Food security is not so much a new issue as it is a new approach to an old issue, an approach that is in the forefront of new thinking about business in development.  The Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable Development in June, while many were disappointed in the level of commitments, will eventually be recognized as a landmark occasion for integrating social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainable development and for articulating the inter-linkages among these aspects.  And it is especially in the elevated attention given to food security and nutrition and sustainable agriculture where these inter-linkages are articulated.  The Rio Declaration calls for increasing sustainable agricultural production and productivity globally by “increasing public and private investment in sustainable agriculture, land management and rural development.”  The Declaration further notes the key areas for investment and support to include “sustainable agricultural practices; rural infrastructure, storage capacities and related technologies; research and development on sustainable agricultural technologies; developing strong agricultural cooperatives and value chains; and strengthening urban-rural linkages”.   This, then, is an area where business in development can and must play an instrumental role, and CMBD provides a forum for addressing the business engagement in supply chain responsibilities, linkages to smallholder practicalities and appreciating the distinctions between global and local markets, as well as the broader policy issues involving poverty eradication, nutrition and health promotion.

As a facilitator of cross-cutting policy dialogues, CMBD is organizing a special event in October in Rome to coincide with the meeting of the Committee on Global Food Security and to renew acquaintances with key officials at the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme.  In Geneva, too, CMBD offers opportunities for networking with policymakers on nutrition and food safety at the World Health Organization, on commodities and rural development at the UN Conference on Trade and Development, on agricultural trade liberalization at the World Trade Organization, on eliminating child labour (see a separate report on child labour below) and enhancing smallholder livelihoods at the International Labour Organization, and on the right to food at the Human Rights Council.  It is the inter-linkages among these diverse approaches to food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture that provide a panoramic guide to the challenges and opportunities for business to contribute to the “new” economic thinking about business in development.

Boosted by the dialogue and debates that took place at the Busan in November and the G20 Seoul Summit Multi-Year Action Plan on Development, news items coming out of several international organizations this week focus on the multi-stakeholder approach to development and the role of business specifically. At the UN Population Fund Executive Board meeting last week, the agency’s Executive Director, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin declared that the next three years are critical for the global development agenda. He remarked about how new partnerships, particularly with the private sector, through the “7 Billion Actions” campaign, help to raise awareness not only of the global challenges faced, but also with the interconnectivity of all sectors and institutions, public and private. He remarked that it is “clear that development models based on multi-lateral partnerships, which include several stakeholders from different sectors, are the way forward”. He offered as just one example a new partnership with Intel focused on improving skills of health workers, and made specific reference to the Busan high-level conference on aid effectiveness, the outcomes of which call for enhanced engagement by the private sector in the development process. See articles here and here.

A seminar at the International Fund for Agricultural Development a few weeks ago, organized by IFAD and the International Food Policy Research Institute, focused on “Measuring Impact, Maximizing Resources: A Strategy for Effective Development”, and here, too, another aspect of the renewed global attention to development is adding to the knowledge base. The key question of the seminar was “How can we make the best possible use of the resources we spend on development”? Answers and prognostics given included:

• identify the causal pathways between interventions and results
• conduct counter-factual analysis – what would have happened had a project not been undertaken – by considering the paths of control groups not involved in the project
• recognize the distinction between the outcomes and the impacts of a development project, with the impact evaluation designed at the beginning of a project, not the end

Projects that work, based on rigorous analysis of causation, objectives and results, are the ones to scale up and apply repeatedly. This micro-economic approach is giving new momentum to distinguishing the specific value of each intervention and building from that to the selection of which projects to scale up.

Focused on a more global level, the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability last week released its report entitled Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing, with 56 recommendations to “mainstream” sustainable development into economic policies. We reported on the impending release of this report in the CMBD News where we provide more detail about its specific recommendations, but it is worth highlighting the significance of this report here. Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact remarked that “The Panel’s work confirms our long-held belief that a lasting transformation of the global market requires a seismic shift in the way we look at the cost of externalities and the integration of long-term thinking into strategic planning”. He also emphasized the need for businesses to take a more pro-active role in addressing concerns of human rights, labour issues, environmental sustainability and corruption. See the Panel’s report here, and more about Georg Kell’s remarks here.

These dialogues add strength to the background materials that are being developed in support of the upcoming CMBD meeting on Business in Development: An Overview of the Changing Concepts of Development and Linkages to the Private Sector, to be held in Geneva on 23 February. We are looking forward to an interesting, in-depth yet informal discussion on the issue of heightened involvement by the private sector in the development process, with participants from a broad swath of international organizations, diplomatic missions and private sector interests. See more information here.

You are required to login to view this page.