Agriculture Development and Food Security

A/RES/65/178View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 26 Agriculture development and food security, published in 2011.

What other versions does this mandate have?

5 versions · 2009–2013

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/67/228

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2013	A/RES/67/228	Agriculture development and food security	3,435	20%Compare
2012	A/RES/66/220	Agriculture development and food security	3,418	29%Compare
2011	A/RES/65/178	Agriculture development and food security	2,942	23%Compare
2010	A/RES/64/224	Agriculture development and food security	3,005	18%Compare
2009	A/RES/63/235	Agriculture development and food security	647	–

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

5 reports · 2009–2013

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2013	A/68/311	Agriculture development, food security and nutrition report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/67/228
2013	A/68/217	Technology bank and science, technology and innovation supporting mechanism dedicated to the least developed countries report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/66/220
2011	A/66/277	Agriculture development and food security : progress on the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit on Food Security report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/65/178
2010	A/65/253	Agriculture development and food security report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/64/224
2009	A/64/221	Agriculture development and food security report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/63/235

What’s in this document?

38 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;¹⁹

¹⁹A/65/253.

Welcomes the note by the Chair of the Committee on World Food Security on the reform of the Committee and on progress made towards implementation of the reform,²⁰ and urges Member States to strongly support the reform process and the aims and endeavours of the Committee;

²⁰See A/65/73-E/2010/51.

Reiterates the need to adequately and urgently address agriculture development and food security in the context of national, regional and international development policies;

Also reiterates the importance of developing countries determining their own food security strategies, that food security is a national responsibility and that any plans for addressing food security challenges and the eradication of poverty in relation to food security must be nationally articulated, designed, owned and led and built on consultation with all key stakeholders at the national level, and urges Member States to make food security a high priority and to reflect this in their national programmes and budgets;

Reaffirms the importance of adopting forward-looking economic policies that lead to sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth and sustainable development and which increase employment opportunities, promote agriculture development and reduce poverty;

Recognizes that a sense of urgency and a commitment to solving the global food crisis have served as catalysts for strengthening international coordination and governance for food security, through the Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition, of which the Committee on World Food Security is a central component, and reiterates that it is essential to enhance global governance, building on existing institutions and fostering effective partnerships;

Welcomes the strengthening of cooperation between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme and all other relevant entities of the United Nations system and other intergovernmental organizations, the international financial institutions and international trade, financial and economic institutions, in accordance with their respective mandates, in order to increase their effectiveness, as well as the strengthening of cooperation with non-governmental organizations and the private sector in promoting and strengthening efforts towards agriculture development and food security;

Recognizes the need to support a comprehensive and coordinated response in order to address the multiple and complex causes of the global food crisis, including the adoption of political, economic, social, financial and technical solutions in the short, medium and long terms by national Governments and the international community, including for mitigating the impact on developing countries of the high volatility of food prices and other agriculture commodity prices, and also recognizes that the relevant United Nations organizations have an important role to play in this regard;

Underlines the importance of enhancing synergies between agriculture, biodiversity, food security and development policies and strategies at the national, regional and international levels, including by prioritizing and mainstreaming agriculture and food security into development policies;

Stresses the need to enhance agricultural production, productivity and sustainability, including through public and private investment, expanded access of smallholder farmers to markets, credit, inputs and land, improved land-use planning, crop diversification and commercialization, sound water management, including efficient irrigation, water harvesting and storage, the development of strong agriculture value chains and investment in rural infrastructure, in order to reach the poverty and hunger targets of the Millennium Development Goals;

Also stresses the need to promote at all levels a strong enabling environment for enhancing agricultural production, productivity and sustainability in developing countries, including through enhanced market access for developing countries, and supportive economic policies and institutions at the national and international levels;

Recognizes the role of indigenous communities and small farmers’ traditional seed supply systems in developing countries in the conservation of biodiversity and food security, and urges Member States and international organizations to pursue complementary policies and strategies to strengthen farmer-based seed supply at the community level, as an important component of a competitive commercial seed industry;

Also recognizes the need for substantial additional investment and better policies in support of smallholder agriculture in order for many of the poorest countries to reach the poverty and hunger targets of the Millennium Development Goals;

Further recognizes the importance of agricultural investment, including foreign direct investment, through, inter alia, the private sector in enhancing agriculture development and food security as well as the need to promote responsible international investment in agriculture, and therefore calls for all investors to conduct agricultural practices in accordance with national legislation, taking into account national sovereignty over natural resources, environmental sustainability and the importance of promoting the well-being and improving the livelihood of local communities and indigenous peoples, as appropriate;

Promotes research for food and agriculture, including research to adapt to and mitigate climate change, and access to research results and technologies at the national, regional and international levels, including through the international research centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, as well as other relevant international and regional research organizations;

Encourages expanded public investment and incentives for small-scale and marginalized producers, including women, in developing countries, in order to increase the production of a wide spectrum of traditional and other crops and livestock and to accelerate the transition to sustainable production;

Stresses the need to further promote the empowerment and participation of rural women as critical agents for enhancing agriculture and rural development and food security, ensuring their equal access to productive resources, land, financing, technologies, training and markets, and measures that ensure food security and nutrition for women;

Recognizes the consequences of the global food crisis on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in developing countries, especially in Africa, and calls for an integrated response by African countries and the international community, working in partnership to support integrated and sustainable agriculture and rural development approaches;

Also recognizes the need for Africa to embark on a green revolution to help to boost agricultural productivity, food production and regional food security, welcomes the strong leadership shown by African countries in undertaking initiatives to address the challenges of sustainable agriculture development and to achieve food security, such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, that can provide a framework through which support for agriculture and food security can be coordinated, and calls upon the international community to support Africa in the implementation of the various programmes under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development;²¹

²¹A/57/304, annex.

