we want? France is saying quite clearly it is not."   He compared the lack of regulation on food price speculators to lax regulation that drove financial markets to the "edge of the abyss" during the 2008 financial crisis.   The report predicted global agricultural production would grow at an annual rate of 1.7% a year over the next decade, compared with 2.6% the past 10 years. "Slower growth is expected for most crops," it said. "The global slowdown in projected yield improvements of important crops will continue to exert pressure on international prices." Visit the related web page
	UN Warns Austerity Plans damage Economic Recovery by Reuters / UN DESA   June 2011   UN warns austerity plans damage economic recovery - Reuters.   Austerity measures being adopted by many industrialized world governments in the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis are undermining economic recovery, a newly released United Nations report warns.   Cuts in spending on health, education and other social programs in both rich and poor countries, it asserted, threaten to turn back decades of social progress, block new job creation and derail efforts to eradicate poverty.   "The growing pressure for austerity measures, ostensibly for reasons of fiscal consolidation, is putting at risk social protection, public health and education programs, as well as the economic recovery measures," the report said.   If governments give in to these pressures, they could jeopardize the sustainability of the recovery, which was at best uncertain and fragile, it declared.   "Continued support for stimulus and other recovery measures is needed to strengthen the momentum of output recovery and to protect the economic and social investments that underpin future growth."   The study, "The Global Social Crisis-Report on the World Social Situation 2011," was presented at the world body"s European headquarters in Geneva by its main author, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Jomo Kwame Sundaram.   Sundaram, a development economist who has taught at both Harvard and Yale universities in the United States, told a news conference that Asian countries, including China, had made strong efforts to sustain economic recovery programs.   Their exports to the West had helped drive the overall post-2009 recovery, he said. But if demand from richer countries tailed off as austerity slashed disposable incomes, Asian economies would also drop back.   The report made no specific reference to the current problems of European countries in the euro zone and outside it, which have been heightened by the political and social turmoil in debt-burdened Greece.   But its thrust was implicitly critical of European Union member countries and the U.N."s International Monetary Fund (IMF), which are pressing Greece to push on with tough austerity measures as a condition for a bail-out loan.   Portugal, Ireland and Spain -- all users of the euro -- and Britain which stayed out of the common currency have all introduced austerity programs involving cuts in social services and are all facing varying degrees of social unrest.   The U.N. report said responses to the crisis had not addressed what had sparked it.   "For example, financial reform in major economies has not matched initial expectations and exposes the recovery to new abuses, excesses and vulnerabilities," it asserted. "There are signs that this is already happening.   "Progress in addressing other structural causes of the crisis have also been limited....income inequalities continue to grow, global balancing is limited and global demand remains depressed.   "The failure to address the root causes of the crisis will impede a sustainable recovery," the report said.   22nd June 2011   The global social crisis: key points. (UN DESA)   Over the period 2008-2009, the world experienced its worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 2009 global output contracted by 2 per cent. Since then, the global economy has bounced back, due mainly to unprecedented coordinated actions by leading economies with fiscal and monetary measures. But this recovery has been uneven and still remains fragile, with ongoing adverse social consequences.   The crises have hampered progress towards attaining the MDGs.   • Global unemployment rose sharply from 178 million persons in 2007 to 205 million in 2009. The rapid rise in unemployment has triggered an increase in vulnerability, especially in developing countries without comprehensive social protection. Estimates suggest that between 47 million and 84 million more people fell into, or remained trapped in, extreme poverty because of the global crisis.   • The economic crisis exacerbated the effects of the food and fuel price hikes in 2007 and 2008. According to the FAO, the number of people living in hunger in the world peaked at over a billion in 2009, the highest on record. In the wake of the recession, food and fuel prices are again on the rise. These multiple crises have set back the progress many countries have made towards achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.   • During times of financial and economic crisis, households often adopt coping strategies, such as making changes in household expenditure patterns; however, these can negatively influence education, health and nutrition, which may lead to lifelong deficits, especially for children, and thus perpetuate the intergenerational transmission of poverty.   • The impact on social progress in areas such as education and health will only become fully evident over time. Given the fragility of the economic recovery and the uneven progress in major economies, social conditions are only expected to recover slowly. The increased levels of poverty, hunger and unemployment will continue to affect billions of people for years to come.   • Meanwhile, austerity measures in response to high government debt in some advanced economies are also making the recovery more uncertain and fragile. Increased pressure for fiscal consolidation and new pressures in response to such debt have severely limited fiscal and policy space in developed economies, and many countries are also under pressure to cut public expenditure, undertake austerity measures, reduce the scope of government action and further liberalize labour markets.   What does this mean for policymakers?   • Countries need to be able to pursue countercyclical policies in a consistent manner. Such policy space should be enabled by changing the fundamental orientation and nature of policy prescriptions that international organizations impose on countries as conditions for assistance.   • It is essential that Governments take into account the likely social implications of their economic policies. It has been shown, time and again, that economic policies considered in isolation from their social consequences can have dire consequences for poverty, employment, nutrition, health and education, which, in turn, adversely affect long-term sustainable development.   • The relative success of some Asian and Latin American Governments in mitigating the economic and social impacts of the recent crisis strongly underscores the need for Governments to be consistently countercyclical and the wisdom of conserving fiscal resources during boom periods to support expansionary measures in times of need.   Universal social protection systems and active employment generation programmes should become permanent measures, not merely temporary components of national crisis response measures.   • Social investments should be accorded priority in recovery strategies and development policies. Increasing expenditures to expand social protection and improve access to education and health services will help ensure more inclusive development with stronger domestic demand and a more solid foundation for future growth.   As challenging as it may be, the crisis offers an opportunity for achieving social progress by making universal social protection a reality, revisiting the social impacts of globalization, and ensuring more inclusive and sustained growth. Visit the related web page
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