SOUTH ASIA LAUNCH OF IFPRI’S GLOBAL FOOD POLICY REPORT 2023 CALLS FOR BUILDING RESILIENT FOOD CRISIS RESPONSE IN THE REGION
June 19, 2023, Kathmandu: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)’s South Asia Regional Office (IFPRISAO) is organizing a regional launch event of the 2023 Global Food Policy Report (GFPR) on 19 and 20 June in Kathmandu, Nepal, in partnership with the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS), the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
In 2022, the world faced multiple crises that disrupted the global food system and added to the rising numbers of hungry and displaced people. These include the protracted COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, civil unrest and political instability, growing impacts of climate change, and the global repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine war. The Global Report on Food Crises (2022) estimates that as many as 205 million people in 45 countries experienced crisis-level acute food insecurity or worse due to these compounding crises. This has given rise to a need to develop more systematic and long-term approaches to food crisis response that will be sustainable and help build greater resilience to similar and new shocks in future. The 2023 Global Food Policy Report, IFPRI's flagship publication, draws on a wealth of evidence built over many years by IFPRI and partners on policy recommendations that can contribute to preparing for, detecting, averting, mitigating, and responding to crises.
“All these crises are coming together, one after another, and we are also witnessing a strong increase in the volatility and shocks to our systems. Crises, shocks, and volatility are no longer exceptions and may become the new normal. Thus, the report is focused on rethinking food crisis responses in such a world and features concrete strategies and recommendations for crises response with a focus on different regions and countries,” said Johan Swinnen, Director General of IFPRI and Managing Director of the CGIAR Systems Transformation Science Group.
Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Hon’ble Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Government of Nepal and Chairperson, Executive Committee, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority shared the history of Nepal’s disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies and remarked on how the new governance system has “enabled the creation of disaster management and climate change committees at all federal and local levels, with policymakers and stakeholders at all levels coming together to prioritize stronger disaster risk management and proactively manage climate change mitigation measures.” He also stressed upon the need to evaluate existing Early Warning Systems (EWS) in Nepal to fill any gaps in monitoring and analysis and “developing new technologies for faster crisis trigger identification which can guarantee warning dissemination to all communities irrespective of remoteness.”
South Asia had maintained a strong economic and social performance for two decades, but the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a serious blow to maintained by. As the regional economy struggled to recover from the pandemic, further shocks contributed to higher prices and disrupted the food production and distribution systems. South Asia has also been affected by the global rise in food, fuel, and fertilizer prices. In September 2022, the year-on-year consumer inflation rate for food was 66 percent in Sri Lanka, 36 percent in Pakistan, and about 8 percent in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Inflation in Pakistan and Sri Lanka is attributed mainly to macroeconomic instability and mismanagement, especially the sharp devaluation of their currencies, and the fertilizer ban in Sri Lanka.
H.E. Tenzin Lekphell, Secretary General, BIMSTEC, observed “The covid 19 pandemic along with other crises has exacerbated the existing vulnerabilities and exposed the fragility of our food systems. It has highlighted the urgent need for collective action, innovative solution, and resilient policies. So, the focus of this report is not only timely, but critical and it calls for a comprehensive and inclusive approach to address rising food prices and promote long term resilience in our food systems.”
The report focuses on three key areas: crisis prediction and preparation; building resilience before and during crises; and making crisis response supportive and inclusive of women, forced migrants, and other vulnerable groups. The launch event included various discussion sessions on different aspects of ‘Building Resilient Food Crisis Response in South Asia’, which was attended by policymakers and key stakeholders from countries across the region who shared their thoughts and experiences and deliberated on how diverse policy responses can help reduce the immediate and longer-term impacts of food crises and improve livelihoods, incomes, and food and nutrition security.
“The call for modifying food crises response system has never been stronger. The system that worked previously no longer works efficiently in this 21st century. The report thus, is quite useful in indicating the action areas we need to concentrate on, especially for issues like early warning systems, anticipatory action, social protection, forced migration, agri-food value chains, finance mechanisms and effective governance,” said Jamal Uddin Ahmed, Director, Agriculture, Rural Development and SAARC Development Fund (SDF).
Appreciating the focus areas addressed in the report, Pramila Devi Bajracharya, Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Government of Nepal added, “Our aim is to support the development of science and technology so that it can be further utilized for emergency security, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Monitoring and early warning systems based on satellite and drone technology have been planned for development and expansion for use in disaster risk management. Another key issue that we are working to address is how to reach out to women, children and the more vulnerable sections, including those staying in the more remote areas, to support them while monitoring their well-being through any crisis situations that may arise.”
Commenting on the importance of building a resilient food system in South Asia, Shahidur Rashid, Director-South Asia, IFPRI, said that “climate extremes have become the norm across South Asia and 2022 saw the highest temperatures recorded in South Asia in nearly a hundred years. So, South Asia’s success in building resilient crisis response systems has implications for global development agenda and the sustainability of global food systems as well.”
