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75 million added to global hunger rolls (September, 08)

Trade and development aid commitments unmet ahead of UN meeting (September, 08)

Shun meat, says UN climate chief (September, 08)

Biofuel policies do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - OECD/IEA (September, 08)

“We have never been in a situation so severe. Never, ever before” - UNICEF (August, 08)

Somalia tops Failed States Index 2008 - Ireland 4th from bottom (August, 08)

Ethiopia to Admit Higher Numbers of Hungry (August, 08)

Price Surge Driving Some Countries Close to Tipping Point - IMF
A new IMF study warns that that the share of undernourished in developing countries could rise rapidly above the current 40 percent of total population (IMF, 01/07/08).

World Bank blames biofuels; others disagree
A leaked World Bank study blames biofuels for the bulk of food price rises (Guardian, 03/07/08). Not all agree with the finding. John Davison, of Christian Aid, said the charity produced a report highlighting the complexities of the crisis last week (July, 2008, press release), but it was overshadowed by the World Bank report. "[The food crisis] is not all down to biofuels but it’s a good headline," he said (Guardian, 09/07/08). According to Christian Aid, there are a number of long-term factors responsible for a "dire situation" which was then "exacerbated by biofuel production, climate change, the oil price rise and speculation in commodities." According to the charity, "Markets have been prised open for heavily subsidised food exports from richer nations" undermining domestic production. Comment: Despite Davison's remarks, it is possible for the World Bank and Christian Aid reports to both be right. One is looking for immediate causes; the other, for factors that left agricultural production so vulnerable.

The world food crisis is the biggest issue facing disaster relief charities and affects everything they do, but it is hard to galvanise public support according to Ben Hewitt, Save the Children’s head of media (Guardian, 09/07/08).

EU panel cuts biofuel target; Ireland delays policy statement
The Leaked World Bank biofuels report above may have influenced a decision only days later taken by a European Parliament panel. It voted to back a proposal to draw just 4 per cent of road transport fuels from renewable sources by 2015 (Irish Times, 08/07/08). However, back in January, Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas raised the possibility of a change in biofuels policy due to environmental and social problems (Irish Examiner, 15/01/08).

Separately, Ireland's Department of Energy delayed publication of one of its key policy outlines on renewable energy until the autumn because of growing concerns about the impact of biofuels on world food prices (Irish Times, 03/07/08).

The former UN high commissioner for human rights, Mary Robinson, said reducing support for biofuel production that competes with food production, as well as investing more in agricultural production and improving trade and food aid policies to stimulate and support local production were some of the ways of addressing the food crisis (Irish Independent, 09/07/08).

Africa can achieve anti-poverty targets
On the final day of the African Union Summit in Egypt, International development leaders issued a series of recommendations in such areas as agriculture, education, health and infrastructure to speed up Africa’s progress towards reaching the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG), eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.

Despite faster growth and strengthened institutions, Africa remains off-track to meeting targets on reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and combating infectious disease. “Yet, experiences from other continents, as well as recent progress in several countries in the region, prove that the Goals can be achieved across Africa” according to the MDG Africa Steering Group chaired by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (UN News, 01/07/08).

Regarding agriculture, the Steering Group called for the international community to mobilize over $750 million to help the continent meet short-term needs that have arisen due to soaring food prices. It also urged African governments to work with global partners to launch a Green Revolution on the continent. However, political analyst and South African beef farmer Moeletsi Mbeki (Thabo's brother) has previously said that that a Green Revolution would only be feasible as long as land ownership and political accountability were addressed at the same time (BBC, 01/05/08). (Dóchas held a recent event on the topic.) Africa’s food crisis is "a short-term problem and a long-term opportunity" according to an article in South Africa's Business Day (14/07/08).

World Food Programme expands North Koriea aid to reach 5m
NORTH KOREA HUNGER: The U.N. World Food Programme, which has warned of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea due to a food shortage, says it has reached a deal with Pyongyang to rapidly expand aid, allowing it to reach more than 5 million people in the country of about 23 million, a big increase its previous operation feeding 1.2 million. The aid deal and the arrival of a U.S. ship carrying wheat come days after North Korea made a symbolic commitment to an international disarmament pact by blowing up the cooling tower at its plutonium-producing nuclear plant, and provided documents on its nuclear programmes. U.S. official policy is not to use food as a weapon or a reward (Reuters Alertnet).

