The UK Government’s work on achieving SDG2: Zero Hunger – Written evidence submitted by the UN World Food Programme to the House of Commons International Development Committee

Introduction

1. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability, and prosperity. In emergencies, WFP is often first on the scene, providing food assistance to people affected by conflict, natural disasters, and climate disasters. WFP also works to enhance the nutrition of women and children, support farmers in improving productivity and reducing losses, help countries and communities prepare for and withstand climate-related shocks, and boost human capital through school feeding programmes. In 2022 alone, WFP assisted 160 million people.

2. WFP is fully committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The vision for 2030 underlying WFP’s strategic plan for 2022-2025 is that: i) the world has eradicated food insecurity and malnutrition (SDG2 – Zero Hunger); and ii) national and global actors have achieved the SDGs (SDG17 – Partnerships for the goals). Of the SDG2 targets, four stand out in their relevance to WFP[1]:

2.1 Ending hunger and ensuring access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round.

2.2 Ending all forms of malnutrition and addressing the nutrition needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women, and older persons.

2.3 Doubling the agricultural productivity and incomes of smallholder farmers, particularly women and other at-risk groups.

2.4  Ensuring sustainable food systems.

3. The present submission responds to the following questions in the inquiry terms of reference:

• The FCDO and UK Government’s approach to achieving SDG2 in ODA-eligible countries, including relevant strategies, programming, short/long-term approach, and targeting.
• The FCDO or other Government departments’ work with other country donors and multilaterally to work on achieving SDG2 and food security.
• The FCDO’s work on achieving food security over the short, medium, and long term, including its work on food systems, climate resilience, and agricultural sustainability.

Before doing so, we are providing information on progress towards SDG2 and the current state of global food security and nutrition, and WFP’s partnership with the United Kingdom to achieve SDG2.

The state of global food security and nutrition

4. It is estimated that as many as 783 million people in the world faced hunger in 2022, an increase of around 122 million compared to pre-pandemic levels[2]. While this number remained relatively unchanged from 2021 to 2022, acute food insecurity and malnutrition have increased across most of the countries where WFP operates.

5. As many as 333 million people are acutely food insecure in the 78 countries where WFP operates and where data is available[3]. Of this number, an estimated 47.3 million people in 54 countries are in Emergency or Worse levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 4+), which is an increase of 6.9 million people compared to the estimate from June 2023[4]. At least 129,000 people in Burkina Faso, Mali, Somalia, and South Sudan were already facing Catastrophic/Famine level conditions (IPC Phase 5). Furthermore, an estimated 45 million children under 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, with numbers predicted to rise. The Covid-19 pandemic has set back progress in tackling hunger and malnutrition, exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine. It is projected that 600 million people will be chronically undernourished in 2030; this is roughly 119 million more than in a scenario in which neither the pandemic nor the war in Ukraine had occurred[5]. This points to the immense challenges that lie ahead in achieving SDG 2.

6. Against the backdrop of a global food security and nutrition crisis, there has been a historic decline in funding which means that acute food insecurity is expected to increase significantly in severity in 2024 and beyond, risking reversing years of development gains and work to fight hunger and malnutrition. WFP’s projected operational requirements for 2023 currently stand at USD 23.5 billion, however, forecasted funding currently stands at USD 10 billion, equivalent to a near 60% funding gap. Crippling funding gaps are forcing WFP to apply strict prioritisation of assistance, scaling back life-saving support at a time when acute hunger is at record levels. Prioritisation and reducing assistance mean taking away from the hungry to feed the starving. Almost half of WFP’s country operations have already reduced, or plan to soon reduce, the size and scope of food, cash, and nutrition assistance programmes. WFP analysis shows that every one percentage point cut in WFP assistance could push more than 400,000 additional people into emergency hunger. In a scenario where WFP is forced to cut assistance by 50%, the number of people in Emergency levels of acute food insecurity could increase by as many as 23.6 million[6].

7. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by the global food and nutrition crisis. Despite producing between 60 to 80% of food in most developing countries and holding responsibility for 50% of food production, women and girls account for 60% of the number of acutely food insecure people worldwide. Empowering women and achieving gender equality will result in improved food security and nutrition for all.

