Agriculture & food security

A high-level working group on food security in developing countries has been established in agreement with Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier, with whom Bernard Kouchner signed a partnership agreement in late February 2008.

This task force, which will meet on 15 April 2008, will also bring together the ministry of agriculture and fisheries, the ministry of the economy, industry and employment, the ministry of ecology, energy, sustainable development and land-use planning, all of the relevant departments at the ministry of foreign and European affairs, as well as the research community (CIRAD, IRD, INRA, etc.).

Very quickly, it will propose actions to the government to mobilize France, Europe and the international community in the following three phases:
  Immediate actions to support the people that are most affected by and exposed to malnutrition in the most vulnerable countries;
  Medium-term actions to supply markets in the coming months and prepare crops, as well as strengthening early-warning and food-crisis management systems;
  Long-term actions to support developing countries’ public policies for their food security.

The creation of the task force was announced by Bernard Kouchner, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Rama Yade and Alain Joyandet in a discussion entitled, “Let’s deal with the hunger riots”, published in the 11 April edition of the daily newspaper, Libération.

The spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which were held in Washington on 12 and 13 April 2008, demonstrated their concern about the food crisis that is currently hitting the least developed countries.