Growing Together: Economic Integration for an Inclusive and - escap

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CHAPTER FIVE 113 Economic cooperation for addressing shared vulnerabilities and risks They are prevented from doing so by a wide range of factors – including poverty, natural disasters, conflict and war, poor access to resources, lack of employment opportunities, a lack of education, and underinvestment in agriculture, as well as instability in the world food and financial systems. 6 Food security is a situation in which “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. 7 It has four dimensions: availability, access, utilization and stability. Availability is affected by the levels of food production and stocks, and net trade. Access depends on the ways in which the available food is distributed, as well as on incomes, expenditures, markets and prices. Utilization refers to the way in which the body uses food, which is affected by feeding and child-care practices, food preparation, dietary diversity, and on how food is shared within the household. Stability involves taking into account potential disruptions, as a result, for example, of bad weather, political instability or economic crisis. Too often, food security is considered a problem of availability through production, and one that is best dealt with through national policies, including those that aim to achieve food self-sufficiency. However, food security also has strong regional dimensions. For instance, the High Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis pointed to “strong intraregional complementarities between ecological, production and consumption areas and the need for shared management of commonly held transboundary resources – such as rivers and river basins, aquifers, pastoral lands and marine resources”. 8 In addition, the availibility of food can be affected by trade policies of exporting countries. What follows is a review of selected cooperation efforts pertaining to food security across Asia and the Pacific. Policy coordination Some policies related to food security can be coordinated at the regional or subregional level. The ASEAN, for example, began addressing food security in 1998 with a Strategic Plan of Action on ASEAN Cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry. Since 2008, it has implemented the ASEAN Integrated Food Security (AIFS) Framework and the Strategic Plan of Action of Food Security (SPA- FS). 9 The SPA-FS, while addressing increased food production, also articulates common objectives related to the reduction of post harvest losses, market promotion, trade for agricultural commodities and inputs, and ensuring food stability. It specifies five priority commodities: rice, maize, soybean, sugar and cassava. The framework has four components: food security and emergency relief; sustainable food trade development; an integrated food security information system; and agricultural innovations. The ASEAN- United Nations Meeting on Food Security in 2008 developed a Convergence Matrix of Programs and Activities to allow international organizations and countries to coordinate individual activities within the framework. 10 South Asia has made similar efforts at policy coordination. The SAARC Agricultural Vision 2020 emphasizes the importance of programmes on technology, seed quality, and incentives to producers; sustainability in the use of natural resources; food safety; the availability of rural non-farm employment opportunities; and capacity-building. 11 To translate this vision into reality, the SAARC Regional Strategy and Programme for Food Security, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has identified a range of projects, which address agricultural productivity, the protection of natural resources, technology, bio-security, food safety and agricultural trade. 12 Five of these projects are being developed with technical assistance from the ADB. 13 In 2010 regional leaders met to endorse the Framework for Action on Food Security in the Pacific. The Framework has a number of ‘themes’ covering such issues as leadership and cooperation, regulatory frameworks, enforcement and compliance, and publicprivate sector collaboration. It aims to enhance the production, processing and trading of safe, nutritious local food. At the same time,
the framework is designed to protect infants and vulnerable groups while empowering consumers. 14 Implementing this plan requires a broad-based partnership among national, regional and international agencies. 15 Regional food reserves A good example of successful regional cooperation aimed at promoting stable access to food is the development of regional food reserves. Throughout human history, households and communities have tried to maintain food stocks that could be drawn upon at times of scarcity. However, doing so on a larger scale, at a national level, can be costly. As the High Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis pointed out, excessive stockpiling to build national food reserves can exacerbate food shortages and inflate prices. One option is to establish global stocks. The first effort of this kind took place in 1975 when the United Nations aimed to establish an International Emergency Food Reserve under the World Food Programme, with initial stocks of rice and wheat of 500,000 tons and a final target of 30 million tons. However, it did not develop in the way originally intended and currently survives as a voluntary facility to provide emergency relief either from food stocks or budgeted funds. Another option is to provide facilities at the regional level. Such schemes should be able to address the most common food