New York, April 11 – Current efforts fighting the food crisis to relieve hunger worldwide are marred by funding gaps and lack of coordination, the Rockefeller Foundation said in a new report that called for new approaches to make humanitarian operations work.
“If the world does not act now, there will be as many hungry people in 2030 as there were in 2015, a devastating backslide – and one that could accelerate amid the worsening climate crisis,” said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation. “The goal of ending hunger once and for all is still achievable, but it requires stakeholders coming together in public-private-philanthropic partnerships behind big bets to scale innovative solutions, including those identified in this report.”
Read the report: Anticipate and localize: Leveraging humanitarian funding to create more sustainable food systems
The United Nations has set the goals of ending poverty and hunger by 2030. The World Food Program (WFP) estimated that more than 345 million people worldwide are facing crisis levels of food insecurity, an increase of almost 200 million since the early 2020. It said 43 million of those people are just steps away from famine.
“Ration cuts are coming if we don’t have the money to get food to those who need it most,” said Cindy McCain, the new executive director of WFP on April 5. “My priorities are clear: increase our resources, improve our effectiveness and scale up partnerships and innovation to bring modern solutions to those most in need.”
“No organization can solve world hunger alone,” she said. “Today we are asking new friends – especially from the private sector – to step up and join us.” McCain said she will work in particular with the private sector to raise funds and identify new ideas to help the most vulnerable people.
The Rockefeller Foundation said its new report provides “constructive steps forward in leveraging resources to end hunger and build sustainable food security” and it called on donors to “align more closely with solutions that strengthen food system resilience to climate change, conflict, and other shocks.” The report was the second of four reports that presents a unified roadmap for achieving global food and nutrition security, the foundation said.
In the face of the global food crisis, the international community has responded with unprecedented pledges of humanitarian aid, but funding gaps still remain, the report said. “More broadly, there are concerns that humanitarian food assistance, as currently structured and delivered, is not the way to achieve resilient and sustainable food security,” the foundation said in a press release to present the report. Following are excerpts from the press release:
Report’s Recommendations Break with Funding Orthodoxy – The four key recommendations in the report are as follows:
1.Fund anticipatory action and make smarter investments. The report urges donors to spend 1% of their 2024 budgets on such action, increasing that share by 1% for the next 10 years. Furthermore, investments must be smarter than in the past, helping farmers to rapidly adapt to climate change, including through a focus on regenerative agriculture.
2. Fund localization by increasing the share of funding that goes to local organizations to 25% of their total expenditure over the next five years. This would support the role of local communities as effective first responders. National governments are urged to invest a similar share of their spending on domestic food security in local approaches.
3. Crack funding siloes by establishing United Nations country teams that unify funding and strategies that address humanitarian need, social and economic development, and peace, including in food insecurity hotspots affected by armed conflict.
4. Make the investment case through a campaign to put under-utilized working solutions to the test in a real-time situation of food insecurity.
“We have the largest humanitarian appeals, the largest numbers of people who are food insecure and the largest funding gaps in history,” said Carol Bellamy, writer of the report and former Executive Director of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “The numbers force new thinking about how we can both improve the effectiveness of existing aid and also reduce the need for aid through building more sustainable food systems.”
The humanitarian assistance system is comprised of several actors, including the multi-agency United Nations; governments; multilateral development banks; nongovernmental organizations; and private donors.
Yet, despite the enormous resources deployed, coordination is weak. Major shortcomings have included a failure to anticipate crisis and invest proactively; a failure to tailor aid to local needs through local partners; and a failure to join the funding “dots.”
“The sliver of funding that went to sustainable solutions demonstrates the most dangerous gap of all: the gap between short-term thinking and long-term solutions,” said Catherine Bertini, Managing Director, Global Nutrition Security at The Rockefeller Foundation, former Executive Director of the World Food Programme, and 2003 World Food Prize Laureate. “Until we address the underlying issues of the resilience and sustainability of food systems, the need for humanitarian food aid will continue to escalate.”
In addition to the solutions highlighted above, the report calls for weaving three common threads into every policy, program and approach: a gender lens, the meaningful inclusion of those most directly affected by food insecurity, and intensive collaboration.
The report draws on insights of The Rockefeller Foundation-sponsored Convening Group on Funding for Sustainable Food Security.* The Rockefeller Foundation convened nearly two dozen experts in food insecurity and food aid from around the world. Over the course of two months, November through December 2022, they examined how to best mobilize and leverage funding to ensure food security for all.
“Millions of people are in desperate need of food assistance today – and as we deliver this aid, it is critical to invest in systemic change that will build sustainable food security in the longer term,” continued Ms. Bertini. “To solve these interconnected global challenges, governments and organizations must be willing to abandon cherished notions of what works for them in favor of what can work to bring food security to all.”
Anticipate and localize: Leveraging humanitarian funding to create more sustainable food systems is the second of four reports in a series on achieving global food and nutrition security supported by The Rockefeller Foundation. The first report, Defining the Path to Zero Hunger in an Equitable World, was recently published by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and offers a framework to reimagine a hunger-free world.
Media Contact:
Davina Dukuly
Media Relations Manager
The Rockefeller Foundation
United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles – United Nations News – United Nations News – United Nations News