WFP’s partnership with the United Kingdom

8. The UK’s longstanding and strong support for WFP, including as a member of WFP’s Executive Board (EB), is evidence of its unwavering commitment to achieving SDG2. The UK is an active member of WFP’s EB, for example as founder and chair of the Friends of the UN Humanitarian Air Service Group and the chair of the Friends of Nutrition Group.

9. FCDO has been an important partner for WFP, providing significant levels of funding which has enabled WFP to save and change lives. WFP is grateful for the UK’s continued financial, technical, and diplomatic support and recognises the protracted nature of the challenges posed by the implications of the pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine. However, since 2019, UK contributions to WFP have steadily declined – by nearly 40% to 2022. As of 4 December, the UK’s contributions to WFP are over 40% lower than at the same time in 2022. FCDO’s own Equality Impact Assessment details the impacts of ODA savings, including the “significant impact” on humanitarian assistance and women and girls in some of the most acutely food-insecure countries and regions[7]. The UK has not cut its core/flexible funding to WFP.

10. WFP has been a recipient of UK core funding for several years alongside UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM and OCHA, under the previous business case (2017 – 2022) and the current business case (2023 – 2027), which has been modelled on a payment by result structure. 70% of the funding is provided as a multilateral core contribution and the remaining 30% is disbursed subject to performance reviews on approved payment by results (PbR) indicators as specified in the “log-frame”. PbR funding is released in October following verification of performance and results through completion of the annual review. There has only been one occasion where a WFP Country Office has been subjected to a similar model, this was in South Sudan and has not been the case for several years. While the PbR model is useful for tracking progress, it does not always consider humanitarian challenges which may impede agency performance, for example, COVID-19, which was not accounted for in planning indicator targets. Hence, agencies may not reach their targets. While this has not been an issue thus far, it could present a potential challenge. With that said, under the new business case there is increasing agility as we have looked to revise or elect more appropriate indicators, targets, and milestones.  

11. The UK has also been an important actor, leveraging its thought leadership and funding to drive innovation and efficiencies to improve humanitarian response. For example, FCDO has been a critical partner in scaling up the use of cash transfers in humanitarian emergencies, giving people control and flexibility to make choices that govern their lives in an empowering and dignified way. WFP and FCDO/DFID co-convened the Grand Bargain cash workstream to increase the use and coordination of cash-based programming. See Case Study 1 – Cash-based programming in Lebanon. Other examples of strong collaboration are detailed throughout the submission.

The FCDO’s and UK Government’s approach to achieving SDG2 in countries eligible for ODA

12.                                                                                                                                                            The UK has been a strong and consistent champion of SDG2, both as a thought leader with considerable convening power and as a donor providing significant and catalytic levels of funding. In 2013, the UK hosted the first Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit which galvanised political will and mobilised funds in support of an ambitious agenda to tackle global malnutrition. A decade later, the UK hosted the Global Food Security Summit (GFSS), signalling its ambition to reinvigorate global efforts to end hunger and malnutrition in all its forms. These efforts must extend beyond the Summit and deliver meaningful and focused progress towards SDG2.

13. The GFSS is the centrepiece of an 18-month campaign to “improve global food security and nutrition”, launched in the Integrated Review Refresh 2023[8]. While WFP welcomes the UK’s decision to prioritise action on SDG2 over the next 12 months, there has been no publicly available articulation as to the specific objectives, targets, and activities of this campaign. WFP encourages the UK Government to publish further details on the campaign to enable partners to effectively engage with and support the government in delivering the campaign.

14. It is important that a partnership-led approach underpins the UK’s work to achieve SDG2 globally. In particular, partnerships that are community-centred, prioritise and strengthen national capacities, and enhance government systems, such as nutrition-sensitive, inclusive, and shock-responsive social protection systems. In so doing, the UK can maximise its contribution to reaching food-insecure people at scale, support national development priorities, and ensure that progress towards SDG2 is genuinely sustainable. FCDO should continue to adopt a contextualised approach, emphasising mutual accountability, national ownership, sustainability, and local solutions. In a fiscally constrained environment, investing in system-strengthening would increase the UK’s contribution to SDG2 and exemplify a patient approach.

