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OO RUEHRN
DE RUEHRN #0058/01 2781041
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O R 051041Z OCT 09
FM USMISSION UN ROME
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1151
INFO RUEHKH/AMEMBASSY USAID
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0365
RUEHRN/USMISSION UN ROME 1225

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 UN ROME 000058 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR EAID PREL FAO UN
SUBJECT: WORLD FOOD SUMMIT "ZERO DRAFT" DECLARATION:  IMPROVED, BUT 
IN NEED OF WORK 
 
¶1.  This message is sensitive but unclassified.  Please handle 
accordingly. 
 
 
 
Summary and Action Request 
 
--------------------- 
 
 
 
¶2.  (SBU) To prepare for the November 16-18 World Summit on Food 
Security, to be co-hosted in Rome by Food and Agriculture 
Organization (FAO) Director General Jacques Diouf and UN 
Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, member states will negotiate a 
"zero draft" declaration circulated recently by a three-person 
Executive Committee (ExCom) representing FAO's 193 members.  The 
Summit represents the first formal opportunity for the entire UN 
membership to endorse the vision and actions on food security 
agreed earlier this year in L'Aquila.  The declaration (see 
paragraph 7) will contain a preamble, an "overarching" goal, and 
a list of actions and commitments.  At the Mission's suggestion, 
the latter section is organized around five key "principles" 
contained in the L'Aquila Declaration and in USG food security 
policy documents.  The current draft still needs considerable 
work and contains some unacceptable language, but is moving in 
the right direction and is far more workable than an earlier 
53-paragraph draft proposed by FAO.  In addition to changes in 
the declaration itself, Mission will continue to promote 
stronger coordination and cooperation among the three Rome-based 
UN agencies and the High Level Task Force Secretariat, as a way 
to showcase better UN system-wide coherence and synergies. 
Septel will report on logistical and additional details of 
Summit planning, including for three pre-summit and four 
round-table events.  Action Request:  Mission seeks guidance 
(see paragraph 4) on parameters for acceptable text in the 
Summit declaration. End summary. 
 
 
 
Background 
 
-------- 
 
 
 
¶3.  (SBU) A "zero draft" Summit declaration was distributed on 
October 2 by a three-member Executive Committee (Excom), drafted 
by senior staff from FAO, WFP and IFAD.  The text will be 
debated in the next meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group 
(OEWG) on October 6.  (The preamble has not yet been debated by 
Members, so is not being considered as part of the "zero 
draft").  Members will have another two negotiating sessions to 
finalize the text (Oct 19 and 29).  Working with EU colleagues 
and several like-minded delegations, Mission has sought to 
ensure the declaration tracks as closely as possible with the 
spirit and letter of the L'Aquila Declaration as well as U.S. 
policy objectives.  We believe we are in a strong position to 
lead the discussion and thereby avoid problematic text that FAO 
and others wish to include. 
 
 
 
The "Zero Draft" 
 
-------------- 
 
 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The current declaration text in paragraph 7, as agreed 
by Members, will contain a preamble, an overarching goal and 
four "strategic objectives," and a list of commitments and 
actions (presently organized, per Mission insistence, around the 
five L'Aquila principles).  Mission highlights a number of 
problematic areas of the text where policy guidance is sought: 
 
 
 
-Para 8:  "All necessary actions required:"  Mission recommends 
deletion of this phrase as too broad. 
 
 
 
-Para 8:  Goal of "eradicating hunger and malnutrition by 2025;" 
 As specific target date is unacceptable, Mission is working to 
remove 2025 date. 
 
-Paras 3, 19:  Climate change; Mission recommends language that 
 
UN ROME 00000058  002 OF 007 
 
 
covers all countries and all agricultural activities. 
 
 
 
-Paras 11, 12:  "Right to Food"; "fundamental right of everyone 
to be free of hunger."  Mission recommends language consistent 
with the "Voluntary Guidelines." 
 
 
 
-Para 17:  Consideration of "international mechanisms to prevent 
sudden food price rises~"; "encourage development of insurance 
mechanisms," and "promote innovative financing mechanisms;" 
Mission recommends maintaining "consideration" of these items 
and other non-binding language, consistent with Treviso 
agriculture ministerial. 
 
