Brussels, 10/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - Unanimously and without debate, EU development ministers approved two complementary communications from the European Commission on food security in developing countries and humanitarian food aid (see EUROPE 10135, 10110 and 10109) in Brussels on Monday 10 May. These two documents seek to provide the EU with a more effective strategy to help speed up progress towards halving the number of people in the world suffering from hunger and living in extreme poverty by 2015 (Millennium Development Goal 1 - MDG1).
In its conclusions on the EU's strategic framework for assisting developing countries tackle the challenges of food security, the Council calls on the Commission to propose an implementation plan for this strategy before the end of this year and to submit to it a communication on nutrition.
It highlights the potential offered by poor producers and small-scale farmers in the sustainable response to future food demand. Among other priorities, the Council calls on the EU and its member states to focus development aid on: - support for small-scale farmers; - support for agricultural research, making agricultural knowledge available to non-specialists and agricultural innovation tailored to the needs of the poor; - promoting agricultural training, especially for women; - increasing EU funding for programmes which address chronic, severe malnutrition; - support for national and regional policies which involve society in agriculture, rural development, food security and nutrition - in Africa, this should be done by means of a detailed programme for African agricultural development, which gives particular attention to security of access to the land; - consideration of options for confronting price volatility and policy choices which allow reaction to extreme volatility. The Council highlights, too, the importance of strengthening all levels of food security governance, including the local level, on the basis of the principle of the right to food. At global level, it is for the EU and member states to encourage the putting in place of a global agriculture, food security and food partnership, the Council adds. (A.N./transl.rt)