The rapid spread of Covid-19 and efforts to contain it are generating growing concerns that food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty may escalate, particularly among marginalised people in the developing world. “To build more resilient, climate-smart, and healthy food systems that help people withstand these types of shocks policymakers must prioritise making them inclusive,” according to the 2020 Global Food Policy Report, released today by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
“Food systems provide opportunities to improve food and nutrition security, generate income, and drive inclusive economic growth, but even in prosperous times too many people are excluded from fully participating in them and securing these benefits,” said director general of IFPRI Johan Swinnen. “In times of crisis like today, inclusion is an even greater imperative for protecting the most vulnerable.”
The report highlights the central role that inclusive food systems play in meeting global goals to end poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, and offers recommendations for making food systems more inclusive for four marginalised groups – smallholders, women, youth, and conflict-affected people – as well as analysis on transforming national food system.
More than 60 per cent of people in low income countries are employed in agriculture and smallholders comprise more than 70 per cent of farm units in Africa south of the Sahara and 85 per cent of farms in South Asia. “The rapid expansion of food markets across Africa and Asia offers tremendous potential for many of these smallholders to benefit, if they can increase farm production or engage themselves in food distribution, processing and other parts of the supply chain where ample well-paying employment opportunities will emerge,” it reads, adding that many smallholders lack the means and kind of support to gain from growing food demand, currently. “Initiating and sustaining a process of inclusive transformation requires supporting smallholders’ market access by investing in basic infrastructure, creating market incentives, and promoting inclusive agribusiness models.”
“But it is as important to invest in the ‘hidden middle’ of supply chains where millions of small- and medium-scale enterprises already operate in food processing, storage, logistics and distribution,” director of IFPRI’s Markets, Trade and Institutions Division Rob Vos said, “Getting this right will be essential to lift smallholders from poverty and food insecurity.”
Women are already making significant contributions throughout food systems, but these contributions are often not formally recognised, and women often face constraints that prevent them from engaging on equitable terms. Increasing women’s decision-making power and control over resources and assets such as credit, land, and training helps empower them to contribute to food systems in ways that benefit both men and women. “Women’s empowerment can spur a wide range of improvements that often reverberate throughout households and societies – from agricultural productivity, to household food security and dietary quality, to maternal and child nutrition,” said senior research coordinator at IFPRI Hazel Malapit.
Across the developing world national food systems are already transforming rapidly, creating challenges and opportunities to make them more inclusive to all these groups. Case studies of these transformations in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Viet Nam provide useful examples of the drivers and components of change, as well as the promising entry points for actions that can increase inclusion. “Approaches to food system transformation must be country specific, as each country’s food system is unique,” said director of the CGIAR Research Programme on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health John McDermott.
Governments can foster these inclusive food systems by enacting laws, policies, and regulations that provide basic infrastructure, create the right market incentives, promote inclusive agribusiness models and leverage the potential of digital technology. Additionally, investments in human capital in areas such as secure land tenure rights, improved access to information, and stronger social protections can lower the barriers to participation that man marginalised groups face.
“The spread of Covid-19 has highlighted how vulnerable we all can be to global shocks,” Swinnen said, adding that greater inclusivity in food systems is not a panacea for this or any other crisis, but it is a critical part of strengthening our resilience. “Times of crises also offer opportunities for change and it is essential that we act now so that everyone, especially the most vulnerable, can recover from the Covid-19 shock and be prepared to withstand future shocks.”
The report also features chapters analysing developments in agri-food systems in Africa south of the Sahara, the Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, East and Southeast Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Food systems provide opportunities to improve food and nutrition security, generate income, and drive inclusive economic growth, but even in prosperous times too many people are excluded from fully participating in them and securing these benefits,” said director general of IFPRI Johan Swinnen. “In times of crisis like today, inclusion is an even greater imperative for protecting the most vulnerable.”
The report highlights the central role that inclusive food systems play in meeting global goals to end poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, and offers recommendations for making food systems more inclusive for four marginalised groups – smallholders, women, youth, and conflict-affected people – as well as analysis on transforming national food system.
More than 60 per cent of people in low income countries are employed in agriculture and smallholders comprise more than 70 per cent of farm units in Africa south of the Sahara and 85 per cent of farms in South Asia. “The rapid expansion of food markets across Africa and Asia offers tremendous potential for many of these smallholders to benefit, if they can increase farm production or engage themselves in food distribution, processing and other parts of the supply chain where ample well-paying employment opportunities will emerge,” it reads, adding that many smallholders lack the means and kind of support to gain from growing food demand, currently. “Initiating and sustaining a process of inclusive transformation requires supporting smallholders’ market access by investing in basic infrastructure, creating market incentives, and promoting inclusive agribusiness models.”
“But it is as important to invest in the ‘hidden middle’ of supply chains where millions of small- and medium-scale enterprises already operate in food processing, storage, logistics and distribution,” director of IFPRI’s Markets, Trade and Institutions Division Rob Vos said, “Getting this right will be essential to lift smallholders from poverty and food insecurity.”
Women are already making significant contributions throughout food systems, but these contributions are often not formally recognised, and women often face constraints that prevent them from engaging on equitable terms. Increasing women’s decision-making power and control over resources and assets such as credit, land, and training helps empower them to contribute to food systems in ways that benefit both men and women. “Women’s empowerment can spur a wide range of improvements that often reverberate throughout households and societies – from agricultural productivity, to household food security and dietary quality, to maternal and child nutrition,” said senior research coordinator at IFPRI Hazel Malapit.
Across the developing world national food systems are already transforming rapidly, creating challenges and opportunities to make them more inclusive to all these groups. Case studies of these transformations in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Viet Nam provide useful examples of the drivers and components of change, as well as the promising entry points for actions that can increase inclusion. “Approaches to food system transformation must be country specific, as each country’s food system is unique,” said director of the CGIAR Research Programme on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health John McDermott.
Governments can foster these inclusive food systems by enacting laws, policies, and regulations that provide basic infrastructure, create the right market incentives, promote inclusive agribusiness models and leverage the potential of digital technology. Additionally, investments in human capital in areas such as secure land tenure rights, improved access to information, and stronger social protections can lower the barriers to participation that man marginalised groups face.
“The spread of Covid-19 has highlighted how vulnerable we all can be to global shocks,” Swinnen said, adding that greater inclusivity in food systems is not a panacea for this or any other crisis, but it is a critical part of strengthening our resilience. “Times of crises also offer opportunities for change and it is essential that we act now so that everyone, especially the most vulnerable, can recover from the Covid-19 shock and be prepared to withstand future shocks.”
The report also features chapters analysing developments in agri-food systems in Africa south of the Sahara, the Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, East and Southeast Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
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