This document provides an overview and summary of the 2016 Global Food Policy Report. It discusses several key developments in global food policy in 2015-2016, including progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, the COP21 climate agreement, and issues like falling food and oil prices, the Syrian refugee crisis, and economic slowdown. It also summarizes regional developments in areas like Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, and Latin America. Finally, it calls for reshaping the global food system to be more efficient, inclusive, climate-smart, sustainable, and nutrition-driven in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

1. APRIL 2016

2. 2016 Global Food Policy Report overview
Value chains,
food systems
Regional
developments
Green energy
Sustainable
diets
Climate change,
smallholders,
SDGs
Healthy soils
Food loss and
food waste
Water
management
Food policy
indicators

3. Food policy developments in 2015-16
Sustainable Development
Goals
Global goals that call for local
action
COP21
Commitments to slow
GHG emissions
WTO ministerial
meeting
Pledged to eliminate
distortionary trade
policies
Low oil & food prices
Oil: Lowest in 11 years
Food: Falling fourth year in a row
Refugee crisis
Over 8 million Syrians
food insecure
+
Slow economic growth
Driven by slowdown in
emerging economies
2015Climate change
El Niño: Ethiopia’s worst
drought in 30 years
Source: Fan 2016

4. Changes in weather patterns require
adjustments in farming
• Lower productivity
• Increased pressure on ecosystems
Smallholders lack capacity to adapt
• Limited access to assets and services
• Policy-related constraints
Photo credit: Alamy Stock
Photo/Joerg Boethling
Climate change and agriculture
Strengthening the role of smallholders
Source: Nwanze and Fan 2016

5. Climate change and agriculture
Strengthening the role of smallholders
Examples of how support to smallholders can contribute to multiple SDGs
Source: Nwanze and Fan 2016

6. Food loss and waste occur at different stages along the value chain
Toward a sustainable food system
Reducing food loss and waste
Source: Schuster and Torero 2016

7. Photo credit: AP Images
Photo/Stephanie Pillick
Toward a sustainable food system
Reducing food loss and waste
Reducing food loss and waste is
critical for sustainability
• Create standard definition, measurable
quantitative and qualitative criteria
• Set concrete targets at regional and
country levels
• Engage in national and local awareness
campaigns
• Invest to improve storage, transport,
access to credit for smallholders
Source: Schuster and Torero 2016

8. Multiple demands on water
Water, nutrition and health
Finding win-win strategies for water
management
Source: Ringler and Passarelli 2016

9. • Implement institutional reforms for
efficiency of water distribution
• Introduce economic incentives to water
management e.g. taxes, quotas, use rights
• Invest in traditional technologies (e.g. dams)
and nontraditional ones (e.g. green
infrastructure) to improve sustainability
• Improve conveyance, distribution,
application efficiency of irrigation systems
Photo credit: IWMI
Photo/Prashanth Vishwanathan
Water, nutrition and health
Finding win-win strategies for water
management
Source: Ringler and Passarelli 2016

10. Global annual cost of land degradation, 2001-2009
Land and soil management
Promoting healthy soils for healthier
agricultural systems
Source: Koo et al. 2016

11. Proposed actions
• Implement sustainable intensification
technologies
• Invest in perennials to improve soil health
• Promote climate-smart soil and land
management
• Manage ecosystem services at landscape
level, coordinating across farm boundaries
• Recognize soil, land, and ecosystem
services as public goods
Photo credit: Panos
Photo/Alfredo Caliz
Land and soil management
Promoting healthy soils for healthier
agricultural systems
Source: Koo et al. 2016

12. • Meeting SDGs will require joint, context-specific solutions
• Understanding how value chains bring food from farm to table can
help identify solutions
Nutrition and sustainability
Harnessing value chains to improve
food systems
Source: Allen, de Brauw, and Gelli 2016
A milk value chain

13. Designing better value chain
interventions
• Fill knowledge gaps on productivity, diet
quality, environmental sustainability
• Analyze and manage trade-offs between
nutritious food production, land and
water inputs, and climate change risks
• Engage private sector to align public and
private objectives
Photo credit: Panos
Photo/Jacob Silberberg
Nutrition and sustainability
Harnessing value chains to improve
food systems
Source: Allen, de Brauw, and Gelli 2016

14. Food system’s contribution to energy use and greenhouse gas emissions
Green energy
Fueling the path to food securityShareofglobaltotal(%)
Source: Arndt, Msangi, and Thurlow 2016

15. Promising green energy solutions
• Solar power in Africa
• Mini-grid solar may be lowest-cost technology
option for rural areas
• Biofuels
• High-quality biofuels in poor countries can
reduce transport fossil fuel use
• Rising global demand for biofuels could raise
rural incomes
• Improved cookstoves
• Substitute for cleaner fuels such as natural gas
• Can reduce biomass—one of largest sources
of global greenhouse gas emissionsPhoto credit: Panos
Photo/Abbie Trayler-Smith
Green energy
Fueling the path to food security
Source: Arndt, Msangi, and Thurlow 2016