Acknowledges, in this regard, national and regional efforts by developing countries to implement long-term policies and measures that contribute to agriculture development and food security;²²

²²Such as the Latin American and the Caribbean without Hunger 2025 initiative, adopted at the twenty-ninth Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, held in Caracas from 24 to 28 April 2006; the food security fund of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America; the Presidential Summit on Sovereignty and Food Security: Foods for Life, held in Managua on 7 May 2008; the Sirte Declaration on Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security, adopted at the thirteenth ordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union in Sirte, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, on 3 July 2009; the Emergency Programme for Arab Food Security launched at the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, held in Kuwait on 19 and 20 January 2009; the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Food Security Reserve; the Integrated Food Security Framework and Strategic Plan of Action on Food Security of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Ministerial Meeting on Food Security; the regional coordination unit for food security of the Economic Cooperation Organization; and the Pacific Food Summit on behalf of the Food Secure Pacific Working Group.

Recognizes that North-South cooperation, South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation are useful instruments for increasing the capacities of developing countries, sharing experiences on the aforementioned agricultural activities and addressing related economic and social issues;

Encourages relevant United Nations funds, programmes and agencies and the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation, within their mandates, as well as regions and subregions, to support existing and new South-South cooperation initiatives that contribute to agriculture development and food security;

Stresses the need to make special efforts to meet the nutritional needs of women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities, as well as those living in vulnerable situations, through targeted and effective programming;

Encourages efforts at all levels to establish and strengthen social protection measures and programmes, including national social safety nets and protection programmes for the needy and vulnerable, such as food and cash for work, cash transfer and voucher programmes, school feeding programmes and mother-and-child nutrition programmes;

Notes the challenges faced by indigenous peoples in the context of food security, and in this regard calls upon States to take special actions to combat the root causes of the disproportionately high level of hunger and malnutrition among indigenous peoples;

Calls for international, regional and national efforts to increase the ability of the agricultural sector to predict, prevent and address the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events, especially floods and droughts, on agricultural production and food systems, as well as to enhance the ability of that sector to regain livelihoods and food production;

Urges Member States and international organizations to pursue policies and strategies that improve the functioning of domestic, regional and international markets and ensure equitable access for all, especially smallholder and women farmers in developing countries, notes the importance of non-trade-distorting special measures that are consistent with World Trade Organization rules aimed at creating incentives for smallholder farmers in developing countries to enable them to increase their productivity and to compete on a more equal footing on world food markets, and urges Member States to refrain from taking measures that are inconsistent with the rules of the World Trade Organization and that have adverse impacts on global, regional and national food security;

Stresses that a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system will promote agriculture and rural development in developing countries and contribute to world food security, and urges national, regional and international strategies to promote the participation of farmers, especially smallholder farmers, including women, in community, domestic, regional and international markets;

Calls upon Member States and the World Trade Organization to take measures to promote trade policies that would be capable of promoting further trade in agriculture products, identifying the obstacles to trade which have the most serious impact on the world’s poor and contributing to supporting small-scale and marginalized producers in developing countries;

Recognizes the urgency of, and reaffirms its commitment to, reaching an early and successful conclusion of the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations with a balanced, ambitious, comprehensive and development-oriented outcome as a key action to improve food security;

Welcomes the commitments made at the Group of Eight Summit held in L’Aquila, Italy, from 8 to 10 July 2009, to act with the scale and urgency needed to achieve sustainable global food security, and calls for the timely realization of the commitments made by the countries represented at L’Aquila towards the goal of mobilizing 20 billion United States dollars over three years through this coordinated, comprehensive strategy focused on sustainable agriculture development;

Calls for delivery on the commitments made to achieve global food security and the provision of adequate and predictable resources through bilateral and multilateral channels, including the financial and policy commitments set out in the Aquila Food Security Initiative;

Encourages international, regional and national efforts to strengthen the capacity of developing countries, in particular their small-scale producers, in order to enhance the productivity and nutritional quality of food crops and to promote sustainable practices in pre-harvest and post-harvest agricultural activities;

Underlines the importance of promoting the creation and development of small and medium-sized enterprises as a strategy for achieving agriculture development and food security, economic dynamism and poverty eradication, including through the mobilization of resources to enable small-scale producers and cooperatives to compete effectively in the market, on equal terms with other forms of enterprise, in order to strengthen their positive role and to increase their potential to act as vehicles for building or increasing the number of small and medium-sized enterprises;

Requests the Secretary-General to continue to ensure that a coordinated follow-up to the World Summit on Food Security is undertaken at the field level in the context of the resident coordinator system, taking into account the coordinated follow-up to major international conferences of the United Nations;

Invites the Chair of the Committee on World Food Security to report, as part of the Committee’s report to the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session, through the Economic and Social Council, on the implementation of the reform of, and on progress made towards achieving the vision of, the Committee;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session on developments related to issues highlighted in the present resolution and on progress in the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit on Food Security;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its sixty-sixth session the item entitled “Agriculture development and food security”, to be allocated to the Second Committee.

Agriculture Development and Food Security

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents