20091006_ECO_smith_food_security - Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations

Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations

New York

Permanent Mission address: 150 East 42 Street, Level 33, New York, New York 10017 - Telephone: 1 212 351 6600 - Fax: 1 212 351 6610

Australian Foreign Minister, The Hon Stephen Smith MP, addresses the 'Partnering for Food Security' event co-hosted by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the United Nations General Assembly Hall on 26 September 2009.

(as delivered)

I warmly welcome the opportunity to participate in this significant forum and I thank our hosts, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Secretary Clinton.

The global food security crisis is far from over. Prices have come down since 2008 but they remain high.

Poor households in developing countries, who often spend 70 per cent of their income on food, continue to suffer.

When faced with these facts, good international citizens must respond and act together.

Our response must include humanitarian and development assistance together with scientific research to increase crop and livestock production.

It must also include action on developing country access to international markets. Dismantling the barriers that distort trade in agricultural products will lead to better functioning markets and more stable prices.

This response can only come from concentrated and cooperative action by the international community, and that is why I focus my remarks today on the particular role of multilateral institutions in reducing the vulnerability of developing countries and poor households to food shortages.

Like so many of the challenges we face today, food security can only be addressed effectively by nations acting together. Australia is strongly committed to international cooperation through both regional and multilateral approaches to these common challenges.

As in other areas, we have backed our commitment to multilateral action on food security with extra funding.

This includes $50 million for the World Bank’s food security crisis response program and $30 million for the World Food Programme’s special appeal, both in May 2008.

Australia has also increased its support for multilateral action on other global challenges.

We allocated $200 million over four years for partnerships with key United Nations organisations in May 2008 and committed $150 million to the multilateral Climate Investment Funds in September 2008.

We have done this because we believe multilateral organisations have particular strengths that are maximized when they are working at their best.

They can build links across countries to develop regional and global solutions. They have at their disposal some of the very best international expertise.

They promote innovation and learning and help establish international principles and norms. They help lessen the load of donor coordination for developing countries, who would otherwise have to deal with a multitude of competing donors and projects.

At a time when global aid must scale up to deliver on the Millennium Development Goals, multilateral development banks can play a particularly important role in ensuring that large-scale financing is delivered both efficiently and effectively, producing timely outcomes for those nations and peoples most in need.

Many of the strengths of multilateral organisations have been clearly demonstrated over the last year and a half.

We saw the World Food Programme scale up its operations dramatically to meet the needs of almost 100 million people, including unprecedented numbers of people in urban areas where food had become unaffordable or simply unavailable.

We saw the World Bank move with great speed to establish its global food crisis response program. This program has provided more than US$1 billion to meet urgent needs for welfare programs and for seeds and other agricultural supplies to help farmers increase production.

Well-functioning multilateral organisations still face two major challenges: the challenge of scaling up, and the challenge of coordination with other multilateral organisations.

As part of the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative in July this year, governments and international organisations made an historic commitment to mobilize US$20 billion in funding for food security over the next three years.

Australia pledged over $460 million.

Much of this funding will flow to multilateral organisations. They must be ready to use it quickly, flexibly and well. The World Bank and the World Food Programme have shown how this can be done.

Some institutions will need to fundamentally reform the way they operate.

We welcome in this regard the reform process underway at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), responding to the independent external evaluation of the organisation completed in 2007.

A more effective and efficient FAO, able to respond flexibly to developing countries’ needs, should be part of a strengthened multilateral system.

The challenge of coordination among multilateral organisations is a substantial one. Within the field of food and agriculture there are many organisations with overlapping goals. There needs to be an effective and streamlined way of organising the overall multilateral effort on food security and rural development.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recognized this early and Australia congratulates him for his foresight in establishing last year the UN High Level Taskforce on the Global Food Security Crisis.

The Taskforce has done an impressive job, bringing together 22 UN agencies, funds and international financial institutions to ensure more coherent and effective multilateral action in more than sixty countries in response to the global food crisis.

While the High Level Taskforce is an interim structure, Australia sees it continuing its work until permanent arrangements are established to ensure strong coordination of international food security efforts.

The significant increase that we are now seeing in international support for agricultural development and food security, particularly through scientific research to boost agricultural productivity in developing countries, is long overdue.

It has the potential to protect and improve the living standards of hundreds of millions of poor and vulnerable people around the world.

This will only happen if multilateral institutions work together in partnership with the governments of developed and developing countries, as well as civil society and the private sector, to take the L’Aquila commitments forward.

Thank you.