Funding the Obama Administration's Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative

The Administration has requested $1.844 billion for its Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative (GHFSI), which does not include agricultural programs in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. President Obama has pledged to invest $3.5 billion from fiscal years 2010 to 2012 to spur agricultural development in the developing world. 

Funding breakdown: $1.236 billion to State/USAID; $408 million to Treasury to support the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (multilateral trust fund program administered by the World Bank); and $200 million for nutrition programs through the Global Health and Child Survival account, as part of the Global Health Initiative.

Assistance in FY 2011 will center on a group of 20 countries that have been identified on the basis of four criteria: chronic hunger and poverty in rural areas, including vulnerability to food price shocks; potential for rapid and sustainable agriculture-led growth; good governance; and opportunities for regional synergies through trade and other mechanisms.

The GHFSI will partner with selected countries and other stakeholders to assist host countries in developing and implementing their own Country Investment Plans (CIPs), such as those under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). Strategic investments will include efforts to improve agriculture productivity, expand market access of small scale producers, catalyze economic growth, finance and trade, including increasing access to financial services, and other value chain components, and will take place in two phases.

Phase II Funds ($246 million) “for countries demonstrating readiness for large scale investments”: The Obama administration has identified five African countries – Ghana, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal and Tanzania – in whose food security it wants to “invest significantly” in fiscal 2011. These countries were chosen for based on their progress to date in developing their CIPs and improving their agriculture and nutrition policy environments.

Phase I funds ($352 million) for 15 countries “that are in the process of preparing their CIP, assistance includes organization and skills training of key government officials to lead country plan development and implementation, support for stakeholder consultation, public expenditure review and analysis that identifies priority investment opportunities, and identification of needed actions to improve the policy environment – investments all focused on accelerating countries’ efforts toward building a conducive environment for successful country plan implementation.”

The Administration also requested an additional $55 million through a food security strategic reserve fund, sized to scale up operations in four of the 20 countries on a contingency basis--for example, if a number of Phase I countries could move forward more aggressively than originally forecast in the budget and be ready by the end of 2010 with sound CIPs and an environment conducive for Phase II investment; or if there are countries projected as ready for Phase II investment levels that have additional absorption capacity that allow deeper investments that can yield greater beneficiary results faster than originally forecast in the budget at this time.