Humanitarian response

15. The UK’s International Development Strategy (IDS) prioritises humanitarian work, specifically targeting humanitarian assistance to people in greatest need, protecting people most at risk, and preventing and anticipating future shocks and building resilience in long-running crises. WFP strongly welcomes the vision set out in the UK Humanitarian Framework to prevent humanitarian need and suffering, including by pushing the international system to scan for, prepare and act ahead of shocks, and to prevent them from getting worse when they happen[9]. In the IDS, the UK committed to prioritising humanitarian funding levels at GBP 3 billion over 3 years[10]. WFP urges FCDO to ensure that it delivers on this commitment and review this target as a priority should there be underspend.

16. WFP is the largest humanitarian organisation providing food assistance globally. In 2023, WFP planned to reach 177.4 million people, with projected operational requirements of USD 23.5 billion. However, the trends in humanitarian needs and funding levels are bifurcating; needs are soaring while funding levels are dwindling. As of 4 December, this year WFP has received USD 7.3 billion, equivalent to 31% of the operational requirements. Unprecedented funding gaps are forcing WFP to apply strict prioritisation of assistance and scale back life-saving support at a time when 333 million people – likely more – are facing acute food insecurity.

17. WFP calls on FCDO to prioritise flexible, multi-year funding to enable WFP to respond to and prepare for emergencies and invest in scaling up long-term solutions that lift communities from the recurrent cycle of crises. We welcome the UK’s commitment to making greater use of pre-arranged finance and announcement to scope a separate fund of up to 15% of its humanitarian provision to build resilience and adaptation[11]. We hope that the resilience and adaptation fund will be operationalised swiftly and that the 15% target will be considered a floor rather than a ceiling.

Tackling malnutrition

18. The FCDO’s Ending Preventable Deaths (EPD) Approach Paper is a central and important articulation of the UK’s long-term approach to promoting food security and nutrition. Specifically, Pillar 3 of the Approach Paper on ‘Healthier lives and safe environments’ puts a strong emphasis on food systems transformation and integrated interventions to prevent malnutrition[12]. Addressing maternal and child malnutrition during the first 1,000 days from pregnancy to age 2 is consistently identified as one of the most cost-effective development interventions, yielding USD 16 for every USD 1 invested. Good nutrition, particularly in the critical 1,000-day window, saves children’s lives and enables their brains and bodies to develop as they should, building human capital and supporting more resilient and productive societies. It is critical to harness investments across multiple sectors, including social protection, climate adaptation, agriculture, and gender equality, to improve nutrition outcomes for high-risk populations in a sustained way. It is therefore positive to note FCDO’s commitment to maximise the impact of its multi-sectoral investments and to integrate nutrition objectives into UK investments. This was also reaffirmed in the International Development White Paper, in which the UK commits to champion a new Global Compact on Nutrition to make nutrition an integral part of investments in poverty reduction, economic growth, health, food security, climate, and nature[13]. However, there is considerable progress to be made in this area – for example, in 2021 only 25% of FCDO’s agriculture and food security programmes were nutrition-sensitive[14]. WFP encourages FCDO to ensure all ODA programmes have an objective focused on improving nutrition.

19. Pillar 3 of the EPD Approach Paper rightly prioritises focusing on nutrition in areas of fragility and conflict; this must be backed up by long-term, sustained investments. Nutrition funding in humanitarian and fragile settings, where malnutrition is most acute, is insufficient – especially for prevention. While maintaining investments in treatment and supplementation for children already suffering from acute malnutrition, the UK should guarantee long-term, predictable, readily accessible financing to enable effective prevention of malnutrition in countries facing repeated humanitarian emergencies.

