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Wednesday wrapped up the World Summit on Food Security in Rome. Just to recap in case you missed the last post, the Summit was intended to bring together heads of state and food security institutions, like the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP), to further the global agenda on eradicating hunger and pursuing global food security.

The Summit attendees released a declaration that reinforces their commitment to fully realizing the first Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger and poverty by 2015. The declaration also commits to promoting better coordination of food security efforts at local, regional, and national levels, as well as reversing the decline in funding for food security, and addressing the challenges of climate change as they impact food security, including adaptation of and mitigation in the agriculture sector. The declaration did not adopt the FAO’s ask of $44 billion annually for food security initiatives, or the goal of eradicating global hunger by 2025.

The group did use the communiqué to outline the Five Rome Principles for Sustainable Global Food Security which form a basis for this work. The principles reflect the five principles proposed by the U.S. at the L’Aquila G8 Summit, which were reiterated by the leaders of the G20 at their meeting in Pittsburgh in September. If implemented, the principles—investing in country-owned, country-led plans; coordinating at national, regional, and global levels; investing in short-, medium-, and long-term initiatives to address hunger and food insecurity; providing a role for the multilateral system; and ensuring sustained and substantial commitments—will go a long way to ensuring that development assistance for agriculture and food security is effective.

Two countries did take forward steps at the Summit as well: Canada reiterated their commitments to the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative and their country plan which will coordinate Canada’s food security strategy. If you missed our post about Canada’s announcement, you can read it here. Germany also publicly announced their share of L’Aquila commitment: they will provide €700 million or about $1 billion over three years for food security initiatives. $300 million will be new money that is not already in the pipeline, and this pledge does not include emergency assistance. These clarifications are important next steps in constructing a global system that works for food security. We are eager to see further clarification of funding from these and other countries.

As you know, the FAO World Food Summit ended yesterday in Rome. Check out the articles below to see a variety of reactions to the Summit:

World leaders’ low turnout hits UN food summit (Reuters Africa)
The absence of world leaders at this week’s World Food Summit presented a challenge from the start. The Summit’s final declaration did not result in additional financial commitments; some have attributed this lack of progress to the lackluster attendance by heads of state. Less than a third of the 192 heads of states and governments invited by the FAO attended the Summit. Many sent their agriculture ministers instead.

What is the point of the world food summit on food security? (The Guardian Blog)
Despite criticism that the World Food Summit did not result in substantial increases in aid for agriculture, the president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Kanayo Nwanze, expressed that the point of the Summit was not to gather pledges, but to encourage the leaders of developing countries to commit themselves to making agriculture and food security top priorities.

Food security – collective race against crises (This Day; allAfrica.com)
At the three-day summit in Rome, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon declared that food and nutritional security are the foundations for a healthy life for all people. He called for immediate action against food insecurity and hunger and laid out a comprehensive list of measures to combat food insecurity, which, he said, will be exacerbated by population growth and climate change.

Declaring a vision for world hunger (Oxfam International Blog)
Yesterday, the summit released a declaration outlining its vision on international food security and how it can be achieved. The declaration focuses on the poorest farmers but critics are saying that it does not go far enough to address issues affecting food security, including the global economic crisis and the onset of climate change.