Africa minister warns of Sudan "freefall"
Sudan could tip into "freefall" unless the international community helps to resolve its multiple crises, Britain’s minister for Africa said on the sidelines of an African summit on Monday (Reuters, 30/06/08).

Darfur faces a food crisis this year as a result of a "perfect storm" of growing violence, overcrowding in refugee camps and a bad harvest, the United Nations said on Sunday (Reuters, 22/06/08).

Sudan has expelled the head of aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres from the South Darfur region for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into aid agency misconduct, a Sudanese official says. Banu Altunbas, of MSF Holland, is the most senior aid worker expelled this year from Darfur, scene of the world's largest humanitarian operation.

Unwelcome advice? Policy responses to the commodity price boom
According to IMF economists, the US and EU need to substantially adjust policies that subsidise and protect domestic production of biofuels. They recommend free trade in biofuels while incorporating emissions costs into prices of all fuels. However, governments have a legitimate role in funding research into second-generation biofuels. The economists argue that countries which are trying to reduce the impact of rising prices on poor households should consider safety nets, cash transfers or temporary subsidies on selected food products. Protectionist measures may have contributed to market rigidities. Domestic fuel subsidies tend to disproportionately benefit wealthier households.

"Oil makes hypocrites of us all"
China is one country that heavily subsidises domestic fuel consumption while claiming to give "high priority to energy and resources conservation and the protection of the environment" (FT, 16/06/08). However, Dominic Lawson argues in the Independent (17/06/08) that high oil prices have produced no shortage of hypocrites and suggests that developing country oil subsidies are to the greatest detriment of their own people.

Bush recently raised hackles in India when he stated that rising living standards there was one factor causing higher food prices. Even if he was not apportioning blame, as a description of the problem, he could have included continuing high meat consumption in the US (and elsewhere). The same is true for oil. Lawson suggests that US legislators are hypocrites for blocking domestic oil exploration but did not examine demand-side factors that may be more significant.

Hunger in Ethiopia now spreading to adults
A growing number of adults and older children — traditionally less-vulnerable groups — have been stricken by severe hunger due to poor rains and recent crop failure in southern Ethiopia, health workers say. Aid groups say older victims suggest there is an escalation in the crisis in Ethiopia, a country that drew international attention in 1984 when a famine compounded by communist policies killed 1 million people (AP, 09/06/08).

Whether to grow biofuels is quite an issue in Ethiopia, where some 4.5 million people need emergency food aid because of high food prices and failed rains. Even in a normal year, about 44 percent of the population is undernourished and nearly half of children are stunted from lack of food, according to the U.N. World Food Programme. But the government is keen to cut its annual $900 million fuel bill by growing more sugar for ethanol. And it says there’s enough land to meet all its food needs too (Reuters Alertnet, 09/06/08). Satellite image showing drought in Ethiopia.

COMMENT: Did the IFA catch development campaigners napping?
In the run-up to the Lisbon vote, the Irish farmers Association (IFA) demanded that the Taoiseach Brian Cowen promise to protect its interests at the WTO before the IFA would ask its members to vote yes. There was extensive media coverage of the dispute. However, it contained little analysis of the implications for developing countries of the WTO negotiating stance that the IFA was calling for. There was no campaign to persuade Cowen to resist IFA demands and instead be more willing to negotiate a reduction in EU farmer supports.

The result was a victory for the IFA. Cowen assured the IFA that he was prepared to use the veto if a deal that is unacceptable to Ireland is put to a vote (Taoiseach press release, 03/06/08). But do the interests of the IFA match those of developing countries? Some would say not. In 2005, a coalition of Irish charities called for "a commitment to the bound reduction of domestic support payments" (.DOC).

The current food crisis has muddied the waters when it comes to the merits and demerits of subsidies (Connect-World, April 08). However, chronic underinvestment by developing countries in agriculture has been fingered as a culprit for the crisis, and Western subsidies are partly to blame (Time, 05/06/08).

Although the original gap between the government and the IFA was small, the IFA dispute was an opportunity to state an opposing view for those worldwide who seek a reduction in Western agricultural subsidies. Were Irish and international NGOs, and developing countries themselves, caught napping? All politics may be local but implications can be global.