20. This should also include supporting the provision of high-impact nutrition support for women and children as part of broader food assistance in emergencies. The new WHO guideline on the prevention and management of child wasting emphasises the importance of providing Specialised Nutritious Foods (SNFs) in humanitarian settings and of addressing the nutritional needs of children with Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) with interventions other than SNFs where these can address the nutritional gap, including local foods, locally-produced supplements, and cash-based transfers[15]. The WHO also stresses the importance of safeguarding household food security to ensure MAM children have access to nutritionally adequate home foods, underlining the important role that household food assistance plays in addressing wasting and that MAM supplementation should be provided alongside household assistance.

21. In line with the Pillar 3 commitment to “Work with international partners and country governments to increase and broaden global commitment and financing to ending malnutrition in all its forms”, WFP encourages FCDO to work alongside the government of France to ensure that the next N4G Summit secures new political and financial commitments to end malnutrition and guarantees mutual accountability from prior commitments. FCDO is uniquely placed to do so given the UK’s legacy of leadership and intellectual clout in this area. The UK should also lead by example by reviewing its N4G commitment ahead of the Summit, in line with FCDO’s bold agenda to end preventable deaths and announcing a target to reach more than 50 million women, adolescents, and children with nutrition interventions in the next 5 years.

Building resilience

22. The UK Humanitarian Framework commits FCDO to “work to improve the coordination, coherence, and complementarity between humanitarian, development, climate, and conflict efforts”[16]. This is significant given that humanitarian crises are becoming increasingly protracted and multidimensional, and climate shocks more intense and frequent. In an era of fiscal constraint and contexts of protracted crisis, it is critical to capitalise fully on all parts of the crisis response to create sustainable solutions. To effectively bridge short- and long-term efforts to tackle hunger and malnutrition, the UK should champion approaches that operate across the humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus. This would help not only meet humanitarian needs but also address the underlying risks and vulnerabilities that give rise to them, build resilience, and support sustainable national and local systems (see Case Study 2). A nexus approach calls for structural shifts across the humanitarian system, including how it is financed. Effectively operationalising the HDP nexus requires flexible funding instruments and multi-year investments to link HDP action, with a focus on preventative action – for example, by including financial instruments and savings for individuals in resilience programmes. Short-term funding cycles and earmarking can hamper strategic and long-term approaches needed to transition away from immediate humanitarian interventions. WFP strongly encourages FCDO to work with partners to operationalise the OECD DAC Recommendation on the HDP Nexus.

Targeting the most marginalised

23. The UK has led the way in efforts to ensure inclusive humanitarian action. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by the global food and nutrition crisis. As of 2021, there were 150 million more food-insecure women than men in the world. The UK has led the agenda on cash-based transfers, humanitarian safety nets, and shock-responsive social protection systems. FCDO has been a strong advocate for the use of cash transfers and contributed to the global evidence base on cash transfer programming. UK leadership has been pivotal in increasing the use of cash transfers in humanitarian assistance, including investments to scale up the use of digital cash transfers. Cash-based transfers provided by WFP contribute to women’s economic empowerment by increasing their decision-making power and ability to invest in livelihood opportunities and promoting financial inclusion.

24. Over 1 billion women and adolescent girls suffer from undernutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies and anaemia. Progress on adolescent girls' and women’s nutrition is too slow and under threat: no region is on track to meet the 2030 global targets to reduce anaemia and low birth weight, and acute malnutrition has risen by 25% since 2020 in crisis-hit countries.  Moreover, roughly half of children under 2 with stunting become stunted during pregnancy and the first 6 months of life. Investing in women’s and girls’ nutrition is foundational for ensuring the health and resilience of future generations.

25. Of the number of acutely food insecure people, 153 million are children, thus necessitating that children be a priority in efforts to tackle hunger. School feeding is one of the largest and most widespread social safety nets, with 418 million children benefiting from school meals worldwide[17].

26. School meals programmes and take-home rations, both of which are conditional on attendance, have the added benefit of helping to get children into school and stay there. There is evidence to suggest that these programmes can increase enrolment by an average of 9%, with particular benefits for girls by tackling some of the barriers to girls’ education. School meals programmes can offer children a regular source of nutrients that are essential for their mental and physical development. On-site meals, especially when fortified or supplemented, can reduce the prevalence of anaemia by up to 20%. Linking school meals programmes to local smallholder farmers, as WFP does (see footnote 17[18]), not only provides children with safe, diverse, nutritious local food but also provides smallholder farmers with a predictable outlet for their products.

