From January 26-27, I attended the High-Level Meeting on Food Security for All in Madrid, with participation from 126 governments, several inter-governmental organizations, and representatives from the private sector and civil society. The meeting was organized as a follow-up to the Rome Summit on the Food Crisis that the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization convened in June 2008, in the midst of an unprecedented global food price spike (see IATP's Carin Smaller's blogs from the Rome Summit).
The most sensitive discussions in Madrid revolved around the idea of a new “global partnership” for food and agriculture, a concept that emerged in Rome in June and has since then been discussed mostly among G8 members. In preparation for the Madrid meeting, the Spanish government circulated a document titled the “Madrid Process Towards an Inclusive Global Partnership on Agriculture and Food Security (GPAFS)." It lays out a proposal for the Global Partnership as a multi-stakeholder effort to increase the efficiency of the fight against hunger at both local and global levels. The document puts forward initial ideas for what the focus of the partnership should be and how it should work in terms of policy coherence, coordination of national action plans and clearer mechanisms for cooperation. It calls for an independent panel of experts and scientists or a “contact group” on a wide range of issues relevant to food and agriculture who would organize a series of consultations and identify mechanisms for review and action.
Officials seem to generally agree with the idea of a Global Partnership even if they have their own vision of what it might look like. There are broadly three visions for the Global Partnership. The first is that it would be a dynamic that builds on UN leadership but includes a mix of stakeholders. The second would be solely a UN initiative, with more funds being funneled into reform of existing agencies to be able to act quickly and accordingly. The third would be more of a direct relationship between donor countries and recipients to mobilize resources.
Jacques Diouf, the head of the FAO, states that institutions already exist and that new ones are not needed. His position is that the FAO should be the underpinning of any partnership. David Nabarro, head of the UN High-Level Task Force on the Food Crisis, seems more open to the Global Partnership having leadership in the UN but a mandate that could be broader. The representative from Italy, currently Chair of the G8, suggests that the developed nations should lead a global partnership.
Agribusiness groups such as Monsanto are active and present in this formulation of the Global Partnership while other representatives from the private sector--producers’ cooperatives for instance--are noticeably absent. IATP and others worry that this partnership could end up providing more space for corporate interests to shape the global political agenda on food in support of intensive agriculture, rather than bringing together different stakeholders on an equal footing to promote food security and resilient food systems. Although civil society is mentioned throughout the Spanish proposal for a Global Partnership, there is no clear mechanism through which to include them in a more official capacity; neither is there any mention of the need to mobilize funding to allow for farmers' participation.
The long and the short of it: While governments may have good intentions, genuine commitment to developing proper consultation among various stakeholders still needs to be evidenced. A Global Partnership has potential, but the process moving forward is quite unclear. We know already the pitfalls of not getting it right: more hunger, more global warming, more poverty and more inequality. We cannot let this one slip.
Civil society must absolutely shape any partnership moving forward to ensure that the UN is strengthened, that the Right to Food is prioritized, that market volatility is dealt with and that farmers and peasants’ voices frame the process for multilateral cooperation.
For more on the Madrid meeting, you can read IATP's statement at its conclusion, as well as a report from the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter.
