Nutrition, Food Security and Agriculture - An IFAD View Kevin Cleaver Assistant President, IFAD Rome, 26 February 2007

IFAD’s mission is to reduce rural poverty. IFAD recognizes that malnutrition contributes to poverty Global food and nutrition problems TypeCausesPeople affected HungerDeficiency of calories and protein 0.9 billion Underweight childrenInadequate intake of food and frequent disease 126 million Micronutrient deficiencyDeficiency of vitamins and minerals More than 2 billion Overweight to chronic disease Unhealthy diets; lifestyleIncreasing also among the poor Source: Based on data from FAO 2005a, UN/SCN 2004, Micronutrient initiative and UNICEF Adapted from IFPRI, 6 December 2005

Global trends in underweight children (children 0-4 years) – Data source: de Onis et al (2004). Prepared by World Bank, HNP, November 2005

Progress slow in addressing hunger Developing world Developing world without China Hunger in the Developing World Millions of hungry people Source: FAO 2005a

Is the hunger problem caused by stagnation in agriculture production? World cereal production, Source: FAOSTAT Adapted from IFPRI. * Estimated

Who are the hungry? Source: World Bank Cleaver South Asia Farmers Margina l Land 50% 22 % 20% 8% Landless Rural Poor Pastorists /Fishers East Asia Rest of Asia Sub Sahar a Africa Latin America What do the hungry do? Hunger is increasing in Africa, decreasing in Asia; Millions of hungry people by continent (source: UN hunger task force) Urban Poor North Africa & Middle East

Malnutrition Poverty Leads to a >10% potential reduction in lifetime earnings for each malnourished individual GDP losses >2-3% Malnutrition (stunting) in early years linked to a cm loss of height in adolescence grades loss of schooling - 7 month delay in starting school (improved nutrition can be a driver of growth) Source: Alderman et al (2003) But: Poverty also leads to malnutrition. The hungry are largely the poor.

Poor water/ Sanitation and inadequate health services Inadequate maternal and child- care practices IFAD works on both routes: mostly on income growth for the poor; but also on nutrition Causes of Child Malnutrition Child nutrition, survival and development Inadequate dietary intake Disease Insufficient access to food Quantity and quality of actual resources – human, economic and organizational – and the way they are controlled Potential resources: environment, technology, people Outcomes Immediate causes Underlying causes at household family level Basic causes at societal level Source: The State of the World’s Children, Adapted from World Bank HNP, November 2005 FOOD CARE HEALTH Inadequate and/or inappropriate knowledge and discriminatory attitudes limit household access to actual resources Political, cultural, religious, economic and social systems, including women’s status, limit the utilization of potential resources

Solutions to halving hunger Source: Rosegrant et al, Adapted from IFPRI. Annual investments needed to reach the MDG goal of halving hunger

IFAD contributes to agriculture and rural development IFAD has granted and lent about US$ 7 billion for hundreds of agriculture and rural development programmes in developing countries. Project size varies from USD 200,000 grants to US$ 50 million loans IFAD targets the very poorest rural populations Has a special focus on women, who are often the poorest and increasingly left in rural areas by husbands and male family members who migrate to cities or abroad for work Has special programmes for indigenous peoples (often the poorest of the poor) Is an early supporter of community-designed and -managed rural development Finances nutrition interventions

Is food security best assured through food aid, through school feeding or through agriculture/income development? Food aid as solution for malnutrition and hunger - Pro: in emergencies food aid is best way to save lives. Agriculture development comes too late or never - Con: Food aid is a disincentive to invest in agriculture and private marketing. It reduces farmers’ income School feeding programmes - Pro: easiest and fastest way to get food to children when they have nutrition problems - Con: intervention from pregnancy to the first two years of life is more effective in dealing with under-nutrition in children. School feeding is too late Agricultural production expansion - Pro: Provides food for consumption and income for poverty reduction - Con: There is no con

Another way of looking at this: the poverty effect of a 1% productivity gain in agriculture, industry and services in India Source: Thirtle et all, 2002

% change in malnourished children depends partly on public investment in agriculture, 2020 (IFPRI)