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Since 2016, Germany has been the second largest contributor to the United Nations development system (UNDS) for development-related and humanitarian activities, after the United States of America. The biggest increase in Germany’s funding has been in the form of earmarked contributions, that is, funding with specified geographic and thematic purposes. While humanitarian funding to agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) accounts for the bulk of Germany’s contributions to the United Nations (UN), development-related funding for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN Women also experienced a sharp rise. More recently, core contributions, which can be used by multilateral organisations with greater discretion, have also increased, most notably as part of the coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency response.
The significant increase signals that Germany places trust in the UN, including in times of crisis, and deems it to be of real importance. It is now time for Germany to more explicitly recognise its strategic interest in a strong and effective UNDS that can reinforce its foreign policies regarding stabilisation, reconstruction, refugees and the climate. Through multilateral organisations states can achieve more than they can alone. Although earmarked funding has helped the UNDS to expand its scope and scale, in the most prominent forms it has many negative repercussions in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy.
Earmarking also comes with direct costs to German actors, who face challenges stemming from the multitude of earmarked funding arrangements and their administrative burden. In addition, the German government presents itself in a fragmented manner with regard to the UNDS, with differences across and within ministries and implementing agencies.
For Germany, being in the prominent position of second largest contributor to the UNDS, at a time when the largest contributor is withdrawing funding, comes with responsibilities and opportunities. To be an effective supporter of multilateralism, the German government needs to get its own house in order.
• It should view its allocation decisions as a means towards strengthening multilateralism and supporting UN reforms, and to that end it should work towards a better balanced funding mix with greater shares of flexible funds.
• It should more clearly communicate and justify its increased engagement in the UNDS to the German public and increase the coherence of its multilateral efforts.
• It should assess the hidden costs that arise through the use of implementing agencies and improve guidance on earmarked funding in line with commitments made in the context of the Grand Bargain (2016) and UN Funding Compact (2019).
• It should stabilise the recently raised levels of core contributions to UN development agencies, recognise the strategic importance of core contributions and also make greater use of softly earmarked forms of funding.

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Women of the Batwa community tilling the soil in preparation for planting potatoes, in Gashikanwa, Burundi. Credit: FAO/Giulio Napolitano

By Agnes Kalibata
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 8 2020 (IPS)

Food systems involve all the stages that lead up to the point when we consume food, including the way it is produced, transported, and sold. Launching a policy brief on food security in June, UN chief António Guterres warned of an “impending food emergency”, unless immediate action is taken.

My commitment to improving food systems is closely linked to my early life as the daughter of refugees.

“I was born in a refugee camp in Uganda, because my Rwandan parents were forced to leave their home around the time of colonial independence in the early 60s.

Agnes Kalibata, Special Envoy for 2021 Food Systems Summit. Credit: CIAT/Neil Palmer

Thanks to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), were given land, which allowed my parents to farm, buy a few cows, and make enough money to send me and my siblings to school. This allowed me to experience, first-hand, how agriculture, in a functioning food system, can provide huge opportunities for smallholder communities.

I took this appreciation with me when I eventually returned to Rwanda, as Minister for Agriculture, working with smallholders and seeing them grab every opportunity to turn their lives around against all odds. This was probably the most fulfilling period in my life.

But, I have also seen what can happen when threats like climate change, conflict and even more recently, a pandemic like Covid 19, hit the world’s farmers, especially those who are smallholders, like my parents were.

As a daughter of farmers, I understand how much people can suffer, because of systems that are breaking down. I often reflect that I, and other children of farmers my age that made it through school, were the lucky ones because climate change hits small farmers the hardest, destroying their capacities to cope.

My experience has shown me that, when food systems function well, agriculture can provide huge opportunities for smallholder communities. I am a product of functional food systems, and I am fully convinced of the power of food systems to transform lives of smallholder households and communities, and bring about changes to entire economies.

I’m extremely passionate about ending hunger in our lifetime: I believe it’s a solvable problem. I don’t understand why 690 million people are still going to bed hungry, amidst so much plenty in our world, and with all the knowledge, technology and resources.

I have made it my mission to understand why this is the case, and how we can overcome the challenges we see along the way. That is why I gladly accepted the offer by the UN Secretary General to be his Special Envoy for the Food Systems Summit.

Female farmers in discussion with former Rwandan Minister for Agriculture, Agnes Kalibata (far left). Credit: UN Food Systems Summit

Why food systems need to change

Today’s food systems do not respond to what we need as people. The cause of death for one in three people around the world is related to what they eat. Two billion people are obese, one trillion dollars’ worth of food is wasted every year, yet many millions still go hungry.

Food systems have an impact on the climate. They are responsible for around one third of harmful greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change, which is interfering massively in our ability to produce food, upending farmers’ lives, and making the seasons harder to predict.