16. Global diet trends
• Overconsumption of calories
• Overconsumption of protein, shift toward
animal-based sources
• Rising beef consumption
Proposed diet shifts
• Reduce overconsumption of calories
• Lessen intake of animal-based food,
especially beef
• Can lead to largest reduction of agric.
land use, greenhouse gas emissionsPhoto credit: Panos
Photo/Mark Henley
Shifting diets
Toward a sustainable food future
Source: Ranganathan et al. 2016

17. New approaches to shifting diets: Shift Wheel framework
Shifting diets
Toward a sustainable food future
Source: Ranganathan et al. 2016

18. Regional and national developments
MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA
• Persistent conflict in Syria
• Rising prevalence of overnutrition
SOUTH ASIA
• Bangladesh: New nutrition, food safety
policy
• India: New sanitation, irrigation program
AFRICA
• 18 countries achieved poverty MDG
• El Niño; Conflicts in Nigeria, Somalia,
South Sudan
LATIN AMERICA & CARRIBBEAN
• Poverty & hunger MDGs achieved
• Increasing overweight, obesity
EAST ASIA
• China: New food safety regulation
• Asian Infrastructure Investment
Bank established
Source: Fan 2016

19. Regional developments: Africa
Poverty, hunger, child stunting
(Annual average, %)
Progress from 2003 to 2014
• Poverty: 43% to 37%
• Hunger: 22% to 17%
• Stunting: 40% to 36%
BUT econ. growth is slow
• GDP 1.3% (2008-14)
Looking forward
• Accelerate economic growth
• Reduce fatalities from civil unrest
• Promote youth employment
Headcount poverty
($1.25/day)
Poverty gap
(national
poverty)
Prevalence of
hunger
Prevalence
of child
stunting
Source: Badiane, Makombe, and Collins 2016

20. Looking forward
• Peace-building via development activities at local and national levels
• Education and subsidy reforms to improve nutrition
• Research and improved data gathering and analysis
Refugees originating from & hosted by Arab region
Regional developments: Middle East
and North Africa
Source: Khouri and Breisinger 2016
Source: Khouri and Breisinger 2016

21. Regional developments: Central Asia
Russian economic downturn
• Reduced remittances, return
of migrant workers, currency
volatility
Vulnerabilities
• China and Russia economic
slowdown
• El Niño
• Lack of social protection
Declining commodity prices
• Collapse of export revenues
• Develop policies to mitigate
macroeconomic, structural
imbalances
• Promote climate change
adaptation strategies
• Improve social protection to
reduce poverty, hunger, effects
of external shocks
Looking forward
Source: Akramov and Park 2016

22. Regional developments: South Asia
Numerous challenges to food security and nutrition
• Bangladesh: Social unrest
• India, Pakistan: Extreme weather events e.g. drought, unseasonable rain
• Nepal: Earthquake
Looking forward—increase transparency in governance, consolidate
programs, attract private sector investment in infrastructure
Population in poverty, undernourished (%)
Source: Joshi et al. 2016
Source: Joshi et al. 2016

23. Regional developments: East Asia
• China: High priorities incl.
food safety, land reform,
sustainable production
• Thailand: struggling with
results of rice-buying policy—
huge stockpiles of costly rice
• Indonesia and Philippines:
El Niño wreaked havoc on rice
production, causing high
imports and price increases
• Global warming, changing diets,
and rising incomes will continue
to strain supply chains
• Trans-Pacific Partnership likely to
benefit, but force countries to
give up self-sufficiency policies
and restructure ag programs
• New Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank likely to play a
key role in future development
efforts
Looking forward
Source: Chen, Timmer, and Chiang 2016

24. MDGs
• Hunger, poverty halved
Deforestation
• Slowing but should be
closely monitored
• 1.7 million hectares
deforested in 2014
Slow economic growth
• Low commodity prices,
decline in capital flows, little
infrastructure investments
Looking forward
• Global economic slowdown may
lead to rising unemployment,
poverty
• Regional Plan for Food Security
must strengthen policies,
including safety nets
• Persistence of negative weather
conditions—devise coherent set
of macroeconomic, sectoral
policies
Regional developments: Latin America
and the Caribbean
Source: Díaz-Bonilla and Torero 2016

25. Food policy indicators
Agricultural Total
Factor Productivity
(TFP)
Food Policy
Research Capacity
Indicators
(FPRCI)
Statistics on Public
Expenditure for
Economic
Development
(SPEED)
Global Hunger
Index
(GHI)
Ag Science and
Technology
Indicators
(ASTI)

26. The global food
system is
unsustainable...
…it must be
reshaped to
achieve multiple
SDGs
Photo credit: IFAD/Susan Beccio

27. Reshaping the global food system for
sustainable development
New food system
Efficient
Inclusive
Climate-smart
Sustainable
Nutrition- and health-
driven
Business-friendly
Over half of SDGs relate to food
security and nutrition
Source: Fan 2016