Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Re: Reducing inequalities for food security and nutrition – HLPE-FSN consultation on the V0 draft of the report

Dr. Egal and the FAO may want to work with the Gates Foundation to address the food insecurity issues that Dr. Egal described in her recent comment (including the effect of governance and population shift on food security). Here is background information that may be of value.

Bill Gates and his advisors investigated methods for reducing global poverty in 1990. At the time Mr. Gates was forming a new company called Teledesic that planned to offer broadband connectivity using a constellation of low-earth-orbit satellites. He wanted ideas that concurrently addressed “Global Issues”. These “Global Issues” are:

  • Health
  • Food
  • Water
  • Energy
  • Education
  • Environment Protection
  • Security
  • Population Shift
  • Governance
  • Crime

Solving all Global Issues concurrently proved to be an overwhelming problem. My company management suggested to Mr. Gates that I hire people from ten different countries to prepare a report that showed how the Teledesic project might help solve one of the 10 Global issues in each of the 10 countries.  Instead, Mr. Gates decided to abandon the Teledesic project and concentrate on the Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation in turn decided to focus on the Global Issues of Health, Food, Energy, and Education. In this way the Foundation would not be overcommitted financially.

A problem with the Gates Foundation more focused approach is that a poverty program may fail due to a “Global Issue” not being addressed.  In many countries political violence and crime could ruin a well-constructed food security, youth employment, and poverty reduction project.  The FAO needs to ensure that all “Global Issues” are addressed even though their primary focus is on food. University personnel with help from government officials, technical personnel, and NGO personnel can support the FAO by identifying better methods for small farmers to earn a living. University personnel must fully flush out the risks of “Global Issues” ruining their good intentions.  The Harvard “Case Method” and Business Process ReEngineering (BPR) principles have proven to be helpful in providing a structured method to study the consequences of each idea.