On 25 February 2010, France adopted a strategic guidance paper on nutrition in developing countries. It has two priorities (fighting mother and child malnutrition and international action against malnutrition) and seeks to include addressing nutrition in different instruments (programmed food aid, emergency humanitarian assistance, NGO funding, technical assistance, French Development Agency projects, shoring up research systems).

In an integrated approach, food aid can work on the four dimensions of food security. The shift of food aid in kind towards diversified food assistance, including food vouchers, cash transfers, training programmes, agricultural input supply and knowledge sharing, has helped restore agricultural production capabilities, generate income for farm workers, improve the nutrition of the poorest populations and prevent food crises from getting worse.

Bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation efforts improve global food security governance

We need to join forces to move forward on the issue of global governance of food security. Bilaterally, we have engaged in cooperation with Brazil. Drawing on a joint paper published during the World Summit on Food Security on 18 November 2009, this cooperation focuses on three themes (volatile prices, rural development, including agricultural land management, and climate change). We should seek the same type of cooperation with other partners.

France is taking an active part in developing European policy on food security in the group of European Union Heads of Agriculture and Rural Development (HARDs) and in cooperation projects underway, especially in transatlantic dialogue with the United States, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the Union for the Mediterranean.

Multilaterally, France is participating in the follow- up of the L’Aquila Joint Statement on Food Security, bringing together 27 countries and 15 international organizations which share the same aim of staying at the forefront of the fight against hunger in the world (see “The G8 and Development” brochure).

Updated in December 2010