On 26 September, Save the Children hosted we hosted our first Political Café event. More than 80 attendees from government, academia, civil society and the private sector debated what kinds of agricultural policy would support economic development and bring an end to hunger and malnutrition. 

You can listen to the full debate here (from 1.51 minutes in).

Chair: 
• Javier Blas, Financial Times Commodities Editor

Panel: 
• Ambassador Olaniran of Nigeria, Chair of the Committee on World Food Security and Permanent Representative to the FAO
• Ioana Cismas, Legal Adviser to Jean Ziegler, member of the UN Human Right’s Council’s Advisory Committee and an expert on the right to food
• Dr Kenny Dick, Head of Food and Nutritional Security Team, DFID
• Rob Bailey, Senior Research Fellow, Energy, Environment and Development Programme, Chatham House
• Taryn Barclay, Corporate Responsibility Manager, Cargill

Discussion

The event produced a fascinating, constructive and thought-provoking discussion around the issues below. 

• What contribution can the private sector make in delivering food security in developing countries? What are the relative merits of different forms of private development, from large-scale agribusiness to smaller out-growing schemes?

• Should developing countries pursue export led agricultural models as a route to economic growth? What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a model?

• What is the importance of food stock levels in protecting against food price volatility; and what actions should developing country governments take to improve the levels of their stocks?

• What is the likelihood of food-exporting countries implementing export bans in response to high food prices, and what would be the impact of such policies be on agricultural investments in developing countries?

• Can the development of national commodity exchanges in developing countries enable local farmers to increase access to risk insurance mechanisms and benefit from greater price stability? What are the risks and opportunities?

• Has the dramatic increase in investments in international futures commodity markets contributed to greater volatility of global food price indices? What actions would be required to limit any negative impacts?

• What impact have biofuel mandates of the EU and USA had on food prices, and on the types of agricultural investments and land acquisitions occurring in developing countries?

• Could sustainability criteria attached to biofuels mandates be adapted so as to improve the impact of these policies on food security and nutrition?
 
To find out more about Save the Children’s Political Café Event series, please contact Sara Godfrey at s.godfrey@savethechildren.org.uk

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