Institute of Development Studies

The New DFID White Paper and a New Deal for Food and Agriculture

As the UK Department for International Development (DFID) prepares a new White Paper on poverty reduction, IDS Fellow Ian Scoones presses for food and agriculture to be front and centre.

Tackling the challenges of Food and Agriculture is crucial for poverty reduction

The interlocking food, fuel, financial and climate crises present major challenges for development. This is particularly so in Africa - and for the poor across the world. The bottom illion is now not only resource poor, but hungry too.

Food – and in turn agriculture – must underpin any response to the financial crisis, and resilient agricultural and natural resource management systems are of course critical for adapting to climate change.

If DFID ignores this theme in the White Paper – and fails to give it a ‘front and centre’ place – this will not only be a ‘betrayal’ of the bottom billion hungry and growing numbers of malnourished children in the world, as Professor Lawrence Haddad suggested at the DFID ‘Eliminating World Poverty: Building our common future’ conference, but it will also look very odd.

How can DFID, a leader in this field, give a signal that it is down-grading its commitment to food and agriculture only a year after the robust UK response to the 2008 food crisis? How can a major international agency not prioritise food and agriculture as central to its endeavours?

Realising Rights

Hunger must no longer be ignored. The right to food is central. Linking a right to food to a right to basic social protection mechanisms, in all countries and for all people should be part of the new deal for food and agriculture.

Getting agriculture moving

Getting agriculture moving and ensuring resilient food and agricultural systems must be part of the twenty-first century new deal for development.  This is the central messages of a recent note by IDS Fellow Ian Scoones, to the DFID White Paper team and Parliamentary Inquiry into the Global Food Crisis. In the note Professor Scoones  calls for a two part response involving ten priority areas. 

Towards a new deal for food and agriculture

Overall, and especially in Africa, there is an important role for smart aid  to help create resilient food and agriculture systems. This is not a job just for ministries of agriculture; nor indeed for ‘food’ or ‘agriculture’ sections of aid agencies. A cross-sectoral development effort must be unleashed, focused on the poorest, agriculture-dependent countries of the world, where most of the bottom billion hungry live. DFID could and should make a big difference in this effort.

Read ‘A New Deal for Food and Agriculture: Responding to uncertainty, building resilience’, a note to the DFID White Paper Team and Parliamentary Inquiry into the Global Food Crisis, 16 March 2009, Ian Scoones.

Read ‘Restoring Faith in the Future: a New Deal for the World's Hungry’ a speech by IDS Director, Lawrence Haddad at the DFID Eliminating World Poverty Conference, 9 March 2009

Ian Scoones is, Professorial Fellow, Institute of Development Studies and co-convenor of the Future Agricultures Consortium.