27. The worldwide consequences of closing schools in response to COVID in 2020-2021 have provided strong counterfactual evidence of the value of school meals programmes as a social safety net response to social shocks. Previously, the Financial Crisis of 2008 had spotlighted this issue and led to an increase in coverage of school meals worldwide, such that by 2020 the World Bank recognized school meals as the world’s most extensive social safety net against hunger in children.  The school closures in response to COVID reversed that decade of growth and Governments from high and low-income countries alike created the worldwide School Meals Coalition to rebuild their systems immediately and set a course for better protection going forward. Schools were opened and programmes rebuilt such that by 2020 coverage exceeded pre-covid levels by 30 million and some 420 million children a day are being fed by national programmes, 98% of the support from domestic funds.  Analysis of these actions has led to supportive investment cases, including from PMNCH, The Lancet 3rd Commission on Investing in Health, and the World Bank Disease Control Priorities 4th edition. The Coalition is supported by the African Union and the European Union, and by 95 countries worldwide including the US, Germany, France, Brazil, China and 38 countries in Africa. It provides a crucial self-help platform for governments to learn from each other and share best practices. With a national programme that has persisted through 30 changes in government over its 130 years of implementation, the UK is arguably the most experienced country in national school meals programming in the world, but it is not currently a member of the School Meals Coalition. WFP urges the UK to join the Coalition, which would allow the UK to share its expertise and best practices in providing nutritious school meals for children, and to learn from the experiences of others.

28. Finally, the UK has demonstrated continued commitment to disability inclusion globally, reflected in FCDO’s ambitious disability inclusion and rights strategy, which sets a framework for the UK’s approach to disability-inclusive development, such as inclusive humanitarian action. However, the strategy lacks a focus on the link between nutrition and disability and the importance of disability-inclusive programming for persons with disabilities. Disability-inclusive nutrition services and programmes, and related activities, can reduce nutrition risks faced by persons with disabilities They can also act as entry points to address, and in some cases, avoid or prevent disability; for example, maternal malnutrition before and during pregnancy can increase the risk of the infant being born prematurely, heightening the risk of physical, neurological, and/or cognitive impairments. It is imperative that future nutrition policy and programming recognise and plan for the malnutrition-disability link and ensure resources are made available to address these issues.

The FCDO or other Government departments’ work with other country donors and multilaterally to work on achieving SDG2

29. The UK plays an important role in multilateral efforts towards SDG2. In 2021, during its presidency of the G7, the UK brokered the G7 famine prevention and humanitarian crises compact, galvanising international action to prevent famine, promote humanitarian access, respect international humanitarian law, and protect civilians in countries in crisis. All the commitments set out in the compact must be delivered to turn the tide on global hunger.

30. The compact committed G7 members to “ensure that our funding is timely” and to “act early on a ‘no regrets’ basis to prevent excess mortality, even when robust data is not yet available”[19]. Since June 2021 when the G7 leaders gathered at Carbis Bay, the number of people estimated to be acutely food insecure has increased from 270.5 million to 333 million, likely much more (see footnote 2)[20]. As we approach the end of 2023, the Global Humanitarian Response Plan is less than 36% funded, with some of the most food-insecure countries experiencing massive funding shortfalls[21]. The significant increase in the number of acutely food insecure people and the persistently large funding shortfalls across some of the world’s most severe humanitarian emergencies are evidence of the fact that the response to the global food crisis has not met the scale of the challenge and points to a failure to act early to prevent the most vulnerable populations from falling into worse levels of food insecurity.

31. WFP urges the UK Government to fulfil the commitments set out in the famine prevention compact, including the commitment to act early on a ‘no regrets’ basis. As mentioned above, the recent announcement to allocate 15% of the UK’s humanitarian provision to build resilience and adaptation is a welcome step. However, in parallel, there is a need to improve anticipatory approaches by mainstreaming Anticipatory Action (AA) within the broader humanitarian system and supporting governments to institutionalise AA within national systems, such as disaster risk management and social protection systems, which present opportunities for scale, impact, and sustainability. It is imperative to strengthen locally-led AA and for anticipatory approaches to be nationally owned[22].