Lake grows amid Sahel’s shifting sands
All it took to halve food prices in part of northern Mali was to shift sand and debris from a channel feeding a lake. Not that shifting the debris was easy in a region with few roads and power sources but, once it was done, water began to flow for the first time since the 1980s. Within a few months, villagers were able to grow millet and, three harvests later, the price of food plummetted. Until the 1980s, four lakes in the region on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert provided fishing and 60,000 hectares of fertile land. But gradually channels feeding the lakes became clogged and severe droughts evaporated the lakes. Now the villagers need money to plant trees to stop the sand from clogging them up again (IRIN, 05/06/08).

World leaders to tackle food crisis
The food price crisis will be tackled by world leaders who meet in Rome next week to seek ways of reducing the suffering for the world's poorest people and ensure the Earth can produce more food to sustain an ever growing population (Reuters, 30/05/08). Participants are expected to pledge aid to badly affected countries and to discuss ways of boosting agriculture. There may also be a rethink of biofuels production. But some of the possible prescriptions—such as freeing trade in agricultural goods and embracing genetically modified crops—could prove controversial (Economist, 01/06/08).

Despite its central importance in life, agriculture has been a forgotten sector in the world economy for several decades. But that decline has now been arrested for the first time, so for the first time investment is worthwhile (BBC, 02/06/08).

The World Bank has announced a $1.2bn programme to fight the global food crisis, including $200m in grants to poor countries facing the most dire needs. The bank also said it would boost its overall support for global agriculture and food to $6bn next year, up 50% (RTE, 30/05/08). More than 150 countries agreed to a new deal for global food policy at the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in April.

For the first time in more than a year, global food prices are declining though that does not mean the problems facing the world are over – according to recent figures from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. The Economist Intelligence is forecasting that prices will stabilise in the second half of 2008 and remain at close to that level for the next few years (Emirates Business 24-7).

A new report by the Centre for Global Development (09/05/08), a think-tank in Washington, DC, reckons freeing stockpiled rice in Japan and other Asian countries could halve world prices. Hungry people would certainly like that; American farmers probably would not (Economist, 22/05/08).

High food prices, drought threaten Ethiopia again
Clutching an intricate bronze cross he used to dig graves during Ethiopia’s 1984-1985 famine, priest Alemayu Gede prays drought and high food prices will not make him use it as a shovel again (Reuters, 01/06/08). Ethiopia is facing its worst humanitarian crisis since 2003 (Ethiopian Review, 01/06/08). Chronic Food Insecurity and the Dilemma of Food Aid (American Chronicle, 31/05/08).

Rain has come too late in the season, leaving Ethiopian children to struggle with malnutrition (France 24, 02/06/08). Médecins Sans Frontières reports alarming levels of malnutrition among under fives. Contact: Niamh Nic Cárthaigh +353 85 1069 132 , niamh.niccarthaigh@dublin.msf.org.

PREVIEW-UN climate talks clouded by high energy costs
Mounting criticism over how some climate policies are adding to record energy and food prices threatens to distract UN-led talks on a new global warming pact, which resume this week in Bonn (Reuters Alertnet, 01/06/08).

Toll of Burma's cyclone could extend beyond its borders
Burma’s military government told foreign diplomats Monday that the death toll from a devastating weekend cyclone could reach 10,000, as officials made a rare appeal for international help to bring relief to survivors of the storm’s fury (Washington Post, 05/05/08). Myanmar has since raised the cyclone death toll to 22,500 (Reuters, 06/05/08). Irish NGOs have set up a website for disaster response (above).

Critics of Myanmar’s military rulers slammed the junta’s decision to press ahead with a controversial May 10 constitutional referendum (Reuters, 05/05/08). Larry Jagan, journalist and Burma specialist, says Burma’s military rulers are being urged to allow aid agencies to operate freely in the country in the wake of the cyclone (RTÉ radio, 05/05/08). US First Lady Laura Bush accused Myanmar’s military rulers Monday of failing to warn their citizens in time and pressed the junta to accept US aid in the disaster’s wake (AFP, 05/05/08).