 
 
-Principle 4:  How do we define a "strong role" for multilateral 
institutions; Mission will promote inclusion of language 
consistent with the CFA and L'Aquila Declaration. 
 
 
 
-Para 26:  A specific target of "17 percent in five years" for 
developed country assistance to agriculture;  Mission working to 
remove specific target level, but notes HLTF's (Comprehensive 
Framework for Action, para 13) language re 10 percent target in 
5 years ("and beyond if needed").  Mission recommends removal of 
specific target, or wording consistent with CFA. 
 
 
 
-Para 26:  Call for developed countries to fulfill commitments 
to bring overall development assistance to "point seven percent 
of GDP":  Mission recommends deletion of specific target level, 
consistent with USG policy statements in other fora. 
 
 
 
-Para 27:  "a code of conduct for investment and voluntary 
guidelines on good governance in land tenure;" Mission 
recommends we strive to include neutral language on an issue 
being pressed by Japan, consistent with Treviso and L'Aquila 
declarations. 
 
 
 
-Para 28:  a "global tracking system" for donor commitments and 
state investments.  Mission recommends language consistent with 
G-8 declarations, and which would limit CFS monitoring role to 
support for country-led plans. 
 
 
 
The declaration will be further amended with language drawn from 
outcomes of the upcoming session of the Committee on World Food 
Security (CFS), October 14-17, and a FAO-sponsored conference on 
"Feeding The World in 2050," October 12-13. 
 
 
 
The Way Forward 
 
--------------- 
 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) We see the best way forward as a combination of 
working in the OEWG with like-minded partners as well as key 
G-77 members to clarify our desired language and identify our 
red lines, while also working closely behind closed doors with 
FAO management, the leadership of WFP, IFAD, and the HLTF 
Secretariat, to ensure acceptable outcomes in November.  In 
particular, key delegations will be Canada, Sweden (representing 
the EU), Australia,  New Zealand, Russia, China, and several 
influential G-77 states such as Brazil, India, South Africa, 
Saudi Arabia, and Thailand.  In general, we will want to stress 
our shared objectives on food security and the need for unity 
and sense of purpose.  Depending on the outcome at the OEWG 
session, demarches in key capitals may well be needed. 
 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU) We are in a position to offer draft language on how 
the multilateral role is to be strengthened, helping to strike 
the right balance on the "center of gravity" - New York or Rome 
 
UN ROME 00000058  003 OF 007 
 
 
- which troubles many delegations among the G-77.  We might also 
consider proposing additional language on good governance, and 
anti-corruption (per President Obama's Ghana speech), to steer 
the declaration away from its over-focus on ODA.  We can also 
provide language to ensure the Preamble section actually 
resembles a preamble, rather than the generally wordy text as it 
now stands. 
 
 
 
Text of the "Zero Draft" 
 
------------------------ 
 
 
 
¶7.  (U) Begin text of "zero draft" food summit declaration: 
 
 
 
PART 1.1:  Preamble 
 
(This preamble is not part of the co-chairs' zero draft. An 
initial discussion on the preamble took place in the OEWG at its 
session of 15 September 2009. The language for the preamble 
below is a preliminary reflection of that discussion, but this 
section will be redrafted when the other sections have been 
discussed in more detail and when the results of the Committee 
on Food Security and the High Level Expert Forum are available.) 
 
 
 
- We, the Heads of State and Government, or our Representatives, 
have gathered in Rome, from 16 to 18 November 2009, at the World 
Summit on Food Security convened by the Food and Agriculture 
Organization of the United Nations (FAO), to secure a broad 
consensus on the total eradication of hunger from the world [by 
2025] 
 
- We are alarmed by the fact that the number of people suffering 
from hunger and poverty now exceeds 1 billion. The combined 
effect of longstanding underinvestment in agriculture and food 
security, price trends and the recent financial and economic 
crisis have led to increased hunger and poverty, thereby 
jeopardizing the insufficient progress achieved thus far in 
meeting the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goals. 
Immediate action has to be taken, to reverse this trend. 
Therefore, coordinated international efforts are required to 
work effectively towards the eradication of hunger and 
alleviation of malnutrition. 
 
- (Future trend on food security towards 2050 - to be added 
following the 2050 Conference). 
 