32. Looking ahead, WFP encourages the UK Government to build on the legacy of the compact by working with the Italian G7 Presidency to ensure that nutrition and food insecurity and front and centre of the G7’s agenda. Similarly, the UK should build on the efforts of the Global Food Security Summit and N4G by working with the Brazilian G20 Presidency which will prioritise action on food insecurity and nutrition and forge a new Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty.

33. A critical part of multilateral efforts to achieve SDG2 must involve supporting political solutions to improve humanitarian access and resolve protracted conflicts. Conflict is one of the main drivers of food insecurity; 70% of acutely food insecure people – 235 million out of 333 million – live in fragile or conflict-affected situations[23]. Insecurity and conflicts are poised to exacerbate already restricted access to and availability of food – through displacement, the disruption of markets and livelihoods, and the reduction or abandonment of cultivated areas. At the same time, conflict is also a key barrier to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, causing blockages of humanitarian access, obstructive bureaucratic impediments, and extreme risks to humanitarian staff – all of which can prevent the necessary assistance from reaching those most in need.

34. The International Development White Paper commits the UK to use all available levers to prevent food security from being used as a weapon of war. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC), Penholder on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, and a member of the Group of Friends of Action on Conflict and Hunger, the UK is uniquely placed to drive forward collective action to fully operationalise and implement UNSC Resolution 2417 to bring an end to the use of hunger as a weapon of war and support food-insecure populations in conflict-affected contexts. This landmark resolution brought together key aspects of the UNSC’s engagement on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, seen through the lens of food security. However, progress on the Resolution’s implementation and operationalisation has been mixed. When starvation is being used as a weapon of war, it is critical to invoke Resolution 2417, which explicitly recognises the link between conflict and hunger.

35. We have seen with previous UNSC Resolutions that have been successfully implemented, such as Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, that coordinated advocacy efforts in coalition with a wide range of actors have been critical for success. Harnessing and directing the collective capacities and energy of a range of actors would be highly effective.  It is important to empower non-traditional actors to contribute to the implementation of Resolution 2417. Other actors, in particular NGOs, think tanks, and academic institutions, have a wealth of relevant information, knowledge, and expertise on issues related to hunger and conflict. Clear pathways should be established for these non-traditional actors to escalate concerns over compliance with Resolution 2417 to UNSC members.

36. In a joint WFP/FAO update for members of the UNSC in November 2022, a number of recommendations were put forward to facilitate a range of preventative and accountability-oriented tools available under Resolution 2417[24]. WFP encourages the UK to contribute to efforts for the UNSC to establish an independent body of experts to collect and channel critical information and equip and enable the UNSC and the Secretary-General to take preventative action.

37. The successful application of Resolution 2417 and humanitarian diplomacy, including beyond the UNSC – such as through engagement with regional bodies, are critical to stemming and sustainably reducing food insecurity in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. We cannot achieve SDG2 without efforts to end conflict-induced food insecurity.

38. The UK should also double down on diplomatic efforts to revive the Black Sea Initiative (BSI). Wheat prices remain highly volatile, largely caused by uncertainty linked to the conflict and concerns for global food supply. Food price volatility is most acutely felt by families in developing countries that tend to spend a higher share of household income on food. The BSI had a significant impact on global food security, helping to bring down and stabilise global food prices with the benefits felt across the world – both in countries that directly received Ukrainian foodstuffs and those that benefitted from lower food prices. The collapse of the deal has had profound implications for the grain market and is an unwarranted shock for the millions of food-insecure people around the world who relied on the grain. WFP has been able to source enough grain from other places to support global operations, but this has come with higher costs and longer lead times.

The FCDO’s work on achieving food security and nutrition over the short, medium, and long term including its work on food systems, climate resilience, and agricultural sustainability

Climate resilience

39. The climate crisis is one of the main drivers of food insecurity. Over 40% of the global population lives in areas that are highly vulnerable to climate extremes and in 2022, climate extremes were the primary driver of acute food insecurity in areas for 56.8 million people in 12 countries. The UK’s International Climate Finance (ICF) Strategy recognises the link between climate and food security and sets out the UK’s approach to build the resilience of small-scale agricultural producers to increase food security.