The disaster may have ill effects well beyond Myanmar’s borders. UN agencies such as the WFP are already suffering huge strains on their finances because of the soaring cost of rice and other food staples. Having another big emergency on their hands may force them to divert scarce resources from other needy parts. Worse, the cyclone, which hit Myanmar’s main rice-growing areas, may intensify the worldwide panic over scarce rice supplies that have led to food riots in dozens of countries. Burma was once the world’s biggest rice exporter and one of Asia’s most developed countries (Economist, 05/05/08).

Flooding, which poured damaging salt water into paddy fields, could create long-term food insecurity for Myanmar and other poor Asian countries, World Food Programme spokesman Paul Risley warned Tuesday (AFP, 06/05/08).

Myanmar/Burma RSS feed plus selected news and "who works there".

Tens of thousands riot in Mogadishu in eruption of anger over food prices
In the latest eruption of anger over high food prices in Africa, troops have fired into tens of thousands of rioting Somalis, killing two people, witnesses said. In the capital Mogadishu, protesters marched against the refusal of traders to accept old 1,000-shilling notes, blaming them and a growing number of counterfeiters for rising food costs (Independent, 06/05/08).

Bush projects $5 billion spend fighting global hunger but causes offence in India
On April 14, US President George W. Bush ordered the release of $200 million in U.S. emergency food aid to help alleviate food shortages in developing countries in Africa and elsewhere (Reuters/IHT, 15/04/08).

On May 1, he called on Congress to provide an additional $770 million for food aid, bringing the total to almost $1 billion. He projected that the US would spend almost $5 billion in 2008 and 2009 fighting global hunger (CNN video, 01/05/08).

However, he caused controversy by a separate reference to rising demand for "better nutrition and better food" by India’s middle class as a factor that has raised food prices. It seems to have been interpreted by Indian politicians as apportioning blame to India for the food crisis (The Indian Express, 04/05/08).

An editorial in The Times of India described the response of politicians and sections of the media as "hysterical". It called on India to behave like a big power - "big powers don’t see themselves as victims or always define international relations in conspiratorial terms." It described Bush’s thoughts on purchasing food aid from developing countries as sensible but called on them to be turned into policy (The Times of India, 06/05/08).

High food prices not just threat but opportunity - FAO
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf has called on the international community not only to take immediate action to de-fuse the current world food emergency but also to seize the opportunities offered by higher food prices and prevent similar dramatic situations occurring in the future.

The FAO has called for a twin-track approach featuring policies and programmes to assist the millions of poor whose livelihoods were at risk, and steps to help farmers in the developing world take advantage of the new situation (FAO, 29/04/08; contact: christopher.matthews@fao.org +39 06 570 53762).

However, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal has called for the FAO to be scrapped. He said its inefficiency had largely led to soaring food prices worldwide. Wade said the IFAD, which combats rural hunger and poverty in developing countries through low-interest loans and direct assistance, "could become the new world agricultural assistance fund with its headquarters in Africa." (AFP, 05/05/08). Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade said he had helped select his compatriot Jacques Diouf to lead the FAO but blamed the institution rather than its leadership (AP/IHT, 05/05/08). President Wade’s statement can be read in the original French (SudOnline.sn, 05/05/08).

For his part, Diouf had recently called for a revamp of the UN system and bemoaned the competing politics of different international organisations for spiking the implementation of FAO policies, particularly the IMF and the World Bank. However, he said that "the World Bank has done a mea culpa, because it has recognised its policies in Africa were not good". Diouf also pulled back from developing world calls to lower agriculture subsidies and open up access to markets in the United States and Europe -- instead pressing for similar subsidies for farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America. "There are two solutions: end subsidies everywhere, or give them to everyone. I prefer the latter," he said (AFP, 25/04/08). Others have provided a different analysis:

"Stronger and fairer globalization" needed to tackle food crisis - Collier
"Of the two crises disturbing the world economy – financial disarray and soaring food prices – the latter is the more disturbing," according to the FT’s Martin Wolf (FT, 29/04/08). Wolf describes the crisis as a "golden opportunity" to eliminate a "plethora of damaging interventions" which he has listed.

Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion, posted a comment in response. According to Collier, "We need stronger and fairer globalization (in agriculture), not less of it." He said that "the policies needed for the long term have been befuddled by romanticism, the short term global response has been pure beggar-thy-neighbour." Collier also pointed out that it is easier for urban slum dwellers to riot than for farmers, so the interests of poor consumers have prevailed over those of poor producers (FT, 30/04/08).

