Contending World Hunger Norms

1. Contending World Hunger Norms Marc J. Cohen Workshop on Informal Institutions and Intractable Global Problems Purdue University, April 16-17, 2012

2. Is Food Insecurity “Intractable”? • No progress on Millennium Development Goal & World Food Summit targets • Contrast with MDG poverty target • Number of food-insecure people up since 1995 • Solutions are hotly contested

4. Terms of Debate • Needs vs. Rights • Top-down approach vs. Empowerment • Availability vs. Access • Trade vs. “Food First” • “Public Action” vs. Market Orientation • Official institutions vs. civil society as “norm entrepreneurs”

5. Needs-based Approach • Focus on meeting “basic human needs” • Food • Shelter • Health • Education • 1970s approach of World Bank, USAID • State action essential • Very top-down

6. Source: FAO.

7. 1970s Paradigm: Hunger • Seen as a question of inadequate food production • Solutions focused on growing more food (Rockefeller Foundation, mainstream science and social science) • Green Revolution, technological approach • Trade part of solution • Very top-down • Grow more food in developing countries (“Food First”) • Population growth, lifeboat ethics (Lester Brown, Paddocks, Garrett Hardin, Club of Rome)

8. 1974 World Food Crisis and Conference • Focus on improving global institutions • Created GIEWS, IFAD, World Food Council, FAO Committee on World Food Security • Aborted effort to create internationally coordinated system of national grain reserves • 10 mmt global food aid target • Lofty rhetoric, incomplete gains • Soft reference to rights, mostly needs-oriented • Orientation remained on supply side, with trade squarely on agenda

9. Challenge to Production Lens Amartya Sen on famines (1981): • Stem from entitlement failures, not inadequate supplies • People lose their normal channels for access to food (production, purchase, transfer, gift) • Food may still be readily available • “Public action” and democratic institutions are essential to famine prevention • Accountable governance • Free press • Authoritarian rule may be effective against chronic hunger (India vs. China)

10. 1990s Paradigm Shift (1): Food Security • World Food Summit, 1996: Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life • Politically negotiated text • Effort to add “with dignity” at end defeated, opposed by USG

11. Multiple Dimensions ofFood Security • Availability • Adequate supplies • Access • Sen’s “entitlements” • Utilization • Focus on nutrition and dietary quality, not just calorie intake • Norm entrepreneurs: World Bank, FAO, bilateral aid agencies (USAID) • More recently, an increasing focus on stability

12. Dimensions, cont’d. • Large role for trade AND domestic food production • Agnosticism on balance • Big role for market • State provides public goods and “enabling environment” for private entrepreneurship • Civil society has major role as well • Mix of top-down and bottom-up

13. Food Security and Rights • Needs-based approach • No state obligations, relies on governments to “do the right thing” • Intimately bound up with right to food: • Realization of the right = A state of food security (UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, General Comment 12)

14. Post-Cold War Reconceptualization • Food security part of human security • Freedom from want • Freedom from fear • Distinguished from national security • Focus on security of people rather than nation states • Not necessarily rights-oriented

15. WTO and Food Security • Unlike GATT, agriculture now covered • All but poorest members supposed to liberalize agricultural trade • Provides for intellectual property rights over plant varieties • Weak, implicit protection of “farmers’ rights” possible • Covers animal and plant health regulations of imports (SPS) • Human rights & food security “non-trade” concerns

16. 1990s Paradigm Shift (2): Food Sovereignty Civil-society driven (La Via Campesina peasant association federation; presented at World Food Summit) • “The right of peoples to define their own food and agriculture” • Major focus on countering WTO and trade liberalization • Loosely defined • Lots of items on agenda (GMOs, biodiversity, indigenous people)

17. Food Sovereignty, cont’d. • Strongly rights-oriented • Incorporates right-to-food language • Strongly production-oriented • Emphasis on national/local food production • Less emphasis on consumption, nutrition, access • Often placed in opposition to food security • Latter characterized as “neo-liberal” approach to hunger

18. Haiti Case Study Footer: Document title [Menu > View > Header & Footer]

19. Food Insecurity in Haiti • Endemic poverty • ~90% of rural Haitians live on less $2 per day • Two-thirds live on less than $1 per day • ~ 3 of 5 Haitians are food-insecure • Only Burundi, DR Congo, and Eritrea have worse levels of hunger • ~20% of preschoolers malnourished • Worst income inequality in the Western Hemisphere • Often illusory promise of Port-au-Prince lures 75,000 migrants annually

20. “Neglect and Extract” Rural Development Policy • Majority of Haitians live in rural areas • Agriculture employs 60% of workforce and accounts for 28% of GDP • Historic neglect of rural development • 4% of Haitian government budget • 2.5% of aid • Increasing emphasis since mid-2000s • Food price shock of 2008 • Key pillar of post-earthquake reconstruction for government & donors

21. The Price for Restoring Democracy • Clinton Administration pressured Haiti to cut rice tariff from 35% to 3% (~0%) overnight • Quid pro quo for bringing back Aristide • As LLDC, no WTO requirement for tariff cuts • CARICOM average rice tariff 25% • Dominican Republic tariff 20% • Liberalization => a flood of cheap U.S. rice, driving Haitian prices down 25%

22. Trade Liberalization: Comparatively Disadvantageous • Today Haiti imports 80% of rice and 60% of all food • 2nd largest US rice export market in 2010-11 • Only Mexico bought more US rice • Consumer benefits fleeting • Haiti buffeted by 500% increase in world rice price 2003-08 • Price of “mudcakes” up 300% • Led to protests, violence in capital • Fall of Alexis cabinet

23. Players and Stances • Government has launched “Aba Grangou” agriculture and food security initiative to eliminate hunger by 2020 • Not rights-oriented • Recently ratified International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights • Ag/food security now priorities for main donors • US, multilaterals, Canada • Key Haitian civil society organizations strongly advocate food sovereignty

24. US Aid to Ag in Haiti • Watershed Initiative for National Natural Environmental Resources (WINNER) Project, 2009-2014, $120 million • Supports productivity gains in rice production • Support to National Agricultural Investment Plan development after earthquake • Ag/food security 1 of 4 “pillars” of US aid • Haiti enrolled in Feed the Future ($110m) • Strengthening capacity of Ministry of Ag • Some shift from US-sourced food aid to cash & vouchers

25. Incoherence in US Aid In 2010 — • US aid to agriculture in Haiti: $90 million • US payments to US rice farmers: $400 million+ • Haiti has a million farming households • 70,000 US rice farmers receive government support • Haiti consistently among top 3-4 US rice markets

26. Pressures Against New Haitian Ag Trade Policy • IFIs, US likely to oppose higher tariffs • Brazil a major donor, leads UN Stabilization Mission, #2 rice seller (with export subsidies) • A higher tariff would raise prices and help Haitian farmers, but: • Nearly half a million still displaced since earthquake • No social protection system in place • Rice importing is big business • Politically influential families involved

27. Saving Grace? • CARICOM & DR could support tariff harmonization • Donors should insist on good return for big investments in Haitian ag • Obama & H. Clinton prestige staked on successful reconstruction, including ag • Payments to US rice farmers on budget chopping block: • Ryan budget seeks slash in US farm payments based on high commodity prices • Does discussion of norms help?