contingencies, frequent supply-demand imbalances and various emergencies and disasters. These schemes can take the form of real or virtual stocks of food reserve agreements, financial instruments or weather risk insurance or bonds. Within Asia and the Pacific, the first steps in this direction were taken in 1979 when ASEAN leaders signed the agreement on the ASEAN Food Security Reserve, proposing a rice reserve of 50,000 tons, to increase by 1997 to 67,000 tons and by 2004 to 87,000 tons. This initiative failed, due mainly to a lack of funding and poor administrative arrangements but also as a result of cumbersome procedures on prices, terms and conditions of distribution. In 2004, the ASEAN ministers agreed to relaunch the scheme as the East Asia Emergency Rice Reserve, initially on a pilot basis. Established with clearer stock release guidelines, the reserve facilitated the transfer of 10,000 metric tons of rice from Viet Nam to the Philippines in March 2010, and developed programmes to help disaster victims in Cambodia, Indonesia, and Myanmar. In October 2011, based on this successful pilot, the ASEAN countries, plus China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ASEAN+3) agreed to establish a permanent mechanism in which they would earmark a quantity of rice on a voluntary basis. This forms the ASEAN+3 Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR), which includes both earmarked and physical stocks. The current earmarked reserve is 787,000 tons, of which 89 per cent is to come from the plus three countries. Although the agreement stipulates a physical stock, the system mostly operates through financial stocks, given that rice is a commodity with high storage costs. Contribution to the stock is voluntary. Japan stated its willingness to provide 250,000 tons, China 300,000 tons, the Republic of Korea 150,000 tons and ASEAN member states 87,000 tons. Thus, the addition of the plus three countries has helped ASEAN countries raise the scheme’s level of earmarked rice reserves, removing a stumbling block identified in the pilot that the reserve was too small for the scheme to function optimally. In emergencies, the reserves are made available according to tiers. Tier 1 involves releasing earmarked reserves under special commercial transactions. In this case, the APTERR management team effectively serves as a mediator between provider and recipient countries – as happened in 2010 under the pilot East Asia Emergency Rice Reserve when the Philippines obtained 10,000 metric tons of rice from Viet Nam. Tier 2 offers support through loans or grants agreed bilaterally between countries. Tier 3, which is triggered in acute emergencies, involves using rice stockpiles donated free of charge by member States. During the pilot phase, a similar mechanism distributed nearly 3,000 tons of rice, mostly procured through cash 114
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ii Photo by Warren Field
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iv Growing Together articulates a n
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vi The following experts prepared t
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viii CONTENTS (continued) Page Chap
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x FIGURES I.1. Real rates of growth
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xii TABLES I.1. Transitions from mi
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xiv ABBREVIATIONS (continued) CEPA
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xvi ABBREVIATIONS (continued) RCM R
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xviii The term “Pacific” in thi
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xx opportunities for all social gro
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xxii Many of the labour flows withi
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xxiv development gaps. Land routes
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xxvi development agencies and priva
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xxviii weighted mean Gini coefficie
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CHAPTER ONE 1 UNDP Photo The case f
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CHAPTER ONE 3 FIGURE TITLE The case
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CHAPTER ONE 5 The case for regional
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CHAPTER ONE 11 The case for regiona
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CHAPTER TWO 19 Towards a broader in
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CHAPTER TWO 21 FIGURE TITLE Towards
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CHAPTER THREE UN Photo - Kibae Park
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Page 122 and 123: CHAPTER FOUR 91 Enhancing regional
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Page 146 and 147: CHAPTER FIVE 115 Economic cooperati
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Page 170 and 171: 139 Annex Technical notes Photo by
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Page 176 and 177: References 145 Photo by Warren Fiel
Page 178 and 179: References 147 __________ (2009). E
Page 180 and 181: References 149 Brenner, Cath (2009)
Page 182 and 183: References 151 __________ (2010b).
Page 184 and 185: References 153 Hertel, T., ed. (199
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Page 188 and 189: References 157 Quah, Danny (2010).
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Page 192 and 193: References 161 United Nations, Econ
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References Photo by Warren Field 16
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