CFS:2004/5

1. On the basis of the request put forward by the United States of America and supported by Greece on behalf of the European Community, the Council at its Hundred and Twenty-fourth Session in June 2003, considered a proposal to improve the Reporting Format of the World Food Summit (WFS) Plan of Action Follow-up. The proposal recalled the recommendation of the Twenty-ninth Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) that Member Nations and the international community should take more concerted actions to accelerate the implementation of the WFS Plan of Action, and highlighted the importance of an effective reporting and monitoring system towards that end. The Council recommended that the draft revised format be developed in consultation with the CFS Bureau, and submitted for decision at its Hundred and Twenty-fifth session.

2. Accordingly a draft reporting format was submitrted by the Secretariat at the Hundred and Twenty-fifth Session of the Council held in November 2003. The Council approved the provisional use of the revised format, with appropriate changes to reflect the suggestions made by Members at that Session, for reporting on all seven commitments in 2004.

3. The Council also recommended a more detailed discussion and review of the format at the Thirtieth Session of the CFS. Accordingly the attached Reporting Format is presented for the consideration of the Committee.

SECTION I: BACKGROUND INFORMATION

SECTION II: PRIORITY FOOD SECURITY ISSUES AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WORLD FOOD SUMMIT PLAN OF ACTION

Please provide a description (no more than 500 words) of the state of the country’s food security situation, in terms of food availability, stability of supplies and access to food, providing relevant data on the indicators listed below.  Please give an indication of the progress made in the implementation of the WFS Plan of Action and in reaching the WFS goal of reducing the number of undernourished by half by 2015. In the case of a lack of progress, please indicate the most pressing constraints the country faces. Countries are encouraged to use the attached list of statistical indicators¹.

Member countries wishing to provide information on their external assistance programmes, may wish to submit a separate statement providing a brief description of these programmes and their impact on hunger and lessons learned.

FOOD SECURITY AND RELATED INDICATORS²

a/ Applicable to developed countries
b/ Applicable to developing countries

SECTION III: RECOMMENDED ACTIONS FOR EACH COMMITMENT AND MEASURES TAKEN

The WFS Plan of Action recommends a variety of actions that countries should undertake to meet the WFS target of reducing the number of undernourished by 2015.

 Please elaborate policies pursued and/or action programmes implemented with respect to each commitment, demonstrating, where possible, their impact in terms of contributing to overall social and economic development, poverty alleviation and hunger reduction.  Countries may focus on those commitments and themes that are most pertinent to them. Countries are also requested to report on what national and international civil society organizations in the private for-profit, academic and non-profit sectors, are doing to address food insecurity and poverty.

Developed countries and international agencies are requested to provide information on their support to developing countries to help them implement the WFS Plan of Action, and to reduce hunger and poverty, including information on how they are coordinating and harmonizing their assistance.

COMMITMENT I

Policies pursued to create an enabling political, social and economic environment. Please give details of strategies or initiatives undertaken by your country with respect to:

1. Strengthening democratic political systems and broad-based participation;
2. Improving human rights;
3. Preventing conflict and creating a peaceful environment;
4. Enhancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Specify what has been or is expected to be the outcome of the strategies implemented.

COMMITMENT II

Policies pursued and actions taken to eradicate poverty and inequality and to improve physical and economic access to food by all. Please give details of strategies or initiatives undertaken with respect to:

1. Specific policies and targeted interventions to generate income and employment for the urban poor;
2. Specific policies and targeted interventions to generate on-farm and off-farm income and employment for the rural poor, women and minority groups, including land reform, protection of property and use rights and other strategies to ensure access to land and water resources.
3. Provisions made to develop social safety nets, if any, to meet the needs of the poor, including those affected by HIV/AIDS:

Ø in rural area;
Ø in urban areas;

4. Measures taken to ensure access to basic education and primary health care.

Specify what has been or is expected to be the impact on the food insecure.³

Measures taken to pursue participatory and sustainable food, agriculture, fisheries, forestry and rural development policies and practices and to combat pests, drought and desertification. Please give details of strategies or initiatives undertaken with respect to:

1. Policies and actions taken to intensify and diversify food production;
2. Actions taken to combat environmental threats to food security, in particular:

Ødrought and desertification,
Ø pests,
Ø erosion of biological diversity, and
Ø degradation of land and aquatic based natural resources;

3. Transfer and use of agricultural technologies;
4. Formulation and implementation of integrated rural development.

Specify what has been or is expected to be the impact of each of these actions on income, food availability and food access.

