TULSA, Oklahoma — The Global Alliance for Food Security is a global strategic alliance focused on relieving the global hunger crisis through trade agreements intended to “foster coordination on the food crisis among governments, civil society, regional actors, international organizations and the private sector.” The Global Alliance for Food Security received an introduction in May 2022 “at the G7 Development Ministers meeting…in Berlin, Germany.”
Aims
The Global Alliance for Food Security works to alleviate issues such as rising food prices, the effects of drought and flooding on farming and the COVID-19 pandemic. The alliance has the intention to respond to the war of aggression in Ukraine with the aim of minimizing the resulting increases in global food costs.
In a joint statement, World Bank Group President, David Malpass and German Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze elaborated that the alliance intends to confront a “series of overlapping crises including Russian war against Ukraine, repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing global economic uncertainty, supply chain disruptions, significant droughts around the globe and other challenges,” the World Bank reports.
Partners
The Global Alliance for Food Security works in partnership with various other international strategic alliances such as the Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG) on Food, Energy and Finance the Roadmap – Call to Action and the EU-led Solidarity Lanes as well as the G-7 nations of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. These groups function harmoniously to support policy initiatives, private sector interventions and trade agreements that work toward the aims of the alliance.
Trade Agreements
Most recently, The Global Alliance for Food Security and its partners supported the establishment of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which would “allow grain exports from Ukrainian ports through a safe corridor in the Black Sea.” Its establishment and success are particularly beneficial to Ukraine, which is “one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil” considering that the war caused disruptions to Ukraine’s exports which caused a global rise in food prices this year.
While Ukraine still has a long route to recovery, the deal has facilitated the transfer of almost 11 million tons of grain and other foodstuffs. Ukraine and Russia’s grain deal could also be a diplomatic success, as the grain deal serves as a rare avenue of cooperation between the two embittered nations.
Innovations
The Global Alliance for Food Security recently partnered with the World Bank to create a new data center called the Global Food and Nutrition Security Dashboard. The dashboard “will bring together disparate sources of information on the global food insecurity crisis in one place” with the intention of facilitating the “delivery of food aid” and improv[ing]coordination among donors,” Devex reports.
The Global Food and Nutrition Security Dashboard will also improve metrics for the World Bank in tracking financial information such as donors’ and international institutions’ investment information for both humanitarian and development sectors.
Devex reports that Sarah Simons, the program manager at the World Bank working on food and agriculture, claims, “This will be the single biggest concentration of data on food and nutrition security…”
The Global Alliance for Food Security demonstrates an interest in remedying many of the negative consequences of sanctioning Russia that often fall on the international industry. In a joint statement, High Representative of the European Union Josep Borrell, the Secretary of State of the United States of America Antony J. Blinken and the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom James Cleverly claimed, “We have always been clear that the target of our sanctions is Russia’s war machine and not the food or fertilizer sectors,” the U.S. Department of State reports.
The Global Alliance for Food Security could most aptly be characterized as an alliance concerned with minimizing the collateral economic consequences of Russian sanctions.
– Braden Hampton
Photo: Flickr