Amid the escalating global food and nutrition crisis, The Rockefeller Foundation has released a report providing actionable steps to combat hunger and build sustainable food security. “Anticipate and localize: Leveraging humanitarian funding to create more sustainable food systems” proposes a shift in donor approaches, aligning with solutions that bolster food system resilience against climate change, conflict, and other challenges. This report is the second of four from the Foundation, presenting a comprehensive roadmap to achieve worldwide food and nutrition security.
Current concerns indicate that humanitarian food assistance must realize resilient and sustainable food security in its structure and delivery. Catherine Bertini, Managing Director of Global Nutrition Security at The Rockefeller Foundation, highlighted the dangerous gap between short-term thinking and long-term solutions.
The report presents four critical recommendations for transforming funding strategies:
- Better investments and funding for proactive action. To increase this proportion by 1% year for the following ten years, the study advises donors to allocate 1% of their 2024 budgets to such activity. An emphasis on regenerative agriculture is only one-way investments assist farmers in quickly adapting to climate change.
- You may support localization by raising the portion of the money that goes to local groups over the next five years to 25% of their overall spending. Therefore, the local communities capacity to serve as efficient first responders would be supported. In addition, national governments are asked to devote an equal portion of their funds allocated for domestic food security to regional initiatives.
- By creating United Nations country teams that pool resources and coordinate plans to address humanitarian needs, social and economic development, and peace, especially in hotspots of food insecurity impacted by armed conflict, financing silos may be broken.
- Build the case for investment by running a campaign to test underutilized, effective remedies in a scenario of actual food insecurity.
Additionally, the report advocates for incorporating a gender lens, meaningful inclusion of those affected by food insecurity, and intensive collaboration into all policies, programs, and approaches.
These insights are drawn from a Rockefeller Foundation-sponsored Convening Group on Funding for Sustainable Food Security, comprising nearly two dozen food insecurity and food aid experts worldwide. Over two months, they examined the most effective strategies to mobilize and leverage funding for universal food security. As part of a series on achieving global food and nutrition security, this report signifies a step forward in addressing the world’s most pressing food challenges.
Image provided by The Rockefeller Archive Center
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