• Social protection and safety nets
• Food programmes
• Resource transfers

Social protection and safety nets

Prepared by the FAO, IFAD and WEP for the meeting of the Chief Executives Board for Coordination on 28-29 April in Berne, Switzerland, this paper argues that the rapid price increase of basic food commodities internationally poses a serious threat to food security in developing countries.

The paper reviews the causes of the current high food commodity prices and assesses the medium term outlook. It then examines the impact of these price changes on developing nations and takes a look at their policy responses. It is argued that a fully co-ordinated response is required from the international community to meet emergency food needs, to enable poor smallholder farmers to boost their production both in the next growing season and in the medium and long term, to provide macro-economic support for poor net food importing countries and to deliver progress in the Doha trade round.

The UN system, the paper states, is uniquely positioned to catalyse and help co-ordinate such a system-wide effort, to support developing countries to deal with the impact of soaring prices on food security, and to seize the opportunity offered by higher demand to expand their agriculture and fight rural poverty. The paper explains that the three Rome based agencies (FAO, IFAD and WEP) have decided to create a joint coordinating group of senior managers to maximise synergies from their respective interventions and to engage jointly with the World Bank and leading regional institutions. Action by the UN system would cover three areas:

• Crisis response and safety nets: The top priority should be to ensure access of the most vulnerable to food, which can be achieved through emergency assistance and expanded safety net programmes. WFP has extensive experience in the development of safety-net programmes, but it will require additional resources in order to respond effectively to the current situation
  
• Supply response: Support needs to focus particularly on enabling poor rural producers (those least able to respond to changing market signals) to expand their production and seize the opportunity offered by higher commodity prices
  
• Policy support: Countries demand policy advice and support from the UN system to mitigate the impact of high food prices, improve the food security situation, protect the productive assets - including land - of rural poor households and benefit from the opportunities that high food prices create for farmers. The UN system can disseminate experiences and best practices to help countries to learn from past experience and to prepare their policy frameworks and strategies. Several initiatives are highlighted to this end
  

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