- A sense of urgency and a clear commitment to reversing the 
global food crisis has served as a catalyst for working together 
to strengthen international coordination and governance on food 
security.(Further REFERENCE TO CFS REFORM; TEXT TO BE PREPARED 
AFTER CFS). 
 
- Climate change poses additional, severe risks to the 
agriculture sector and food security in both developing and 
developed countries. And yet its long-term impact is 
particularly serious on small farmers in developing countries 
and for already vulnerable population. Agriculture food security 
must be positioned firmly within any solution to the climate 
change challenge, ensuring that funding for adaptation and 
mitigation benefit agriculture and food security. 
 
- Since the creation of FAO in 1945, we are meeting for the 
third time in a Summit of Heads of State and Government on food 
security, further to those of 1996 and 2002, as we realize that 
the objective adopted by the `World Food Summit' of 1996 of 
reducing by half, that is to say, to 420 million, the number of 
hungry people by 2015 at the latest is unlikely to be reached, 
even though current efforts to fight hunger must continue and be 
strengthened. While the previous Summits have contributed to 
keeping food and agriculture on the international agenda and 
making commitments to fight world hunger effectively, the 
decisions made were not followed by actions commensurate with 
achieving the goals set. As the ranks of the world's hungry 
increase, it is more important than ever to ensure that all 
individuals have access to sufficient safe and nutritious food 
and that the structural causes of hunger are addressed. 
 
- In recent years, major regional and international meetings 
addressing agriculture and food security issues have 
acknowledged inadequate investment in the agriculture sector, 
 
UN ROME 00000058  004 OF 007 
 
 
particularly in developing countries. Although some commitments 
are now being made to increase investment and foreign assistance 
in agriculture and rural development at the national and 
international levels these remain insufficient and much larger 
scale interventions are required. Now it is time for action. 
 
* In this declaration, agriculture includes crop and livestock, 
forestry and fisheries. 
 
 
 
PART 1.2: OVERARCHING GOAL, STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES. 
 
Overarching goal 
 
- 8. In adopting this declaration we agree to undertake all 
necessary actions required globally and by all States and 
Governments to halt immediately the increase in, and to reduce 
significantly, the number of people suffering from hunger, 
malnutrition and food insecurity and to sustainably eradicate 
hunger and malnutrition [by the year 2025]. 
 
 
 
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES 
 
- 9. To achieve this overarching goal, we decided to: 
 
- Ensure urgent global and national action to fully realize the 
target of Millennium Development Goal 1 and the 1996 World Food 
Summit goal, namely to reduce respectively the number and the 
proportion of people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition by 
half in 2015. 
 
- Reverse the decline in domestic and international funding in 
agriculture, food security and rural development and promote new 
investment to increase sustainable agricultural production and 
productivity, reduce poverty and ensure food security and access 
to food by all. 
 
- Proactively face the challenges of climate change to food 
security and the need for adaptation of and mitigation in 
agriculture and increase resilience of agricultural producers to 
climate change, with particular attention to small farmers. 
 
- (text to be introduced when results of CFS will be available 
in October 2009) 
 
 
 
- 10. To achieve these strategic objectives, we shall base our 
commitments and actions on the following principles: 
 
- Create a strategic coordination of assistance at global, 
regional and country level to optimize the allocation of 
resources. 
 
- Invest in country-owned plans, aimed at channeling resources 
to credible, well-designed plans and partnerships. 
 
- Strive for a comprehensive approach to food security that 
consists of: 1) direct action to immediately alleviate hunger 
for the most vulnerable and 2) longer-term agricultural, food 
security, nutrition and rural development programs to eliminate 
the root causes of hunger and poverty. 
 
- Ensure a strong role for multilateral institutions by 
sustained improvements in efficiency, coordination and 
effectiveness. 
 
- Ensure sustained and substantial commitment by all partners of 
investment in agriculture and food security and nutrition, with 
provision of necessary resources in a timely and reliable 
fashion, aimed at multi-year plans and programs. 
 
Part 2: COMMITMENTS AND ACTIONS 
 
Principle 1: Invest in country-owned plans, aimed at channeling 
resources to credible, well-designed plans and partnerships 
 
- 11. We reaffirm that food security is a national 
responsibility and any plans for addressing food security 
challenges must be nationally owned. 
 
