The World Bank has recently set up the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a multi-donor trust fund to improve food security and incomes in low-income countries through assistance to agriculture. This multi-lateral financing mechanism includes both a public- and private-sector financing window to provide grants, loans and equity investments aimed at raising agricultural productivity, linking farmers to markets, reducing risk and vulnerability, improving non-farm rural livelihoods, and providing technical assistance and capacity development. The fund’s founding donors, Canada, the Republic of Korea, Spain, the United States of America and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have pledged initial contributions totalling $880 million.

The World Economic Forum Annual meeting in Davos brought together leaders from governments, business, civil society, academia and media  to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world today. Nestle at Davos At a session on “Rebuilding Water Management”, Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, part of a panel comprising Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj (President of Mongolia) Ajit Gulabchand (Chairman and Managing Director, Hindustan Construction Company), Michael Mack (CEO, Syngenta), and Ajay Vashee (President, International Federation of Agricultural Producers) explored the challenges water management will face in the next 20 years, its relevance and impact on issues such as health and security, as well as how best to implement information systems tools to protect and strengthen water management. At a another panel “Global Industry Outlook: Health, Consumers, Tech and Travel”, Chairs of the WEF Governors Meetings each shared their industry's evaluation of the most important challenges and opportunities facing them in 2010. Global Industry Outlook sessions at the WEF provide an update on the state of the telecommunications, travel, health and consumer industries worldwide, map out external and internal growth factors and trend, and recommend practical solutions which will help business and government leaders collaborate most effectively in achieving this vision. Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke presented the consumer industry’s perspective at the session. The two major issues Mr. Bulcke focused on were water security and food security. In order to increase water security, Mr. Bulcke recommended more appropriate water pricing, efficient irrigation and water use, cultivation of the right crops for the right climate, stopping of biofuel production and lastly, the need for more research in water rights trading. His recommendations to increase food security were sustainable production without western-style agricultural policies and subsidies, generation of reliable incomes for farmers through better  productivity, and added that food must be affordable and accessible and of proper “quality”. He reiterated that the private sector is part of the solution. Mr. Bulcke also outlined Nestlé’s concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV) -- the positive role of business on society. This concept is well grounded in Nestlé’s roots as its very first product, an infant cereal developed in 1866, was both a business opportunity and a response to an urgent societal need – both factors being mutually inclusive. Put simply, business can do business and do good at the same time. Stating that companies should aim to create and share value at all levels of the value chain, Mr. Bulcke added that when value is created and shared, people’s sense of responsibility, of ownership and stewardship increases. Click on Global Industry Outlook: Health, Consumers, Tech and Travel to view video of session. Successful companies can create shared value by identifying desirable outcomes for both shareholders and communities – with the right labor, human rights, development, sustainability and community policies.

A new ODI background note, commissioned by the UNICEF Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa, assesses the evidence about the current and potential impacts of the ‘Triple F crisis’ (food, fuel, financial) on children and women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It draws on an analytical framework developed by ODI’s Social Development Programme to assess the impacts of economic crises on children’s experiences of poverty and vulnerability, and how government and donor policy responses could determine the severity of these impacts. The paper finds that the crisis is already undermining children’s rights along a number of dimensions, including increased food insecurity and related risks of child malnutrition; rising rates of school dropouts in poorer countries in the region, with concerns about rising child protection threats (including harmful forms of child labour); rising vulnerability among migrant, refugee and IDP families; and significant impacts on the employment prospects of young people, already a major concern in many parts of the region.