This paper maps out the possible impacts of the current food price rises on children, in order to support Plan International’s programming and policy advocacy response. It first looks at the impacts of the food price crisis
on developing countries and examines the direct and indirect effects on consumers and producers. Secondly, it analyses the implications of these impacts on children’s wellbeing.

This report tests the validity of the hypothesis that there exists a critical paradox between the dynamic features of food insecurity and static policy response in a protracted emergency context. It does so by presenting a review of the food security situation and related stakeholders' responses in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where more than ten years of war have generated one of the most severe humanitarian crises since the Second World War.

'Many countries have been affected by food and oil price shocks. Rising energy costs have manifested themselves through higher prices of gas at the pump and through price increases for many other goods such as kerosene and transport. But in some countries there has also been some degree of protection for consumers for example when authorities have chosen to try to keep electricity tariffs affordable through implicit subsidies (which are unfortunately often poorly targeted). For food prices, the more...

‘The first half of 2008 witnessed a dramatic rise in commodity prices that brought back sad memories of the 1974/75 food crisis. Food price increases averaging 52percent between 2007 and 2008 have posed a heavy burden on consumers in net food-importing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. The pressure of increasing food prices was a major factor in riots that erupted in many countries.'

'Rural areas lack banking services due, in large part, to perceptions of high risks and high costs of delivering financial services. In Latin America, it is estimated that less than five percent of rural households have access to formal credit. Even though agriculture is declining in economic importance and non-farm activities are becoming more important over time, agriculture remains the main livelihood activity for many. Agriculture, however, is inherently more risky than other sectors due to more...

'As global leaders gather in New York to review progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the world is in the grip of a food crisis which threatens to derail progress towards all of the goals. The cost of staple foods has risen by an average of 80% in two years. As a result 100 million more people have joined the ranks of the hungry, and a further 750 million are newly at risk of chronic hunger. ActionAid calculates that as many as 1.7 billion people, or a quarter of the world’ more...

'Much of the food purchased by WFP is in developing countries which cuts costs and benefits small-scale farmers.'

Article by Simon Maxwell is director of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) about results and perspectives of the emergency conference on the world's food crisis held in Rome last June 2008

In March 2008, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other international agencies began talking openly about a global food crisis. As with many such crises, they were a little late. Food prices – especially for cereals, but also for dairy and meat – had been rising throughout 2007, markedly out of step with people’s incomes. People had coped by changing their eating habits, which included cutting back on meals, and had taken to the streets to demand government acti more...

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on more...