Subject: G20 Agriculture Ministerial Declaration
From: "Rick Leach" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:57:33 -0400

FYI:

WFP Statement

23 June 2011

STATEMENT BY THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAM
ON THE G20 AGRICULTURE MINISTERIAL DECLARATION

The World Food Program (WFP) applauds the results of the G20
Agriculture Ministerial, and I want to thank President Sarkozy, Minister
Le Maire and the French government for putting the pressing food and
nutrition security needs of the most vulnerable high on their G20
agenda.

Today's meeting of G20 Agriculture Ministers comes at a critical moment
for the world's hungry. The perfect storm of 2011 is where three trends
-- rising food prices, weather emergencies and political instability --
intersect. The poorest households that spend up to three quarters of
their total income on basic foodstuffs need concrete action now. Nearly
one billion people go to bed hungry each night.

The Ministerial Declaration and Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and
Agriculture puts forward concrete actions to address the challenges
facing vulnerable nations and peoples with little resilience to external
shocks. It powerfully reaffirms the right of all people to safe,
sufficient, nutritious food and the critical importance of rapid action
to meet urgent food requirements.

The Action Plan affirms and strengthens the capacity of WFP and others
assessing and responding to food crises, while building the capacity of
nations and peoples to better manage risk and meet their own food and
nutrition security needs. WFP applauds this historic agreement and
strong Action Plan provisions that can:

Ensure the hungry have access to food through WFP in emergencies by
removing export barriers or extraordinary taxes for humanitarian food
and promote broad global support for similar action through UN
agencies and the World Trade Organization.

Give vulnerable nations and people predictable and rapid access to
sufficient food in times of need by asking WFP and others to propose
the design of a targeted emergency humanitarian food reserves system.

Protect humanitarian food supply chains against price and supply
shocks and maximize their impact for the most vulnerable by
supporting WFP's use of proven advance food purchase and food
pre-positioning tools and encouraging greater use of financial risk
management instruments.

Strengthen assessments of food needs by launching a new global
Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) and a Rapid Response
Forum that establishes a new crisis information system that would
improve the quality and accuracy of food production, consumption and
stock data, utilizing household data from WFP's Vulnerability
Analysis and Mapping (VAM) department.

Underscore the importance of WFP's shift from food aid to food
assistance by providing strong support for "modern, flexible and
diversified food assistance" as a "critical tool to address food
insecurity and mitigate the negative impact of high and volatile food
prices on the most vulnerable."

Today's agreement sends a clear message that the world's largest economies
are serious about protecting the poorest and most vulnerable from the
crushing impact of high and volatile food prices. It offers hope for the
nearly one billion people on the frontlines of hunger.
# # #

Richard Leach
President & CEO

World Food Program USA
1819 L Street NW, Suite 900
Washington, DC 20036
T 202.530.1694
F 202.530.1698
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>