U.S. To Consider Purchasing Some Food Aid Locally, Acting USAID Head Says At World Food Summit

The U.S. is interested in potentially using more locally-produced food aid rather than U.S. grown food as a way to expand investment in agricultural development in the developing world, said Alonzo Fulgham, acting head USAID, "on the sidelines of a World Food Summit in Rome" on Tuesday, Reuters reports. "The United States is the largest food donor in the world but Washington has been criticized by non-governmental organizations for shipping too much U.S.-grown food to hunger-stricken areas," the news service writes.

According to Fulgham, "Our country is looking at the policy and identifying where we should be buying food locally to increase capacity. … That is all part of our new strategy and the new administration is looking very strongly at it but like all rules ... it has to be negotiated and discussed in Congress."

When discussing the G8’s $22 billion three-year agriculture initiative, "Fulgham reiterated Washington's position that this money would best be channeled through a fund administered by the World Bank, whose head is normally appointed by the United States" (Flynn, 11/17).

At the summit on Monday, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad) and the World Food Program (WFP) launched "a food-security strategy to help developing nations address food insecurity by investing in agriculture and safety nets, to address hunger exacerbated by the food and financial crises and climate change," BusinessMirrorreports (Abano, 11/17).

According to an FAO statement, "The agencies will address overlaps, find additional synergies … This builds on a portfolio of 400 activities involving collaboration in more than 70 countries. All areas of work are being addressed. In the administrative area, collaboration is aimed at achieving cost reduction, efficiency savings, streamlined business processes and knowledge sharing. Joint tendering and the piloting of a common procurement unit starting in January 2010 are a few examples" (11/16).

Summit Fails To Deal With Large Agri-Business Market Dominance, U.N. Official Says

"In a speech to the summit released on Tuesday before delivery," U.N. Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter said delegates had not done enough to address large agri-business corporations' food market dominance, according to a second Reuters article.

De Schutter "said private agri-business corporations operated 'without any sort of control and with often extremely high levels of concentration that represent a serious market failure.'" He noted that the summit declaration is "silent about the right of agricultural workers to a living wage." De Schutter "also said the summit declaration was weak on the production and use of biofuels and on commodity market speculation, despite the impact of both on prices."

At a recent U.N. forum, food and agriculture businesses "said they were already investing millions of dollars in sustainable farm development to secure reliable supplies, cut costs and boost positions on new markets" (Aloisi, 11/17). During his speech, De Schutter noted that failure to address "what he saw as the key factors behind price spikes in 2008" would result in a "new food price crisis," another Reuters articles reports. In an interview, he said, "There are indications already, because oil prices are going up and they are very closely linked to agricultural commodities prices. As soon as a big producer will be in difficulty ... speculation will set in" (Aloisi [2], 11/17).

IPS Examines Farmers' Forum

Though "farmers are not part of the official delegations" at the world food summit, "they came anyhow to express their views, since, they say, it is their communities that are most impacted by the food crisis," Inter Press Service Europe writes in an article examining farmers' perspective on food security.

"Small-scale producers from the Amazonian rainforest, from Africa, the Pacific islands and the Himalayas gathered in Rome for the Peoples' Food Sovereignty Forum (Nov. 13-17), held in parallel to the FAO meetings, to discuss the serious effects of the crisis in their communities." According to the forum organizers, there are more than 1.5 billion small food producers in the world and they "produce more than 75 percent of the world's food needs through peasant agriculture and small scale livestock production, and with artisanal fishing" (Zaccaro, 11/18).

News Outlets Examine Summit Outcome

The Financial Times reports: "The latest in a series of fairly fruitless international gatherings ends on Wednesday in Rome, as the United Nations food security summit draws to a halt amid a plethora of platitudes about feeding the poor." According to the newspaper, "The broad approach of the summit is right to recognise that achieving a safe, reliable, affordable supply of food is a multi-faceted project: technology, trade, markets and aid all need to be addressed. But translating this into practical action has proved difficult – not least because agriculture, with its concentrated groups of farmers and agribusinesses and diffuse groups of consumers, has proved peculiarly susceptible to producer group lobbying." The article looks at some of the reasons why it is challenging to address hunger around the world (Beattie, 11/17).

Incidents involving some world leaders "bolstered criticism" that this week's summit "is long on rhetoric and extravagance and short on solutions for the world's 1 billion hungry," the Associated Press reports in an article examining why some view the meeting as a failure. The article discusses the actions of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who has been "blamed for plunging his people into starvation" (David/D’Emilio, 11/17).

At the summit on Tuesday, Mugabe "defended his controversial decade-long land reform program as a matter of 'equity and justice' and blamed the country's dramatic economic collapse in recent years on what he described as 'neocolonialist enemies' in the West who have imposed sanctions," VOA News reports (Zulu, 11/17). Mugabe – who "is banned from visiting the European Union except under special circumstances, such as United Nations conferences" – called for "the West lift the 'illegal and inhuman sanctions' imposed on him and his government," the Telegraph writes (Squires, 11/17).

