Right to Food in the Development and Trade Politics post-2015

Marikki Stocchetti

The Finnish Institute of International Affairs

Who Should Feed the World Conference?

Politics of Guaranteeing Food for All People

14 May 2013 Tallinn

Outline

• Food politics (and crisis) in Global Governance

• The rights-based approach to food

• The global agenda 2015 (-2030) and the role of development and trade

– Towards a Common Ground?

Photosource: UN System Task Team Report (2012) Realizing the Future We Want for ALL

• Photo source: UN Report (2012) Realizing the Future We want for All

Food politics (and Crisis) in Global Governance

• Food politics of today are far from sustainable

– The present way of production overburdens planetary boundaries, yet it leaves 870 million people to starve.

– Inequality of consumption

– Global crisis and chronic

pockets of hunger • NB Sub-Saharan Africa!

Source: World Food Programme

Food politics (and Crisis) in Global Governance

4/5 persons in Sub Saharan Africa are living in countries where agriculture is the principle sources of livelihoods (World Bank)

• Sustainable production must be guaranteed both locally and globally

World population is increasing from the 7 billion to 9 billion by 2050

• There is still enough food for all, should it be produced and distributed differently but by 2050 this will be no-longer the case…

• ...The food production will need to increase by 60 percent

Food politics (and Crisis) in Global Governance

The key challenge for the

international system now and

in the future

• Combination unsolved long-term problems related to unsustainable agriculture of the industrialized countries and insufficient & inadequate production in the poorer countries, poverty, conflicts, climate change, etc.

• A core need for every human being with major micro and macro consequences

What has global governance to do with right to food?

Definition of global

governance

• A compilation of international efforts to manage and eventually to solve global problems such as poverty and hunger

Development and trade policies as tools for

global governance

• The role of different actors i.e. the European Union, or other international organizations such as the WTO, UN agencies etc.

• Individual countries such as Estonia or Finland, Developing countries (net-importers-exporters)

• Private sector globally and locally

Rights-based approach to food

The right to food is a human right recognized under international law which protects the right of all human beings to feed themselves in dignity, either by producing their food or by purchasing it.

- Olivier de Schutter UN Special Rapporteur on right to food

Right to food as an international norm, who would argue against it?

• The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (160 signatories),

• (UN) World food Summit 1996, preceding the debate on the current international development agenda

Rights-based approach to food: the AAAs

Access

Adequacy Availability

The Current Development Agenda

• Millennium Declaration adopted at the UN General Assembly in September 2000 by 189 countries

• The 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) one year later

• The famous MDG 1 - the unfinished business of target 1C

– to half the number of people suffering from hunger

The Future of the Global Agenda post-2015

The Era of the Millennium of Agenda comes

to an end in September

2015

How to merge “the best of” Millennium Agenda with Sustainable

Development (“the Rio

process 1992 - 2012 -)?

The UN General

Assembly is to Agree on new development framework for all by 9/2015

What role for right to food in this framework?

• Cross-cutting issue that cannot be solved in silos

• The litmus test for the new paradigm

The role of development politics: challenges and possibilities

The sustainable rural development: a long overdue task in development strategies:…

• The burden of the past failures and the need to redirect current policies

• Insufficient investment to agricultural development to improve self-reliance and exports/imports balance to meet the triple AAAs

Private sector engagement, risk absorbance and job creation

Financing for ideas, knowledge, capacity building on rights and good governance including accountability and land rights

The role of trade post-2015: key issues to look at…

The crisis of multilateral trade

norms in agriculture

Bilateral free trade agreements but

prevailing protectionism

Investments and accountability

Ungoverned agribusiness and

unfair value chains

Intellectual property rights including seeds

The role of trade in growth creation

Development policy • From donor-recipient

approach to an encompassing partnership beyond development aid

• Advocacy work on right to food at the global level for a holistic approach and policy coherence

• Knowledge from the field!

Trade Policy • Integrating right to food in

trade relations, norms and practices

• Improved exchange of information between policy sectors

• Private sector (corporate governance)

– Good governance, good business

• More openness and accountability!

Thank you!

marikki.stocchetti@fiia.fi