40. The UK has been at the forefront of efforts to see a shift towards risk-informed approaches and to increase the resilience of climate-vulnerable countries and communities through Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI), drawing on its prominent role in the global financial system and the City of London’s position as the global insurance hub. CDRFI is an effective way to build the financial resilience of climate-vulnerable countries and communities to shocks. Leveraging CDRFI instruments helps to ensure that predictable and timely funding is available after a shock, allowing governments or humanitarian agencies to fund early, effective, and efficient responses that are more dignified, help to mitigate losses and damages, and enable communities to recover more quickly[25]. It also represents an effective way to secure private sector support for climate adaptation and resilience. For humanitarian agencies, such as WFP, a people-centred approach to CDRFI presents an opportunity to bring the benefits of climate and risk financing to people in food-insecure or fragile and conflict-affected countries. The UK has helped to establish regional risk pools in Africa, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific and supports premium subsidies to ensure that countries, UN and humanitarian agencies can afford the cover they need, as well as world-class technical assistance. It has also committed to scaling up CDRFI to increase the financial resilience of climate-vulnerable countries through the G7/V20 Global Shield, launched at COP27. It is commendable that FCDO has accorded CDRFI such priority and WFP encourages FCDO to continue with this ambitious approach.

41. The UK has a key role to play in enhancing the multilateral system’s response to the climate crisis. The UK has played an active role in developing and strengthening the Global Climate Fund (GCF) and recently announced that it will contribute USD 2 billion to the GCF between 2024 to 2027. Crucially, the UK will co-chair the GCF Board in 2024. As co-chair, the UK is well-placed to accelerate reforms underway to ensure that GCF support is targeted to those communities that are most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis and have the least resources to adapt to its impacts. This could involve easing funding accreditation processes, speeding up disbursement processes, and supporting actors in accessing funds.  This aligns with the commitment in the International Development White Paper to work with partners to reform the international climate and nature finance system. The UK could also advocate for expedited approval processes of locally led and community-based adaptation projects in countries with limited government capacities and urgent humanitarian needs. Specifically, the UK should advocate for greater resource allocations for adaptation in fragile contexts.

42. Communities in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCS) are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis. In FCS, extreme weather events affect three times as many people annually compared to other countries. Yet extremely fragile countries receive 1/80th of the climate finance per capita as non-fragile countries[26]. The UK should accelerate efforts to direct more climate finance to FCS to support climate-vulnerable communities in fragile settings to adapt and prepare for climate shocks and to improve food security. Timely and targeted interventions in adaptation and resilience-building can yield multiple benefits, not least in reducing humanitarian needs. For example, WFP’s resilience-building programmes in Niger have helped to reduce humanitarian needs, with 80% of resilience programme beneficiaries in extremely food-insecure areas not requiring humanitarian assistance during the 2022 food crisis. This translated into an overall saving of USD 30 million compared to what would have been needed if these populations had required humanitarian assistance[27].

43. An important part of this effort is developing the conditions for effective and sustainable implementation of projects, including strengthening national and local capacities and technical and operational expertise. For example, improving shock-responsive social protection systems supports anticipatory action and resilience-building and achieves people-centred financial protection. WFP’s sovereign risk financing solutions have also been leveraged to make social protection systems more shock-responsive (e.g., in Latin America and the Caribbean), ensuring more rapid and targeted responses for the most vulnerable. WFP sees potential to work with the UK in this area, noting the UK’s longstanding global leadership on social protection.

Food systems and sustainable agriculture

44. The global food and nutrition crises are evidence of the fact that food systems are not delivering healthy, affordable, and nutritious diets that are locally available. The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have been shock multipliers, driving vulnerabilities and affecting all aspects of the food value chain, covering farmers, traders, processors, distributors, and retailers. These shocks have highlighted the fragilities within the global food system.

