External assistance: facility for rapid response to soaring food prices in developing countries

2008/0149(COD)

This Final Report on the implementation of the EU Food Facility covers the period 2009-2011. The EU Food Facility constituted the first major financial response to the 2007-2008 food crisis and helped to strengthen international coordination in the UN and the G8. For its part, the Food Facility added to the US$ 3.9 billion contribution made by the Commission to the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI). The AFSI was launched by G8 leaders in July 2009 and amounts to US$22 billion in support of sustainable agriculture and food security in developing countries over three years.

Covering a period of three years (2009-2011), the EU Food Facility primarily addressed the period between emergency aid and medium-to-long term development assistance.

The main conclusions of the report are as follows:

  • by means of the Food Facility, the EU has been able to rapidly and effectively respond to the effects of the 2007/08 food price crisis. The EUR 1 billion Food Facility has directly benefitted over 59 million people in 49 developing countries;
  • the EU has been able to support a positive supply response from small-scale farmers, increasing production and income. The safety net measures have mitigated the effects of food price increases on the most vulnerable segments of the population. Other measures have more broadly supported the production base for agriculture. In that sense, the Food Facility has achieved significant results towards increasing sustainable agricultural production, reducing post-harvest losses and facilitating access to markets;
  • the Food Facility has contributed to placing sustainable agricultural development and food security at the frontline of the global development agenda. It has stimulated continued international attention in fora like the Committee on World Food Security and the G8 and the G20 stressing the need to increase agricultural production and productivity on a sustainable basis and contributing to strengthen global governance mechanisms by improving global market information;
  • although the Food Facility largely reached its objectives, more needs to be done to address food insecurity, particularly in low income and disaster prone countries. Building on the lessons learned to date, EU support to sustainable agricultural development and food security should be strengthened as a focal sector of cooperation in chronically food insecure countries.

The future: in the framework of the joint programming exercise for 2014-2020, the EU Delegations have been provided with specific guidance to ensure that sustainable agriculture and food security priorities have been taken care of, in particular in 52 partner-countries selected according to structured food and nutrition security assessments. These priorities should be reflected in the policy dialogue developed by the EU Delegations, which will emphasise long-term impact and ownership, in particular from a long-term sustainability perspective.

In this context, the report recommends that the EU focuses on the most off-track countries in the area of food and nutrition security, using the most effective existing financing mechanisms to reduce structural vulnerability in the long run, and fostering the resilience of the poorest households, countries and regions in the face of future food crises, whatever their nature.