Council conclusions on EU food security policy framework and humanitarian food assistance

The Council conclusions are part of the overall process of establishing the EU position for the MDG High-level Plenary Meeting to be held in New York in September 2010, which will further define the EU response to the most off-track situations.

The Council of the EU mainly asked the European Commission to propose an implementation plan for this framework before the end of 2010. It also advised the European Commission to prepare a Communication on nutrition.

Food insecurity, which affects over 1 billion people, poses a major obstacle to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially in sub-Saharan Africa and the Least Developed Countries in other regions, particularly in fragile situations. The recent global food and financial crises accentuated the challenges to food security.

The policy frameworks - both for food security and humanitarian food assistance - were outlined in EPHA March Newsletter article.

The Council conclusions on an EU food security strategy are as follows (main points):

 support for a comprehensive approach on sustainable global food security built around the four pillars of food security - increasing availability of food, improving access to food, improving nutritional adequacy of food intake, and enhancing crisis prevention and management;

 emphasise the potential of poor and smallholder producers’ sustainable contribution to meeting future food demand and the achievement of MDG 1, reducing rural poverty while reducing hunger;

 improve access to food for people suffering from hunger or malnutrition due to poverty or other kinds of vulnerability, and who lack resources for farming;

 increase support to agriculture, food security and nutrition in the EU and Member States’ financial and political committments;

 prioritise EU development assistance in food security in the areas of: small-scale farming (in particular for women); sustainable and ecologically efficient farming; pro-poor and demand-led agricultural research; assistance in addressing climate change and its effects on food security; development and implementation of inclusive and participatory national and regional policies on agriculture, rural development, food security and nutrition; tackle price voltility; employment and income creation; integration of food security and nutrition objectives and targets into partners`all policies;

 reinforce the "right to food" principle

 foster implementation of the Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition by improving the coherence of the international food security governance system;

 support to food security and nutrition according to the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the Accra Agenda for Action, as well as the EU Code of Conduct on Division of Labour;

 identify regions and countries where tasks may be divided, provided country ownership;

 need for coordination within the EU and its Member States regarding different food security and nutrition initiatives including the operationalisation of this policy framework

 the Commision gets invited to propose an implementation plan before the end of 2010.

For more information:

Council of the European Union conclusions from the 3011th meeting

EPHA related articles

 Food security: tackling hunger in developing countries
 Food 21: Implications for public health?
 Measures taken to counter price hike in food