We have built up a lot of knowledge around the things that we’re doing wrong, and we have the technology to allow us to do things differently, and better. This isn’t rocket science: it’s mostly a question of mobilizing energy, and securing political commitment for change.

Galvanise and engage

The main impetus behind the Food Summit is the fact that the we are off track with all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that relate to food systems, principally ending poverty and hunger, and action on the climate and environment.

We want to use the Summit to galvanise and engage people, raising awareness about the elements that are broken, and what we need to change; to recognize that we’re way off track with the SDGs, and raise our ambitions; and to secure firm commitments to actions that will transform our current food systems for the better.

Traditional Hadong Tea Agrosystem in Hwagae-myeon, Korea, cultivate indigenous tea trees around streams and between rocks in hilly areas surrounding temples. Credit: Hadong County, Republic of Korea

Pulling together the UN System

The UN system is already doing a lot of work in this area, and we’ve pulled together several agencies and bodies to support the Summit.

We have formed a UN Task Force to channel the existing research, so that nothing falls through the cracks, which will work closely with a core group of experts we have assembled, which is looking at scientific data pooled from institutions all around the world. At the same time, we are examining national food systems, to see what is and isn’t working.

We are going to pool all the information, evidence and ideas we receive, and create a vision for a future food system that benefits all.”

At a briefing on the Food Systems Summit held recently, Amina Mohammed, the UN Deputy Secretary-General, noted that a transition to more sustainable systems is already underway, with countries beginning to “take action and change behaviours in support of a new vision of how food arrives on our plate.”

UN Member States, she continued, are increasingly aware that food systems are “one of the most powerful links between humans and the planet”, and bringing about a world that “enhances inclusive economic growth and opportunity, while also safeguarding biodiversity and the global ecosystems that sustain life. “

The Summit objectives

• The 2021 Food Systems Summit will bring together the UN System, and key leaders in food-related fields, to bring food systems in line with the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN’s blueprint for a better future for people, and the planet.
• The main objectives, or action tracks, of the summit, will launch bold new solutions or strategies to deliver progress on the SDGs. The five tracks look at ensuring safe and nutritious food for all; shifting to sustainable consumption patterns; boosting nature-positive production at sufficient scale; advancing equitable livelihoods and value distribution; and building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses.
• Participants, including experts such as farmers, indigenous peoples and academics, will explore ways to make food systems more resilient to vulnerabilities and shocks, including those linked to climate change.

*This article was first appeared in UN News, a publication of the United Nations.

 

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The post UN’s First-Ever Food Systems Summit to Fight Impending Emergency appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Agnes Kalibata, in an interview with UN News*

 
Agnes Kalibata, UN Special Envoy for 2021 Food Systems Summit and a former Rwandan Minister for Agriculture, has been tasked with leading the first-ever UN Food Systems Summit, on a date to be determined next year. In an interview with UN News, she outlined her vision for a transformed international system that is more resilient, fairer, and less harmful to the planet.

The post UN’s First-Ever Food Systems Summit to Fight Impending Emergency appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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Multilateral cooperation means that states can collectively achieve more than they can through individual and bilateral efforts alone. Multilateral organisations are important instruments for this: they have a greater geographic and thematic reach, operate at a larger scale and stand for multilateral norms and values. Funding provides an important basis for multilateral development cooperation – only with sufficient core funding at their disposal can multilaterals effectively and independently perform the functions member states expect. This includes a problem-driven allocation of resources, strategic orientation, and flexibility in the implementation of and advocacy for internationally agreed values, norms and standards. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has demonstrated the need for international cooperation to deal with multiple crises that affect all societies. It has also proved the value of multilateral organisations that can combat the spread of COVID-19 worldwide and support countries where health systems are weakest.
Over the last three decades, the funding trend for multilateral organisations has been towards ever greater shares of earmarked funding, whereas core funding has grown much more slowly or has even declined for some organisations.
A contribution is earmarked when a contributor directs it to a specific pooled fund, programme or – most typically – a project in a specific country. The substantial increase in such earmarked (also “restricted”, “bi-multi”) funding has certainly buoyed organisations and helped to close many funding gaps.
However, such atomised funding practices come with the risk of instrumentalising multilateral organisations for project implementation purposes, and by doing so, reducing their programmatic coherence, effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy. For contributors, earmarking has often been a politically convenient choice. It provides them with control over the use of their resources and visibility for results achieved, all at attractively low implementation costs. However, both the direct implications of earmarking for specific interventions and the more systemic effects on the effectiveness and efficiency of the multilateral organisations tend to be overlooked. At the scale we see it today, earmarking may actually undermine the ability of multilaterals to fulfil the member states’ expectations and make full use of their unique assets to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
To fully harness the potential of multilateral development cooperation, both member states and multilateral organisations have to change course.
• A larger number of contributors – also beyond the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC) – should contribute additional funds to the multilateral development system.
• Contributors should reverse the trend of growing shares of earmarked funding by increasing core funds across organisations.
• Contributors should use earmarked funding more prudently to support rather than undermine multilateral functions. Multi-donor pooled funds are a viable alternative.
• Multilaterals should invest in transparent institutional mechanisms that provide checks for resource mobilisation.

