World Food Programme

I congratulate the right hon. Member for Gordon (Malcolm Bruce) on securing this important debate on a significant report by his Select Committee. I also pay tribute to him for his leadership of the Committee, which is challenging and critical but always constructive and reasonable. The quality of the debate has been important and has perhaps made up for the lack of hon. Members in Westminster Hall today. There has been tremendous consensus on the importance of the global community stepping up to the challenge of hunger and malnutrition, and recognition that Britain plays a leading role in the world on the agenda in question. However, as right hon. and hon. Members have said, we could still do significantly more. I shall attempt to address all the issues that right hon. and hon. Members have raised. The Select Committee report could not, sadly, have been timelier, as the right hon. Member for Gordon knows. It coincided precisely with a period of unprecedented high prices for many foods. In April last year, the international price of wheat was close to $500 a tonne; the price of maize was nearly $300 a tonne; and rice, which is a staple for half the world's population, briefly touched $1,000 a tonne. The number of people who were unable to get enough food to eat surged above 900 million, which is a shocking and stark statistic—one in seven of the world's population. Since that time the price of food commodities has fallen sharply, by about half. Wheat is now about $200 a tonne; maize is about $150 a tonne; and rice is about $550 a tonne. In part that is due to record harvests last year—nearly 2 billion tonnes of cereals—but it is more due to the general collapse of commodity prices in the wake of the global financial crisis. Despite the welcome fall in prices, the food security of the poorest, as right hon. and hon. Members have said, has actually got worse. The World Food Programme now predicts that the number of people who do not have enough food to eat is likely to rise above 1 billion during 2009. In Kenya, for example, 70 per cent. of the population are unable to meet their basic food needs. In Zimbabwe, one in eight households cannot afford to eat every day, and in India 50 per cent. of children show signs of permanent intellectual impairment before their second birthday, because of poor nutrition. Those, too, are truly shocking statistics. Why is that happening? Right hon. and hon. Members have alluded to the reasons. Historically speaking, prices are still much higher than they were in 2000. Prices in many developing countries have continued to rise because of local shortages, and they remain well above the international price. The household incomes of many have fallen due to the global economic crisis, increased unemployment and lower remittances and tourist receipts. Of course, serious humanitarian challenges continue in Sudan, Zimbabwe and the horn of Africa. I thought that it would be useful to inject some personal experiences into the debate, and I have seen much of what I have outlined at first hand on my recent visits. A slow-down in economic growth in South Africa to just 0.2 per cent. in the last quarter of 2008 has led to sharp falls in the incomes of those working in mining and manufacturing. There is a continuing and massive humanitarian emergency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sierra Leone, which is stubbornly at the very bottom of the human development index, is suffering a sharp fall in remittance income, and the problems of food affordability that that brings to the poorest. In Uganda, desperate poverty in the north following years of conflict and a population set to double by 2030 are putting massive pressure on land and food supplies. Those issues are now hitting many parts of the developing world, particularly in Africa. Even before the latest developments, the UK Government had been leading the international response to tackle the problem of food insecurity. Agriculture and rural development remain priorities for DFID. Our current portfolio of projects and other activities tops £1 billion, and since the FAO food summit last June, we have committed more than £900 million in response to the food crisis. Last year, $169 million of short-term food aid was delivered through the World Food Programme—a record amount for DFID. We have strengthened social safety net programmes in Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and given direct budget support to countries affected by the crisis, such as Ghana, Uganda, Malawi and, as I have said, Sierra Leone. We have doubled our support for agricultural research and technology. That comes to £400 million over the next five years, and a new director of research, Dr. Chris Whitty, has been appointed. In response to the comments of the right hon. Member for Gordon about the WFP, it is true that we have contributed $48 million so far this year, which is more than we had contributed at this time last year. We cannot say at this stage how much we are planning to give. However, we will respond nimbly to appeals that the organisation makes. The other issue raised by the right hon. Member for Gordon and the hon. Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown) was whether the WFP should become the single agency for hunger. We believe that the WFP has demonstrated its strength through its humanitarian response. Generally, we need a much greater level of co-ordination between the WFP, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the United Nations Development Programme. The challenge for development generally, but particularly for this agenda, is to make a reality of what is described as the "One UN" approach. The right hon. Gentleman also spoke about the relationship between the WFP and DFID. I can only say that it is not my job at any time to do anything other than to agree with my Secretary of State. However, there is a serious point to be made. We believe that our judgments on our relationship with the WFP are appropriate. We have made a strategic decision to contribute to specific appeals rather than to core funding, and we believe that our approach boosts and supports accountability for UK taxpayer resources. Nevertheless, we remain one of the WFP's most flexible donors. For example, we do not impose procurement restrictions or bad marking, which is more generally known as branding. I say to the right hon. Gentleman that I am sure that the organisation wants a different relationship, perhaps one in which we contribute to its core funding. In our judgment, however, our current relationship is the best way to help not only with cash and resources, but to be a force for reform. We do not apologise for that; we believe that it is appropriate and in our national interest. Ultimately, we have demonstrated that during global crises; we have stepped up to the mark, made UK resources available and enabled the WFP to respond efficiently and quickly to the humanitarian challenges that it frequently faces.