This weekend in Washington, the World Bank was making a grab to become the key agency on this issue, entrusted with more power — and more taxpayer funds. Set up more than 60 years ago to lend money to poorer nations, the World Bank hosted officials from all over the globe at its joint annual meeting with the International Monetary Fund.

But the World Bank's record should disqualify it from playing a leading role. For 30 years, we have observed the World Bank at work and have seen firsthand more...

Development assistance needs to respond to the food crisis taking into account both the opportunities and challenges presented by the high food prices. The food crisis has implications for the types of agricultural development assistance that are needed. This paper focus on four areas for high returns in the context of food crisis:1)emergency assistance and social protection.2)investment in agricultural research and development,3) improvement of agricultural marketing system and 4)capacity devel more...

‘Strong upward trends and increased variability in global food prices during the past two years have led to concern that hunger and poverty will increase across the world. At the same time, rising food prices provide an incentive and opportunity for many developing countries to strengthen the contribution their farmers make to national economic growth and poverty reduction. Policymakers and opinion leaders in developing countries, however, often lack sufficient information to gauge the likely more...

The financial crisis gripping global markets could trigger a new wave of food riots across the developing world, the FAO has warned.

As the credit crunch hits agricultural markets causing commodity prices to tumble, farmers may cut their planting because of a lack of funds to buy fertilizer, the organization said this week in its Food Outlook.The report warned that even though prices of commodities such as corn, rice and wheat have dropped by between 40% and 60% “riots and instability could more...

Statistics on the most recent global food crisis are well known. In the three years leading up to June 2008, food prices rose 83%. Although declining since, they are still 60% higher than in 2006. There is little prospect of returning to the cheap food regimes that characterized the world prior to 2005 anytime in the foreseeable future. So far, the food crisis has pushed an estimated 75 million people into chronic hunger since 2005.

Women and children, particularly girls, have been hardest hi more...

Some world leaders argue that the WTO Doha Round will solve the global food crisis. But, this Institute for Agricultural and Trade Policy (IATP) article says increased trade liberalization will reinforce poorer countries’ dependence on food imports. Further, deregulation policies will increase the power of transnational agribusinesses at the expense of local farmers. Instead, the IATP argues, world leaders should reform the rules governing international trade to control the market power exerte more...

This Global Policy Forum report critically reviews the global food aid system. Author Katarina Wahlberg argues that food aid donors fall short in prioritizing the needs of the poor and hungry. Instead, donor countries use food aid to promote their own national strategic and commercial interests. Such food aid not only fails to reduce hunger, it can also harm long-term food security in recipient countries.

Summary: 'The dramatic rise and volatility of food prices over the last year have shaken the global food system. Governments and the international development community generally have responded to various aspects of the food crisis, but questions remain about whether the right actions are being pursued, how best to respond, and what the future holds. The three essays here by Namanga Ngongi, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, Josette Sheeran, executive director of the Wo more...

‘Rising prices have a way of shining a bright light on any sector, no matter how
overlooked previously. The rapid run-up in food prices is no exception. Food may be an essential good, but when food prices spent decades moving downward, the food sector held little interest for policymakers and investors. Now, with the doubling and tripling of the prices of some food grains in the past two years, the world has snapped to attention. Faced with rising food insecurity, social unrest, and accelerat more...

There are many complex features underlying the global economic crisis pertaining to financial markets, the decline in production, the collapse of State institutions and the rapid development of a profit-driven war economy. What is rarely mentioned in this analysis is how this global economic restructuring forcibly impinges on three fundamental necessities of life: food, water and fuel.

The provision of food, water and fuel is a precondition of civilized society: they are necessary factors fo more...