The Economist in its own blog, described Collier’s remarks as "a detailed and brilliant look at the causes of the ongoing food crunch and what might be done to provide relief" and "one of the most linked comments in recent blogospheric history" (05/05/08). In a separate article, the newspaper argued that restricting trade in food is exacerbating shortages just at the time when there should be an export boom (01/05/08).

Related: Food price rises are "mass murder" says UN envoy + ANALYSIS (Connect-World, April, 2008).

Biofuel crops could put an unbearable strain on the global water supply
Biofuel crops are under fire for raising food prices. They could also put an unbearable strain on the global water supply, Sweden’s Stockholm Environment Institute has warned. It says replacing 50 percent of the fossil fuels to meet 2050 transport and electricity demands with biofuels would require up to 12,000 extra cubic kilometres of water a year (the total annual flow down the world’s rivers is 14,000 cubic kilometres) (CNN, 25/02/08).

Connect-World first reported on the problem of biofuels and food prices in February, 2007. Therefore, even though this story is far from new - the International Water Management Institute warned back in 2006 that surging demand for irrigation to provide food and biofuels required finding ways to grow more food with less water (Irish Times, 22/08/06) - it may be worth repeating.

Food price rises are "mass murder" says UN envoy + ANALYSIS
Global food price rises are leading to "silent mass murder" and commodities markets have brought "horror" to the world, the United Nations’ food envoy told an Austrian newspaper on Sunday

Jean Ziegler, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told Kurier am Sonntag (article in German) that growth in biofuels, speculation on commodities markets and European Union export subsidies mean the West is responsible for mass starvation in poorer countries.

Ziegler said he was bound to highlight the "madness" of people who think that hunger is down to fate. "Hunger has not been down to fate for a long time -- just as (Karl) Marx thought. It is rather that a murder is behind every victim. This is silent mass murder," he said in an interview (Reuters, 20/04/08).

Ziegler's boss, the U.N. chief warned Sunday that the world must urgently increase food production to ease skyrocketing prices and pledged to set up a task force on a crisis threatening to destabilize developing nations (AP, 20/04/08).

ANALYSIS: TCD Professor of European agricultural policy, Alan Matthews has called for a coherent and urgent response to tackle the food crisis. He outlined some of the complexities of the crisis in an article in the Irish Times (19/04/08). Mathews pointed out that a period of sustained high prices "has the potential to help address the scourge of global poverty". Why so? 3/4 of the poorest live in rural areas. Growth in agricultural output tends to be strongly pro-poor. "The problem is in the timescale... the short-run nutrition problems for poor households in developing countries caused by difficulties in accessing food at its current high price also need to be addressed."

Some have accurately remarked that Western farm subsidies actually depress food prices. Therefore, eliminating them overnight would exacerbate the crisis. However, eliminating Western farm subsidies gradually (which is the most that is politically possible anyway) would help the world's poorest in the longer-term by boosting poor countries' competitive advantage in agriculture.

The complexities don’t end there as there can be serious environmental downsides to farming for food or fuel. George Monbiot suggests that, if we care, we should eat less meat (Guardian, 15/04/08). Animal farming is responsible for considerable amounts of greenhouse gases and deforestation as well as being very inefficient compared with crops as a source of calories for consumption. Meat is being consumed in increasingly unhealthy quantities and not just in the West. And of course, the largest-scale abuses of animal welfare do not occur in fox-hunts or the cosmetics industry.

Neglect of agriculture in Asia leaves hundreds of millions in poverty
Chronic neglect of agriculture in Asia and the Pacific has left over 200 million people in extreme poverty amid rising prices for foodstuffs and despite robust growth in other sectors, according to a United Nations report released today (UN, 27/03/08). See: The Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2008; UNESCAP Press release.

World Food Programme appeals for $500 million to offset soaring prices
The United Nations agency that is feeding 73 million people caught up in crises around the world this year is appealing for funding to close a $500 million gap caused by a global spike in food and fuel prices (UN, 24/03/08).