According to an article in GlobalPost examining Mugabe's appearance at the food summit, "Zimbabweans – black and white alike – see the irony of Mugabe grasping at the chance to attend an international conference where the theme is food security. Mugabe's policies have turned Zimbabwe from a nation with bountiful harvests to a country perennially d

At WFP, Ethics Missing Amid Waste and Garage Scandals as Josette Travels the World, Food Program Whistleblowers Say

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 15 -- In the wake of the World Food Program's controversial shut down of its Rome headquarters for a "simulated food distribution" display for the spouses of G-8 leaders, reported on by Inner City Press and skipped by both Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni, more and more whistleblowers from within WFP have approached Inner City Press with their complaints.

Most center around what they call the excessive travel and waste of Executive Director Josette Sheeran, the cover-up of scandals by weak ethical controls and discipline by promotion out to the field, and use of WFP for political purposes, fancy junkets and receptions and a make-up post for UN insider Staffan de Mistura. Inner City Press has asked WFP about these, and has received some answers.

Here is a sample complaint received from within WFP, anonymous due to fear of retaliation, then some WFP responses:

Matthew, Your reporting on the "Disneyland" school feeding show for the G-8 spouses was excellent. And many, many people in WFP agreed with you and had real doubts about it. The tents have come down but there's been no word on whether the contributions have increased to pay for it, and to feed more hungry poor. You should however, be aware that many WFP workers did attend work that day, even though parking was very difficult and WFP is not well connected by public transport to the areas in Rome where most staffers live. There are WFP staff who do have principles.

At 8:20, those not involved with the event were told through the PA system to remain at their workstations until the event was over and coffee, tea and water was placed on tables by the elevators on each floor. In other words, the staff were not welcome. Maybe that's why they were "encouraged" to "work from home".

Many dedicated long-term WFP staff see the current regime as a joke. Around the time of the G-8 event, Josette was also slated to attend the Non-Aligned Movement First Ladies Group in exotic Sharm El Sheikh. Clearly she's into Wives Clubs, which is not where she should be. However, perhaps because of the embarrassment of the G-8 wives event, she canceled.

We interrupt this whistleblowing for WFP's response:

"Greg Barrow is on leave. Please find the following responses to your questions. Ms. Sheeran was invited to the event but due other commitments, did not attend. She was represented by Ms. Sheila Sisulu, WFP's Deputy Executive Director for Hunger Solutions, who delivered a keynote speech and met with the host of the NAM First Ladies conference, Mrs. Mubarak to discuss school feeding and nutrition."

The whistleblower continued:

Word is that in the second half of 2009, she will spend perhaps no more than three weeks in Rome. A lot of her time is in Washington and elsewhere in the US (are we feeding Americans now, or is she doing something else there?). And there is a trip to places like Australia (over a weekend, of course). So who is actually running the organization? How can she justify, even with annual leave, spending less than one eighth of her time at her desk? Money which could and should be spent on feeding people or on properly staffing key departments or systems is being blown on business class airfares for her and her accompanying delegations and on school-feeding conferences near the north Italian lakes when somewhere within driving distance from Rome would have done, to name a few.

There are stories of parties being held costing more than 100 Euro per head at fancy Roman villas, paid for by WFP and/or FAO for people who never even worked for either organization. 100 Euro can buy about 300kg of wheat. Instead of feeding/entertaining one fat cat for a night, that's a lot of children who could be served.

UN's Ban and WFP's Sheeran, similar travel, similar

Again, WFP had a different spin:

Ms. Sheeran's schedule for the rest of this year is still being finalized and will be adjusted as the year progresses depending on the most pressing needs and priorities. As the schedule stands today, she will be in Rome for a number of weeks. The role of a WFP Executive Director involves travel demands, which can often be sudden, such as a trip to Myanmar after the cyclone when WFP has an emergency response, or to donor countries to meet high level representatives. This fall, Ms. Sheeran's will make her first donor trip to Australia as part of a wider travel plan which includes WFP field operation visits. We believe you are referring to an official event co-hosted by WFP and FAO in honor of the departing President of IFAD, our sister UN agency in Rome.

But how much did it cost? At least on the Simulated Food Distribution Display for G-8 Spouses, WFP has finally given its own figure as to cost: 219,000 Euros. Click here for Inner City Press' counter calculations.

Inner City Press has asked, twice, about the new but we're told absent held of ethics, Joe Scalice, and whether notice was given of the vacancy externally or even internally. The post because open when Shuresh Sharma was moved to WFP's oversight office. From there, Inner City Press is told, an official was caught in a scandal in WFP's garage, then quickly exiled to the Sri Lanka IDP crisis. Inner City Press has asked:

What notice was given to internal candidates that they could apply? How many applied? Also, please comment on fraud case in Johannesburg starting next month and a whistleblower's statement that the individual "who headed it previously was very quickly sent out to the field when he was caught by the security guards in the underground executive car park in his car with a young lady, and they weren't discussing audit matters. So they may have had to fill it very quickly. I think it was done internally. Also, there has been an exodus from audit in the past year." Steffan de Mistura's post, did anyone previously hold it? or was it a new / made up post? Was the Executive Board consulted?

When the requested answers are received, they will be published on this site.