What is Feed the Future?
food security initiative, introduced by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah on May 20, 2010.
"Feed the Future pursues two paths:
(1) addressing the root causes of hunger
that limit the potential of millions of people;
and (2) establishing a lasting foundation for
change by aligning our resources with country-owned processes and sustained,
multi-stakeholder partnerships. Through
our leadership in this initiative, we advance
global stability and prosperity by improving
the most basic of human conditions – the
need that families and individuals have for a
reliable source of quality food and sufficient
resources to access and purchase it..."
The initiative is unique in a number of ways. Guided by the Rome Principles, Feed the Future seeks to complement in-country, regional, and continental efforts such as
CAADP and utilize partnerships to sustainably address food insecurity. The initiative will target a number of focus countries selected on the basis of: level of need, opportunity for partnership, potential for agriculture-led growth, opportunity for regional synergies, and resource availability. At present,
twelve countries and three regions in Africa have developed Feed the Future implementation plans. To see the full list of target countries, including non-African countries and regions, please visit the
Feed the Future website.
Feed the Future is aligned with the administration's new nutrition program, the
1,000 Days initiative, and research program, the
Norman Borlaug Commemorative Research Initiative.
Another key part of the Feed the Future initiative is the
Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP). Launched in April 2010, GAFSP is a multilateral funding mechanism housed at the World Bank that emerged from the 2009 G8 and G20 summits' calls for increased support for country-led agriculture and to promote investments in smallholder farmers. Australia, Canada, Ireland, South Korea, Spain, the United States, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have pledged $925 million over three years to GAFSP. GAFSP funds are used to implement country-led solutions to promote agriculture and food security, to pool multilateral resources and improve the predictability of aid, to fill gaps left by current and past aid-implementing institutions, to build and mobilize capacity, to promote governance and transparency, and to find the appropriate framework for an evolutionary approach to building trust on all sides of the initiative, all in order to make a dependable commitment to agricultural development and food security. Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mongolia, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Togo have received funds to date.
