Global Food Security Strategy

Description

The Global Food Security Strategy, or Feed the Future (FTF), is an interagency effort that addresses the root causes of hunger and poverty in the developing world and improves global food security and nutrition. It supports country-driven approaches that help countries transform their agricultural sectors while working closely with the private sector to foster economic growth and establish well-functioning markets.

What does it buy?

Funds are provided to partners through grants, cooperative agreements, and other mechanisms to implement need-based programming to support agricultural, nutrition, and resilience programs, research, and technical assistance, including research and development at U.S. and international institutions of higher education.

Why is it important?

• Strategic investments in food security, agricultural research and development, and nutrition are the most effective ways to build resilience, which reduces vulnerability to food shocks and stresses and addresses chronic poverty and hunger.
• Since 2011, FTF has helped unlock $630 million for women and their business and ensured 3.7 million women had more input into farming decisions.
• FTF has lifted a projected 23.4 million people above the poverty line, relieved over 5.2 million households of hunger, freed 3.4 million children from stunting, and earned $10.5 billion in agricultural sales.
• Today, over 820 million people—one in nine worldwide—are chronically undernourished, with many on the brink of starvation, an increase of 44 million above 2015.
• In 2017, food insecurity increased for the first time in a decade, primarily due to conflict in fragile countries that are home to most of the world’s poor.

Why should Americans care?

• FTF programs support both large and small U.S. businesses. From U.S. farmers to cooperatives, agribusinesses, banks, and entrepreneurs, FTF partners with more than 60 U.S. companies, 10 of which are in the Fortune 500.
• FTF supports cutting edge research at U.S. universities and research institutions, drawing on American innovation and expertise to develop effective technologies and innovations for implementers to address current and future challenges and protect agricultural commodities from global threats such as pests, disease, and drought. More than 70 U.S. universities and colleges are involved in research at 24 FTF Innovation Labs.

What more could be done?

• Additional investments could protect and accelerate progress toward reducing global hunger, malnutrition, and poverty.
• Evidence shows that where there is food insecurity, instability and conflict follow. Additional investment in FTF could help stabilize communities and prevent violence.
• Initially, FTF was deployed in 19 focus countries; however, in 2017, that number was reduced to 12, partially due to budget uncertainty. Increased funds could renew efforts toward target countries that were dropped from FTF.
• Additional funds could expand programs that mobilize domestic resource investments in agriculture and nutrition. In Africa, FTF partner governments outpaced their neighbors’ domestic investments in agriculture and increased their investments by an average of 25%, a rate four times that of other African countries and representing an additional $719 million per year.
• Small-holder and rural farmers in FTF countries are more likely to own their own land, shops, and technologies. Added investment could increase independence and prosperity.