On November 28, the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection held a hearing, “Evaluating Current U.S. Global Food Security Efforts and Determining Future U.S. Leadership Opportunities.” The hearing examined the successes and challenges of U.S. initiatives to address food insecurity around the world and highlighted the importance of engaging women to reduce global hunger.
In his opening statement, Chair Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) spoke about U.S. investment in global agriculture and nutrition, saying, “Addressing the challenges posed by global food insecurity requires a multifaceted approach. It requires strengthening the strategic coordination to align the efforts of the private sector, civil society, aid recipient governments, and multilateral institutions. It requires investments in cutting edge agricultural and sustainability technologies. It requires policy changes by developing country governments to correct land tenure and natural resource management, especially water resources. And it requires a commitment to gender integration in the development of programs to support women farmers.” He continued, “Studies show that a child’s entire life is shaped by whether or not they receive proper nutrition during the first 1,000 days from pregnancy to age two. This has a profound impact on children’s ability to grow, to learn, to contribute to their society. But proper nutrition is not just important to individual health; it’s critical to the long-term health and success of the nation. Poor nutrition results in a less healthy and less productive workforce, hampering economic development and growth, and ultimately perpetuates the cycle of hunger and poverty for another generation. So by investing in agriculture and nutrition, we are investing in prosperity—and not just other people’s prosperity, but our own. In our globalized economy, if developing countries do better, we do better…With the world population expected to exceed nine billion by 2050, transforming how people farm and what people eat is the only way, I believe, to ensure food security for future generations. An end to global hunger and poverty will not happen tomorrow, but if we continue to coordinate with our global partners, harness the power of the private sector, and use our development aid in the most effective and transparent way, we have a much better chance of favorable outcomes.”
“We live in a world where nearly a billion people suffer from chronic food insecurity, and tens of thousands of people die each day from causes related to malnutrition,” said Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN). “Experts advise us that chronic hunger leads to decreased child survival, impaired cognitive and physical development, and weaker immune system function, including resistance to HIV/AIDS. These grave humanitarian consequences are sufficient cause for us to strengthen our efforts on global food security. But we also know that few humanitarian problems, if any, have a greater capacity to generate political instability and conflict. Hungry people are desperate people, and desperation can sow the seeds of radicalism. Our diplomatic efforts to maintain peace will be far more difficult whenever food shortages contribute to extremism, conflict, or to mass migration. Our hopes for economic development in poor countries will continually be frustrated if populations are unable to feed themselves.” He continued, “The problems of volatile energy costs, water scarcity, climate change, and more resilient pests threaten to severely limit food production in many vulnerable regions. The global response to this threat has been insufficient. Worldwide funding for agricultural assistance declined sharply after the 1980s and has not recovered despite some recent progress…My view of the importance of global food security to the United States is motivated not solely by problems we can solve, but also by the economic and foreign policy opportunities that are now available to us. We produce more abundantly than any other country and we are on the cutting edge of research and farming techniques that could literally save hundreds of millions of people in the coming decades.”
In his testimony, Jonathan Shrier, acting special representative for global food security and deputy coordinator for diplomacy for Feed the Future at the U.S. Department of State, said, “President Obama launched the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative, and he asked that we do things differently to get better results for every taxpayer dollar we are investing. [This] means taking a comprehensive approach that focuses on how countries can increase their own production, marketing, and nutrition programs, so they can help prevent recurrent food crises and do not have to rely on food aid in the future; focusing on women as a key part of the solution; integrating natural resource constraints into our plans; and measuring results.” He continued: “Our diplomatic and development efforts have focused on spotlighting the role of women in agriculture. Women make up the majority of the agricultural work force in many developing countries, but they often earn less because they do not have rights to land, access to finance, natural resources, and the best inputs needed for production. Research shows that when women’s incomes increase, their families are more financially secure, eat more nutritional food, and are less hungry and under-nourished. Women are more likely to invest their earnings in the health, education, and nutrition of their children. Feed the Future is funding innovative approaches for promoting gender equality in agriculture and land use and to integrate gender into agricultural development and food security programs.”
Tjada McKenna, deputy coordinator for development at the Feed the Future Bureau for Food Security within the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), discussed ways in which the Feed the Future initiative is investing in women to improve global food security, saying, “Women play a vital role in advancing agricultural development and food security. They participate in all aspects of rural life—in paid employment, trade, and marketing, as well as in tending crops and animals, collecting water and wood for fuel, and caring for family members. Yet women have less access than men to land, financing, production inputs, technical assistance, and other resources that could help them become better producers and providers for their families.” She continued, “To better empower women agricultural producers to reach their full potential, Feed the Future promotes women’s leadership in agriculture, fosters policy changes that increase women’s land ownership, and strengthens their access to financial services. Through the initiative, female farmers are encouraged to adopt new agricultural technology aimed at increasing productivity and reducing unpaid work. To measure how well our investments are tracking against this ambitious goal, Feed the Future, in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative of Oxford University, launched the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index in early 2012. The index is the first tool to measure women’s growing role in decision-making about agricultural production; their growing ownership of land, livestock, and other resources; their leadership in the community; and their control of time and income.”
Paul O’Brien, vice president for policy and campaigns at Oxfam America, addressed women’s access to natural resources, saying, “For food producers, climate adaptation requires developing the tools and knowledge and building the capacity to address current hazards and manage risk and uncertainty associated with weather. Much of the focus of current efforts within Feed the Future to address natural resource management and climate change is on identifying appropriate technical solutions, such as improved seed varieties and better water management techniques. But there is also a need to implement programs that address power dynamics that shape access to natural resources essential for smallholder agriculture. People living in poverty, women especially, lack equal access to natural resources or decision-making power regarding their use. Women produce over half the world’s food yet own less than 10 percent of the land. It is estimated that if women had equal access to resources (natural and otherwise), they could increase on-farm yields by 20 to 30 percent. USAID can improve upon current Feed the Future activities by providing more regular training and technical support to mission staff to enable them to more systematically integrate consideration of the socioeconomic dynamics that shape climate change vulnerability and resilience into project planning and monitoring. Such an approach would reemphasize the focus on the particular challenges women face not just as food producers, but also as consumers and potential stewards of natural resources.”
Conor Walsh, Tanzania country director at Catholic Relief Services, and Dr. Connie Veillette, independent consultant senior adviser to the Global Agricultural Development Initiative at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, also testified.
