Food and Agriculture Organization under Pressure
ECONOMICS, ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH, HUMAN RIGHTS, LAW & JUSTICE
Thursday, May 22, 2008
In two weeks, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will address rising food prices and other pressing global issues at its High-Level Conference on World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy, June 3–5. In an April statement, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said, “the time for re-launching agriculture is now and the international community should not miss the opportunity.”
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will attend the gathering, along with heads of state such as French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
One head of state that will keep his distance is Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade. In a speech earlier this month, Wade called the Rome-based FAO a “bottomless pit of money largely spent on its own functioning with very little effective operations on the ground.” Wade proposed that FAO be integrated into a newer UN agency, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and suggested that it be headquartered in Africa. According to Wade, as the international community responds to the world food crisis, FAO and similar programs should be “replaced by innovative foreign investment and assistance to help Africa end its food aid dependency.”
Last December, FAO launched an emergency Initiative on Soaring Food Prices (ISFP) to provide thirty-seven Low-Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) with seeds and other farming inputs to boost their domestic food production. FAO has called for $1.7 billion to implement the plan.
If the organization hopes to reach its fundraising target, it will need to persuade donors that funds will be used effectively. The current food crisis is perhaps the greatest test FAO has faced in decades. If global food prices remain on the rise and political protests continue throughout the developing world, the efficacy and relevance of the organization will remain in doubt for Wade and similarly minded critics.
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