- 12. We reaffirm the right of everyone to have access to safe 
and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food 
and the fundamental right of everyone to be free of hunger. We 
will strive for a world free from hunger where countries 
 
UN ROME 00000058  005 OF 007 
 
 
implement the "Voluntary Guidelines for the Progressive 
Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of 
National Food Security" and we will support the practical 
application of the Guidelines based on the principles of 
participation, transparency and accountability. 
 
 
 
Principle 2: Create a strategic coordination of assistance at 
global, regional and country level to optimize the allocation of 
resources. 
 
- 13. NATIONAL AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE: Waiting for the text of 
CFS reform, to include reference to HLTF and co-ordination among 
Rome based agencies. 
 
 
 
Principle 3: Strive for a comprehensive approach to food 
security that consists of: 1) direct action to immediately 
alleviate hunger for the most vulnerable and 2) longer-term 
agricultural, food security, nutrition and rural development 
programmes to eliminate the root causes of hunger and poverty. 
 
- 14. We support rural development to reduce poverty, increase 
access to food and create the conditions for production 
increases and adaptation of agriculture to climate change. 
 
- 15. We support developing countries in their efforts ensuring 
that their population, in particular vulnerable groups, have 
access to an adequate nutritious and affordable supply of food 
for domestic consumers that is available year-round at local 
level. We will take social protection measures, to enable 
communities and households to access economic and social 
benefits and contribute to social stability. We will also take 
measures to mitigate the impact of today's crises, including 
through safety nets. We continue to be committed to the 
provision of emergency food supplies, humanitarian assistance, 
and support for the most vulnerable populations. We recognize 
the value of local purchase of food assistance, which supports 
local markets. We call on Governments to remove food export 
restrictions or extra-ordinary taxes for food purchased for 
humanitarian purposes, and to consult and notify in advance 
before imposing any new restrictions. 
 
- 16. We pursue policies that ensure increased access of 
developing, and especially least developed countries to all 
markets. We promote strategies improving the functioning of 
domestic, regional and international markets and ensuring 
equitable access for all, especially smallholders and women. We 
support non-distorting special measures for developing 
countries' small farmers enabling them to compete on an equal 
footing on world markets. We call upon governments to refrain 
from taking restrictive market related measures with adverse 
impacts on global food security and from using unjustified 
measures to restrict imports. We reiterate support to a 
successful conclusion of the Doha Round of trade negotiations. 
We also support the Aid for Trade Initiative to enable 
developing countries to overcome their supply side constraints 
in agriculture and improve their capacity to produce and trade. 
 
- 17. We will consider international mechanisms to prevent 
sudden food price rises and to manage undue food market 
instability. We encourage the development of insurance 
mechanisms to manage the effects of sudden price increases and 
climatic volatility. We will promote innovative financing 
mechanisms to assure food defecit developing countries adequate 
imports under sudden adverse movements in food import 
expenditure. We encourage policies that promote better market 
information, transparency and competition. We request relevant 
international organizations to analyze the causal links between 
speculation and agricultural prices with a view to fostering a 
coherent and effective policy response. We also request relevant 
international organizations to examine whether a system of 
stockholding can be effective in dealing with humanitarian 
emergencies or as a means to limit price volatility; and to 
consider the feasibility and the administrative modalities of 
such a system. 
 
-18. We strive to increase crop production and productivity, 
founded on sustainable practices, improved resource use, 
protection of the environment, conservation of the natural 
resource base and enhanced ecosystem services. We will give 
priority to smallholder crops and cropping systems, access to 
and sustainable use of land, water and plant genetic resources, 
and better management of crop associated biodiversity. We seek 
to enhance the socio-economic benefits associated with the 
livestock sector in a pro-poor approach, improving resource use 
 
UN ROME 00000058  006 OF 007 
 
 
efficiencies, preventing and mitigating public health risks and 
reducing the risks to natural resources. We will improve 
management and conservation of fisheries and aquaculture, 
conserving aquatic biodiversity and the health and productivity 
of ecosystems with an emphasis on artisanal fisheries and 
small-scale aquaculture. We recognize the need for large scale 
public investment in rural infrastructure, in particular in 
Africa. 
 