Multilateral cooperation means that states can collectively achieve more than they can through individual and bilateral efforts alone. Multilateral organisations are important instruments for this: they have a greater geographic and thematic reach, operate at a larger scale and stand for multilateral norms and values. Funding provides an important basis for multilateral development cooperation – only with sufficient core funding at their disposal can multilaterals effectively and independently perform the functions member states expect. This includes a problem-driven allocation of resources, strategic orientation, and flexibility in the implementation of and advocacy for internationally agreed values, norms and standards. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has demonstrated the need for international cooperation to deal with multiple crises that affect all societies. It has also proved the value of multilateral organisations that can combat the spread of COVID-19 worldwide and support countries where health systems are weakest.
Over the last three decades, the funding trend for multilateral organisations has been towards ever greater shares of earmarked funding, whereas core funding has grown much more slowly or has even declined for some organisations.
A contribution is earmarked when a contributor directs it to a specific pooled fund, programme or – most typically – a project in a specific country. The substantial increase in such earmarked (also “restricted”, “bi-multi”) funding has certainly buoyed organisations and helped to close many funding gaps.
However, such atomised funding practices come with the risk of instrumentalising multilateral organisations for project implementation purposes, and by doing so, reducing their programmatic coherence, effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy. For contributors, earmarking has often been a politically convenient choice. It provides them with control over the use of their resources and visibility for results achieved, all at attractively low implementation costs. However, both the direct implications of earmarking for specific interventions and the more systemic effects on the effectiveness and efficiency of the multilateral organisations tend to be overlooked. At the scale we see it today, earmarking may actually undermine the ability of multilaterals to fulfil the member states’ expectations and make full use of their unique assets to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
To fully harness the potential of multilateral development cooperation, both member states and multilateral organisations have to change course.
• A larger number of contributors – also beyond the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC) – should contribute additional funds to the multilateral development system.
• Contributors should reverse the trend of growing shares of earmarked funding by increasing core funds across organisations.
• Contributors should use earmarked funding more prudently to support rather than undermine multilateral functions. Multi-donor pooled funds are a viable alternative.
• Multilaterals should invest in transparent institutional mechanisms that provide checks for resource mobilisation.

Multilateral cooperation means that states can collectively achieve more than they can through individual and bilateral efforts alone. Multilateral organisations are important instruments for this: they have a greater geographic and thematic reach, operate at a larger scale and stand for multilateral norms and values. Funding provides an important basis for multilateral development cooperation – only with sufficient core funding at their disposal can multilaterals effectively and independently perform the functions member states expect. This includes a problem-driven allocation of resources, strategic orientation, and flexibility in the implementation of and advocacy for internationally agreed values, norms and standards. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has demonstrated the need for international cooperation to deal with multiple crises that affect all societies. It has also proved the value of multilateral organisations that can combat the spread of COVID-19 worldwide and support countries where health systems are weakest.
Over the last three decades, the funding trend for multilateral organisations has been towards ever greater shares of earmarked funding, whereas core funding has grown much more slowly or has even declined for some organisations.
A contribution is earmarked when a contributor directs it to a specific pooled fund, programme or – most typically – a project in a specific country. The substantial increase in such earmarked (also “restricted”, “bi-multi”) funding has certainly buoyed organisations and helped to close many funding gaps.
However, such atomised funding practices come with the risk of instrumentalising multilateral organisations for project implementation purposes, and by doing so, reducing their programmatic coherence, effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy. For contributors, earmarking has often been a politically convenient choice. It provides them with control over the use of their resources and visibility for results achieved, all at attractively low implementation costs. However, both the direct implications of earmarking for specific interventions and the more systemic effects on the effectiveness and efficiency of the multilateral organisations tend to be overlooked. At the scale we see it today, earmarking may actually undermine the ability of multilaterals to fulfil the member states’ expectations and make full use of their unique assets to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
To fully harness the potential of multilateral development cooperation, both member states and multilateral organisations have to change course.
• A larger number of contributors – also beyond the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC) – should contribute additional funds to the multilateral development system.
• Contributors should reverse the trend of growing shares of earmarked funding by increasing core funds across organisations.
• Contributors should use earmarked funding more prudently to support rather than undermine multilateral functions. Multi-donor pooled funds are a viable alternative.
• Multilaterals should invest in transparent institutional mechanisms that provide checks for resource mobilisation.

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