90,000 Somali Children Threatened With Starvation
"If we cannot maintain the activities that we have been running up to now, you will see a crisis," said UNICEF’s Christian Balslev-Olesen. "You will see many children dying, [although] hopefully not like the beginning of the 1990s where between 200,000 and 300,000 people died within a few months in Somalia" (NewsRoom, 14/2/08).

As violence surges across Somalia – and cereal production turns out to be lower than originally forecast – UNICEF fears that 2008 could be the worst-ever year for Somalia’s children. For Somali Khadra Abdullahi, a pattern has developed: the blast from a bomb, then the screams and the clanging of pots as she throws her family’s possessions into a bag and flees. “That was the fourth time my children and I have had to run to save our lives,” she says. “Each time we lose more” (UNICEF, 15/2/08).

Nearly 300 Somalis were killed and hundreds more wounded in clashes in the Somali capital last month, a local human rights group said on Saturday (International Herald Tribune, 16/2/08). The litany of murdered journalists punctuated a desolate year for the Somali press (Reporters Without Borders Annual Report 2008).

Call to abandon biofuels targets as EU launches climate action and renewable energy package
The EU should abandon its biofuels targets because they are damaging the environment, a committee of UK MPs says. The Environmental Audit Committee says the UK government and the EU have been "misguided" in prioritising biofuels for road transport when it is much more efficient under current technology to use them for heating and cooling (BBC, 21/1/08).

However, in the longer term, many envisage second-generation biofuels being made from materials that are not dependent on arable land, such as algal materials growing in water (EurActiv).

The UK report came in the week the EU launched a huge, over-arching climate change strategy (23/1/08) which includes rules aimed at reducing damage from biofuels. It states that in future biofuels should not be grown on forest land, wetland - including peat - or permanent grassland, a move that will please critics.

Unhappy New Year: 2 million malnourished, 1000 species lost
The incidence of malnutrition has increased by over 2 million and the number of species extinct by over a thousand in the first two weeks of 2008 according to this Earth Clock. Find more clocks with year-to-date statistics on the planet, the size and health of its population, and food production on the Connect-World website.

The year's unreported stories - MSF and Foreign Policy Magazine
People struggling to survive violence, forced displacement, and disease in the Central African Republic (CAR), Somalia, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere often went underreported this year and much of the past decade, according to the 10th annual list of the “Top Ten” Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories, released today by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (20/12/07).

The 2007 list (see summary) also highlights the plight of people living through other forgotten crises, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Colombia, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, and Chechnya, where the displacement by war of millions continues. It also focuses on tuberculosis (TB) and childhood malnutrition. Contact: MSF Ireland.

Foreign Policy magazine has also challenged readers to see The Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2007 (December 2007). At no.8: dengue fever linked to climate change. Warmer climates may be putting millions of people around the world at risk for the disease, a virus that causes excruciating pain in people’s joints. This year is on track to be the worst year in nearly a decade for the mosquito-borne virus, also known as "bone-breaker disease."

No one-size-fits-all solution for Africa, where millions will be affected by climate change
“(L)arge regions of marginal agriculture in Africa may be forced out of production by 2100, while others will thrive ,” according to Ariel Dinar , Lead Economist in the World Bank’s Development Research Group, and co-author of the summary paper of new research that analyzed—for the first time—climate impact and adaptation in 11 African countries.

“What we take away from it is that some countries are more vulnerable than others, and help should be focused where it is needed most.” For example, 90 percent of the population in Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in the world, is engaged in mostly subsistence agriculture—extremely vulnerable to rainfall variation.

The end of cheap food / Cheap no more (Economist, 6/12/07)

Annan-founded alliance for African agriculture names first president
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), set up by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan to aid African farmers, named Wednesday (AFP, 14/11/07) its first president, agricultural expert Amos Namanga Ngongi from Cameroon.

India fails its poor
India is the world’s second fastest growing economy after China, however, it has not yet eradicated hunger among a large proportion of its population of more than 1.2 billion, according to an (excellently researched) article in the Irish Times (16/10/07). The article cites this report, which states that "At the end of 2004-05, about 836 million or 77 per cent of the population were living below 20 rupees (approx. $0.5 or €0.35) per day. That was an increase on the figure of 811 million in 1999-00. The article also cites the IFPRI Global Hunder Index 2007 report, co-authored by Concern Worldwide and German Agro-Action. According to the report [PDF] (p.44), 40 per cent of the world’s underweight children aged under five are in India, while more than half of all babies with low birth weight continue to be born in south Asia. India's Human Development Index.

