2012 G20 Watch
Date: Mon, 2012-06-18
Location: Los Cabos, Mexico
Hosting organization: The Government of Mexico
G20 Leaders’ Declaration
Leaders of the world's 20 largest economies pledged to support long-term responses to food insecurity and chronic malnutrition to ensure healthier futures for vulnerable populations. At the right, link to the full G20 Leaders’ Declaration 2012. Below, find the section on food security, nutrition and the importance of the new "AgResults" Initiative.
Excerpt from the G20 Declaration
Enhancing food security and addressing commodity price volatility
55. The Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture adopted by the Ministers of Agriculture in 2011 underlined that to feed a world population expected to exceed 9.3 billion by 2050, agricultural production will have to increase between 50 and 70 percent, and by almost 100 percent in developing countries. We recognize that increasing production and productivity on a sustainable basis while considering the diversity of agricultural conditions is one of the most important challenges that the world faces today. The crisis in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa also underscores that strengthening emergency and long-term responses to food insecurity remains a pressing challenge. We also note that chronic malnutrition is an enormous drain on a country's human resources, and we therefore support the Scaling Up Nutrition movement and encourage wider involvement of G20 members.
56. We welcome the considerable progress made in implementing the Action Plan and the food security pillar of the Seoul Multi-Year Action Plan on Development. We support the G20 Agriculture Vice-Ministers' Report annexed to this Declaration, on the progress made on previous commitments and key recommendations on sustainably increasing agricultural productivity, containing inputs from several international organizations coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the OECD, in addition to other recommendations from B20 and civil society.
57. To fight hunger, we commit to continue our efforts on our initiatives, including the Tropical Agriculture Platform, the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management, the GEO Global Agriculture Monitoring, research initiatives for wheat, rice and corn, the Rapid Response Forum, regional emergency food reserves, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program and support for the Principles of Responsible Agriculture Investment. Recognizing the important contribution of greater transparency to reducing food price volatility, we welcome the progress made in the implementation of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS). We recognize that a more stable, predictable, distortion-free, open and transparent trading system, including as regards agriculture, has a critical role to play to promote food security.
58. We reaffirm our commitment to remove export restrictions and extraordinary taxes on food purchased for non-commercial humanitarian purposes by the World Food Programme (WFP). We encourage the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security.
59. We strongly welcome the launch of the "AgResults" Initiative, aimed at improving food security for the poor and vulnerable by encouraging private sector innovation of new agricultural products and systems constrained by market failures in agriculture. We look forward to the launch of the pilot projects focused on innovations in nutrient-fortified crops, post-harvest waste-reducing storage solutions and crop quality technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa. We commend those who have already committed or signaled their intention to commit funding to this initiative and encourage broader participation.
60. We recognize the need to adapt agriculture to climate change and we recognize the importance of improving the efficiency of water and soil use in a sustainable manner. To this end, we support the development of and a greater use of available technologies, well-known practices and techniques such as soil fertility enhancement, minimum tillage and agroforestry, and call upon international organizations to provide a report on science-based options to improve the efficiency of water use in agriculture including in ways particularly suitable for small farms.
61. We recognize the importance to the global economic recovery of maintaining stability in international commodity markets. We stress the importance of well-functioning and transparent physical and financial commodities' markets and reduced excessive price volatility to achieve food security and strong growth that is both sustainable and inclusive. We recognize that excessive commodity price volatility has significant implications for all countries, increasing uncertainty for actors in the economy and potentially hampering stability of the budgets, and predictability of economic planning. We recognize that mitigating the negative effects of commodity price volatility on the most vulnerable is an important component of reducing poverty and boosting economic growth. We therefore endorse the conclusions of the G20 report on the macroeconomic impacts of excessive commodity price volatility on growth and its identification of policy options that countries could consider, taking account of national circumstances to mitigate any such effect. We also acknowledge and appreciate the participation and valuable inputs of the IMF, World Bank and UNCTAD. We ask our Finance Ministers to report in 2013 on progress on the G20's contribution to facilitate better functioning of these physical markets, taking note of possible areas of further work outlined in the report. We reaffirm our commitment to enhance transparency and avoid abuse in financial commodity markets, including OTC, with effective intervention powers for market regulators and authorities and an appropriate regulation and supervisory framework. In this regard we look forward to IOSCO's report on the implementation of its recommendations on commodity derivatives markets by November 2012.
62. We recognize that excessive price volatility in energy commodities is also an important source of economic instability. We remain committed to well-functioning and transparent energy markets. We will continue to work to improve the timeliness, completeness and reliability of JODI-Oil and look forward to a progress report next year. We will work on the JODI-Gas database on the same principles. We expect the International Energy Forum (IEF) report on improving the reliability of the JODI-Oil database and the report on transparency in international gas and coal markets submitted by the International Energy Agency (IEA), IEF, and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to be discussed by our Finance Ministers in November. We also look forward to IOSCO's recommendations to improve the functioning and oversight of Price Reporting Agencies in November 2012, which will be produced in collaboration with other mandated organizations (IEF, IEA and OPEC), and task Finance Ministers to take concrete measures in this area as necessary.