COMMITMENT IV

Measures taken at national level to ensure that food and agricultural trade and overall trade policies are conducive to fostering food security. Please give details of strategies or initiatives undertaken with respect to this commitment. Countries may report on steps taken:

1. to establish well functioning internal marketing and transportation systems to facilitate better links within and between domestic and external markets;
2. to diversify trade;
3. to ensure national policies related to international and regional trade agreements do not have adverse impact on economic activities towards food security, especially women’s activities.

Developed countries and International Organization may report on steps taken to:

1. promote financial and technical assistance to improve agricultural productivity and infrastructure of developing countries, especially Low Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) in order to optimize opportunities arising from the international trade framework;
2. reduce subsidies on food exports in conformity with the Uruguay Round Agreement in the context of the on-going process of reform in agriculture conducted in the World Trade Organization (WTO);
3. implement the Decision on Measures Concerning the Possible Negative Effects of Reform Programme on Least Developed and Net Food-Importing Developing Countries through the WTO Committee on Agriculture.

COMMITMENT V

Measures taken to prevent and to be prepared for natural and man-made disasters. Please give details of strategies or initiatives undertaken with respect to:

1. Institutional arrangements for early warning and advance information on possible emergencies;
2. Mechanisms in place to combat disasters and to provide rehabilitation for people affected;
3. Measures taken to link post-emergency relief operations to development programmes;
4. Watershed management strategies put in place.

Specify what has been or is expected to be the impact of these actions on food availability and access to food. 

COMMITMENT VI

Measures taken to promote optimal allocation and use of public and private investments to foster human resources, sustainable food, agriculture, fishery and forestry systems. Please give details on:

1. Share of national budget allocated for human resource development indicating its impact in terms of primary and secondary school and higher education development;
2. Share of the national budget allocated to agriculture and fisheries and food security programmes;
3. Nature and extent of investment in infrastructure aimed at improving access to markets and food;
4. Initiatives undertaken and resources allocated to promote technology development and transfers for improved production;
5. Strategies for sustainable watershed management and associated investments;
6. Measures taken to control deforestation and to enhance national forest cover.

Specify what has been or is expected to be the impact of these actions.

Developed countries and international organizations are requested to report, as appropriate, on measures taken:

1. towards the fulfilment of the agreed Official Development Assistance (ODA) target of 0.7% of Gross National Product (GNP), and to ensure that the flow of concessional funding is directed to economically and environmentally sustainable activities;
2. to focus ODA towards countries that have a real need for it, especially low-income countries;
3. to intensify the search for practical and effective solutions to debt problems and support the initiatives to reduce the total external debt of Heavily-indebted Poor countries (HIPCs).

COMMITMENT VII

Steps taken to facilitate the implementation of the WFS Plan of Action.  Please indicate the progress made in establishing:

1. Institutional arrangements at national and local levels to implement the Plan of Action and monitor the progress of implementation;
2. Food for All campaigns to mobilize stakeholders and their resources at all levels of society in the implementation of the WFS Plan of Action;
3. Mechanisms to ensure food security for every person in the country.

International agencies and developed countries may report on steps taken to:

1. Direct development assistance policies and resources towards sustainable development including agriculture for food security, and effectively contribute to the improved situation of food insecure households;
2. Focus technical assistance more effectively on building-up and mobilizing national capacity, expertise and local institutions.

SECTION IV: LESSONS LEARNED
A REVIEW OF BEST PRACTICES OR CONSTRAINTS ENCOUNTERED IN REDUCING HUNGER

1. Countries that have succeeded in reducing the number of the undernourished are requested to highlight the policies and action programmes that have contributed to the improvement of food security at local and national levels and indicate the process of implementation that made it possible.

2. Countries that have faced difficulties in implementing the WFS Plan of Action effectively and in reducing the number of the undernourished are requested to provide information on the constraints they face.

EXPLANATORY NOTES ABOUT THE INDICATORS

1. Food security indicators

Average per person dietary energy supply (kcal/p/day)
Food available for human consumption, expressed in kilocalories per person per day (kcal/person/day). At country level, it is calculated as the food remaining for human use after deduction of all non-food consumption (exports, animal feed, industrial use, seed and wastage).

Food production index

Food self-sufficiency ratio
Ratio of domestic production to domestic consumption. An indicator of the need for food imports.

Cereal supply per person
Kg per capita per year. Please indicate which cereals are included.

Animal protein supply per person.
Protein per capita per day in grams, estimated from food balance sheets.

Ratio of food imports/export earnings
Ratio of food imports value/exports of good and services.

Debt service ratio
Ratio of total debt service to exports of good and services.