Hungry Somalis still share
JOWHAR, Somalia - Some days, Lul Haji Adam listens to her youngest son wail with hunger as she scrupulously divides up the food she has scraped together between the 65 members of her extended family (27/09/07).

Relief workers say this year most Somalis have had to cope with a series of disasters: floods, drought, violence and rising inflation. And now those Somalis living outside Mogadishu, which has suffered nearly daily violence, have to cope with relatives fleeing the capital to seek refuge with them, stretching them to the limit.

Already, 1.5 million of Somalia’s estimated 7 million people need food aid. Nearly 300,000 face severe food shortages in the Horn of Africa nation, aid workers say.

US accepts WTO agriculture proposals in trade talks: WTO official
GENEVA (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday (19/09/07) accepted World Trade Organization proposals as a basis for negotiations on a multilateral agricultural trade deal, a high-ranking WTO official said.

First meeting of the Irish Hunger Task Force
The Task Force draws together Irish and International expertise to examine the particular contribution Ireland can make to tackle the root causes of food insecurity, particularly in Africa. (14/09/07)

U.S. urges reciprocity in Doha talks on farming
Other countries need to do more in response to U.S. offers, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez told Reuters during a visit to Colombia on Saturday. "We have not seen enough reciprocity even for what we have put on the table from developing countries," he said. (16/09/07)

Congo: "a humanitarian emergency that could spiral out of control"
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that although many of the tens of thousands of people displaced by fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in recent days have now received emergency rations, there are serious concerns for those who remain beyond its reach due to insecurity.

“We are dealing with a humanitarian emergency that could spiral out of control unless we get proper access to the worst-affected areas,” said WFP Country Director Charles Vincent. (14/09/07)

Meanwhile, Ministers from Africa’s Great Lakes region made little headway in two days of talks on security overshadowed by growing violence and mutual mistrust.

Foreign and defence ministers from Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) appealed for United Nations peacekeepers to intensify efforts to stamp out militias plaguing eastern DRC.

Darfur: Rebel agreement now sought
Following this week's decision by the U.N. Security Council to approve 26,000 troops to enforce peace in Darfur, attention is now turning to the daunting challenge of bringing together the country's rebel factions. At talks held this weekend (August 3-5) in Arush, Tanzania, U.N. and African Union diplomats will aim to bring some unity between a dozen rebel groups whose violence is helping fuel the conflict. Meanwhile, the Sudanese government has said it is "comfortable" with the proposed deployment, and that it will cooperate with the mission.

The Economist (02/08/07) has argued that China was key to the UN agreement and warns that the pressure on Sudan and the rebel groups must be kept up. 

Child malnutrition is above emergency levels in West Darfur's capital el-Geneina, Irish aid agency Concern has found.

Zimbabwe crisis (Alertnet)
Amid warnings that thousands of Zimbabweans are running out of food, the U.N. World Food Programme has launched an urgent appeal. The $118 million fund will enable the agency to feed ten times the number of beneficiaries it currently helps, according to a spokesman (IRIN, 01/08/07).

US sceptical of WTO trade plan
The US has warned it is unhappy about draft plans for a global trade deal that will be debated by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 3 September (BBC, 26/07/07).

UN food agency and China boost partnership against global hunger
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Beijing Government have boosted their partnership aimed at helping China and the world to address hunger.

Since 2000 the Chinese Government has committed nearly $13.5 million for WFP’s work elsewhere in the world, the bulk of the funding going to Africa (WFP, 18/07/07)..

Eight WTO member nations move to try and rescue Doha
The ranks of developing nations are split over how to proceed on Doha. The difference between Brazil and the US over farm subsidies is narrow according to officials with knowledge of the unsuccessful Potsdam talks.  Eight WTO member nations have now moved to try and rescue a deal. Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Thailand are proposing the opening of industrial markets in the developing world. This would allow greater foreign competition than under proposals made last week by Brazil and India.

"The losses and missed gains associated with a failure or freezing of the (Doha round) far outweigh the costs of a less than perfect agreement," said the proposal of the eight WTO members (June 2007).