-19. We will take all necessary steps to enable farmers, 
particularly small farmers, to adapt to climate change applying 
appropriate technologies and practices that improve the 
resilience of their farming systems, and enhancing food 
security. Agriculture has a huge potential for mitigation of 
climate change and can contribute to a global reduction of 
greenhouse gases. We will consider innovative financing 
mechanisms to support adaptation to climate change and to unlock 
the potential of the carbon market for mitigation by smallholder 
farmers, based on robust measurement, reporting and verification 
methodologies. 
 
- 20. We promote research, including research to adapt to and 
mitigate climate change, and access to research results and 
technologies for food and agriculture at national, regional and 
international level. We stress the need to reinvigorate national 
research systems, in particular in Africa, and will share 
information and best practices, making full use of North-South, 
South-South and Triangular cooperation. 
 
- 21. We commit to build capacity, focusing on integrated 
actions addressing policy, institutions, and people.  We 
particularly stress the importance for developing countries to 
strengthen institutional capacity to enable smallholders to 
access technologies, inputs, credit and markets, and to 
strengthen and empower farmers' organizations. 
 
- 22. We will ensure effective national food safety systems to 
meet national and international food quality and safety 
requirements covering all stages of the food chain and involving 
all concerned actors.  We support national, regional and 
international programs that contribute to improved food safety, 
animal and plant health. 
 
- 23. We recognize the opportunities and challenges associated 
with renewable energy production from biomass and will promote 
its use in a sustainable way, compatible with our food security 
goals. We reaffirm the call on relevant international 
organizations, including FAO, within their mandates and areas of 
expertise, with the involvement of national governments, 
partnerships, the private sector, and civil society, to foster a 
coherent, and results-oriented international dialogue on 
biofuels in the context of food security and sustainable 
development needs. 
 
- 24. We will improve access to knowledge, especially for 
smallholders, and the quality of information, including national 
agricultural statistics and advance forecast and early warning 
systems as a basis for sound agricultural policy and strategies. 
 
 
 
 
Principle 4: Ensure a strong role for multilateral institutions 
by sustained improvements in efficiency, coordination and 
effectiveness. 
 
 
 
Principle 5: Ensure sustained and substantial commitment by all 
partners of investment in agriculture and food security and 
nutrition, with provision of necessary resources in a timely and 
reliable fashion, aimed at multi-year plans and programs. 
 
- 25. At this key moment, we commit to a crucial, decisive shift 
towards increased short-, medium- and long-term investment in 
developing countries' agriculture. We urge governments of 
developing countries to devote the necessary portion of their 
national budgets to investment in agriculture and rural 
development. We call upon African leaders to honour the 
commitment in the 2003 Maputo declaration raising the share of 
agriculture and rural development in their budget expenditures 
to at least 10 percent within the next five years, and ask other 
regions to adopt similar quantitative time-bound commitments. 
 
- 26. We commit to a substantially increase in the share of 
agriculture in total ODA [to a target level of 17 percent of ODA 
in five years as was reached in 1980] and in lending portfolios 
of international financial institutions (IFIs) and regional 
 
UN ROME 00000058  007 OF 007 
 
 
development banks. We call on developed countries to fulfil 
their commitments to bring overall development assistance to 
0.7% of GDP. We welcome the "L'Aquila" Joint Statement on Global 
Food Security endorsed by the G8 and by several countries, 
regional organizations and international institutions in July 
2009, calling for the mobilization in three years of 20 billion 
US dollars, and the outcome of the Pittsburgh G 20 meeting in 
September 2009 as important steps in the right direction. We 
highly appreciate the interest shown and resources mobilised for 
agriculture and food security by private philanthropic 
foundations in recent years. We call upon developed countries to 
provide the necessary support in line with the Paris Declaration 
and Accra Agenda for Action. 
 
- 27. We support public/private cooperation and private 
investment, both foreign and domestic, for agriculture and food 
security in developing countries. We call upon Governments to 
create national legal and governance frameworks for private 
investment in food, agriculture, fisheries and forestry, and 
rural development. We agree to continue studying principles and 
good practices for international agricultural investment 
(including a code of conduct for investment and voluntary 
guidelines on good governance in land tenure). 
 
- 28. We will establish tracking systems at global level to 
follow up on donors' pledges and commitments, and at country 
level to follow up on in-country investment (To be redrafted 
after decision on CFS). 
COUSINE