45. The UK has been at the forefront of efforts to drive a shift to sustainable agriculture to build more resilient food systems. Under the UK’s COP26 Presidency, the Agriculture Breakthrough was launched “to make climate-resilient, sustainable agriculture the most attractive and widely adopted option for farmers everywhere by 2023”[28]. The number of countries participating in the Agriculture Breakthrough has increased to 16, including the UAE. Securing greater international collaboration and participation in the Agriculture Breakthrough will be important to galvanise financial and political support to enable smallholder farmers to adapt and build resilience to the climate crisis. Smallholder farmers produce around a third of the world’s food.

46. Supporting smallholder farmers to increase their productivity and incomes, and building stronger food systems through inclusive agricultural and economic development are key to achieving food security. WFP adopts a systems approach to build resilient food systems that provide affordable, healthy, nutritious, and locally available food for all. WFP’s Smallholder Agricultural Market Support (SAMS) programmes adopt a demand-driven value chain approach, leveraging the demand from identified buyers to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and induce a range of positive systemic changes along the value chain. Globally, one-third of food produced is lost or wasted. These losses include post-harvest losses (PHL) that occur at the front of the food chain. WFP’s work in PHL reduction focuses on training and equipment provision to smallholder farmers allowing them to handle and store crops properly. This improves food security and farmers’ income, provides better market options for consumers, and reduces pressure on natural resources, hence contributing to sustainable food systems.

47. The UK has also been an important hive of research and innovation in sustainable agriculture and food systems. The UK was the largest bilateral donor of ODA to agricultural research for development between 2016-2020, and recent announcements have built on this longstanding investment. The announcement at the Global Food Security Summit to launch a new science centre to develop climate-resilient crops and identify risks to global food systems was positive. The UK should continue to bring its science, research, and innovation capabilities to bear to drive food systems transformation within a just transition framework.

Conclusion

48. The UK has been a strong and consistent champion of SDG2, as a thought leader with considerable convening power, a hive of research and innovation, and a donor providing significant and catalytic levels of funding. This is reflected in WFP’s partnership with the UK and the important contributions the UK has made to WFP’s operations to save and change lives over many years.

49. The scale of the challenge ahead to achieve SDG2 requires a step up in collective global efforts and a step change in how we approach and address the underlying drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition. To this end, WFP makes the following recommendations to the UK government:

      Publish further details on the campaign on food security and nutrition to enable partners to effectively engage with and support the government in delivering the campaign.

      Deliver on the commitment to spend GBP 1 billion on humanitarian needs, treating this target as a floor, not a ceiling, and prioritising flexible, multi-year contributions in funding allocations.

      Ensure all ODA programmes include an objective to improve nutrition and guarantee long-term predictable financing to enable effective prevention of malnutrition in countries facing recurrent humanitarian emergencies, prioritising high-impact nutrition support for women and children.

      Work alongside the government of France to ensure that the next Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit secures new political and financial commitments to end malnutrition, reviewing the government’s own N4G commitment ahead of the Summit.

      Work with partners to operationalise the OECD DAC Recommendation on the HDP Nexus.

      Join the School Meals Coalition, which would allow the UK to share its expertise and best practices in nutrition and food security, and to learn from the experiences of others.

      Deliver the G7 Famine Compact commitments, including the commitment to act early on a ‘no regrets’ basis, and work with the incoming Italian G7 Presidency and Brazilian G20 Presidency to prioritise action on global food security and nutrition.

      Drive forward collective action to fully operationalise and implement UNSC Resolution 2417 to end the use of hunger as a weapon of war and support food-insecure populations in conflict-affected contexts, including by creating pathways to channel information to the UNSC.

      Double down on diplomatic efforts to revive the Black Sea Initiative to stabilise global food prices and reduce food price volatility.

      Continue to take an ambitious, risk-informed approach to build climate resilience, including by scaling up the use of Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance.

      Support reforms underway to ensure that climate finance is accessible and targeted to those most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis and with the least resources to adapt to its impacts, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings.

      Continue to bring the UK’s science, research, and innovation capabilities to bear to drive food systems transformation within a just transition framework.

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