UN appeals to Kenya to allow food into Somalia
The United Nations food relief agency today appealed to Kenyan authorities to allow assistance for more than 100,000 people to be trucked into Somalia, where piracy is hampering deliveries by sea.

(Captain Pottengal Mukundan, Director of the International Maritime Bureau, analyses the threat posed by pirates on Morning Ireland, 29/06/07.)

Chaotic Somalia is one of the world's toughest places to deliver aid [Blog]. If you find a way to bypass pirates to get supplies into the country, you're doing well. Then you've got to run the gauntlet of looting militias and the chance you'll be asked for hundreds of dollars to use the roads. After that you might find the roads aren't passable anyway, or farmers don't want you there.

Food aid sent to Somalia to combat one of the world's largest malnutrition crises has been criticised by Somali elders for causing violence - and for being delivered at the start of the harvest season. "For we farmers it is a big problem," said farmer and former policeman, Musa Yusuf Ahmed. "The food will benefit the people with no money but it will hurt the farmers."

More than one-third of Zimbabweans face food shortages - Drought and economic crisis to blame
A poor harvest coupled with a worsening economic crisis will leave more than 4 million people in Zimbabwe in need of food assistance by early next year, according to a report issued by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme (June 2007). 

Solid growth in Africa
The OECD's 2007 African Economic Outlook (May, 2007) points out to solid growth in most African countries in 2006 and the near future, as a consequence of improved commodity prices, continued good macroeconomic management and political stability.

Food aid shipments halted… by pirates
The head of the World Food Programme said their programme to feed one million Somalis is under threat. Deliveries of food aid to Somalia by sea have been halted, after an attempt by pirates to seize a ship chartered by the UN food relief agency.

The pirates killed a guard who was among a group sent to intercept them. Following the attack, the agents for a ship loaded with food in Mombasa in Kenya have refused to allow the vessel to set sail for Somalia until they are given an armed escort. 

This comes at a time when the UN is urging attention to Somalia as 400,000 people flee Mogadishu,

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes urged the international community to not to turn its back on Somalia at a time of desperate need, saying the government appears to be seriously underestimating the humanitarian suffering in the country (May, 2007).

‘Fair Trade Fortnight’ in Ireland
‘Fair Trade Fortnight’ is under way. Events are being held all over the country promoting the Fair Trade mark, and building support for a global movement to put more money in the pockets of the world’s poor.

Southern visitors are touring the country to talk about the benefits of and challenges for Fair Trade in their countries. The four speakers are Renwick Rose, representative of banana farmers in the Caribbean Winward Islands, Oliva Kishero, a Ugandan co-operative coffee farmer, and cocoa farmers Erica Kyere and Vida Badu, from the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative in Ghana.

Fair Trade is seen by its supporters as a strategy to fight poverty through consumers’ purchasing decisions. Farmers in developing countries have, over past decades, seen their incomes from the goods they grow collapse as world prices and their share of the final shelf-price in rich countries have fallen. But the prices earned by middlemen and multinational corporations have continued to rise. Choosing to buy Fair Trade is a guarantee that farmers will receive more of what they need to escape poverty. Fair Trade can nearly double the incomes of poor farmers.

However, Fair Trade is not a complete solution to global poverty. It is the rules that govern international trade and the power of multinational corporations over the global market that must also be challenged according to activists. A recent case highlighted the activities of Starbucks over Ethiopia’s efforts to raise the prices of coffee beans.

But there is debate around the success of Fair Trade, and whether it is a good idea at all. Some suggest that Fair Trade not contributing as much to challenging unfair global trade rules as is hoped. Some even say it is a victim of its own runaway success, and demand is yet to catch up with supply.

A new Irish organisation, Traidlinks, has been set up to help African enterprises to boost their incomes and share skills and knowledge with successful Irish companies. Traidlinks has also launched the ‘Heart of Africa’ brand, a new fair trade-like brand run in parthership with Bewley’s, Jacob’s, and Barry’s Tea among others (February, 2007).

Thirst for biofuels may feed global hunger
The new ‘biofuel boom’ may change food economics forever. ‘Tortilla protests’ in Mexico have shown a flipside of the green fuel movement as prices for basic foods soar (February, 2007).