Value of gross investment in agriculture
Outlays in addition to the fixed assets of the economy plus net changes in the level of inventories, also known as gross capital formation.

Food price index
Change in the cost to the average consumer of acquiring a fixed basket of food.

Index of variability of food production ⁴
Magnitude of fluctuations in a production curve.

Ratio of national food reserves to domestic food consumption
Ratio of national food reserves to annual domestic food consumption. The ratio of national food reserves to annual domestic food consumption, maintained as a matter of policy for food security purposes, in the event of food emergency.

Export earning instability
The average percentage deviation of total exports of goods and services from their trend.

Rate of growth in real GDP per person/per year
Annual percentage growth rate of GDP per person at market prices, converted into real GDP per person by a price deflator.

Gini index of income distribution
Extent to which the distribution of income (or, in some cases, consumption expenditure) among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. A Lorenz curve plots the cumulative percentages of total income received against the cumulative number of recipients, starting with the poorest individual or household. The Gini index measures the area between the Lorenz curve and a hypothetical line of absolute equality, expressed as a percentage of the maximum area under the line. Thus a Gini index of zero represents perfect equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality.

Percentage of population living below national poverty line (%)
Share of population earning less than the nationally defined poverty line.

Percentage of population living on less than $ 1 a day (%)
Share of population living on less than $ 1 a day per person.

Percentage of household income spent on food
Share of total household income that is spent on food items.

Consumer Price Index
Change in cost to the average consumer of acquiring a fixed basket of goods and services.

Estimated number of undernourished people
Total number of people with dietary energy intake less that the nationally established dietary energy supply requirement (e.g. 2100 kcal/person/day).

Percentage of population undernourished
Share of population with dietary energy intake less that the nationally established dietary energy supply requirement (e.g. 2100 kcal/person/day).

Percentage of children under 5 that are underweight
Share of children aged under five years whose weight relative to their age is more than two standard deviations below the average for a reference population of well-nourished children.

Percentage of children under 5 that are stunted
Share of children aged under five years whose height relative to their age is more than two standard deviations below the average for a reference population of well-nourished children.

Percentage of children under 5 that are wasted
Share of children aged under five years whose weight relative to their height is more than two standard deviations below the average for a reference population of well-nourished children.

2. Social indicators

Life expectancy at birth
Number of years a newborn would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth stayed the same throughout its life.

Under-5 mortality rate
Probability that a newborn will die before reaching age 5, if subject to current age-specific mortality rates.

Net school enrolment in primary education of children aged 5-12
Number of students enrolled in primary school as a percent of the total number of children aged 5-12 years.

Ratio of girls to boys in primary education
Ratio between the numbers of girls aged 5-12 years to boys aged 5-12 years enrolled in primary education.

Adult literacy rate
The ratio of adult population (15 years of age and above) who can read and write to total adult population

Total number of doctors, nurses and other health personnel per 100 000
Number of doctors, nurses and other health personnel per 100 000 persons.

Infant mortality rate
Expected number of children who will die before reaching the age of one year, per 1 000 live births.

Adult morbidity rates
Number of people who are sick or have a disease compared with the number who are well, also known as sickness rate.

Adult male mortality rate (per 1,000 male adults)
Adult mortality rate (male) the probability of dying between the ages of 15 and 60 – that is, the population of 15-year olds who will die before their 60^th birthday.

Adult female mortality rate (per 1,000 female adults)
Adult mortality rate (female) the probability of dying between the ages of 15 and 60 – that is, the population of 15-year olds who will die before their 60^th birthday.

Maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births
The death of women while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental causes.

3. Infectious diseases and HIV/AIDS indicators

Rate of deaths by infectious diseases
Number of people dying from infectious diseases per year per 100 000 people.

Rate of deaths from HIV/AIDS
Number of people dying from HIV/AIDS per year per 100 000 people.

Percentage of population orphaned
Share of orphans out of the total population.

Average age of household head
National average age of head of household.

Rate of population with HIV/AIDS infection
Share of total population infected by HIV/AIDS.

4. Economic and Trade

Terms of trade
Ratio of import prices to export prices

External agricultural income terms of trade
The index of the value of agricultural exports deflated by import unit value index. A sectoral indicator of the purchasing power of the agricultural/rural sector vis-à-vis food from the world market.

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¹ Countires are encouraged to use information already generated by ongoing monitoring activities of UN and other agencies.

² Please refer to explanatory notes of these indicators at the end of this document.

³ Examples might be social programmes addressed to meet food needs of poor people.

⁴ Existing methodologies are being reviewed by FAO to improve the measure of this index.