Back
row (L
to R): Michael Trueblood, Stacey Rosen, Keith Wiebe; Front
row (L to R): Mark Nord, Shahla Shapouri, Birgit Meade Not pictured: Margaret
Andrews
At the World Food Summit in 1996, leaders from across the globe
set a goal of halving world hunger by 2015. The
innovative contributions and insights of the ERS Global Food Security Team have
been instrumental in helping shape the U.S. response to the challenge.
The seven-member team was formed in 1995 in response to an interagency
request to publish a background paper assessing food security in
low-income countries for the 1996 World Food Summit. It later drafted
the U.S. position paper for the follow-up summit in 2002. “The
original request catalyzed new forces on food security,” says
team leader Shahla Shapouri, “which have been carried through
in our work ever since.” Those ensuing efforts have been wide
ranging, as the research focus has been extended to agricultural
productivity and growth, trade, and other factors that can affect
food security, which is generally defined as access at all times
to enough food for active, healthy living. The team’s analysis
also covers U.S. household food security.
The team has been an invaluable resource in the fight to reduce
hunger. As part of a United Nations (UN) working group, team members
influenced the development of an approach to measure the number
of people at risk of hunger and malnutrition, which is now a critical
operational element in the UN World Food Program. They provided
input in a program to expand U.S. market access for African exports.
Improved market access is vital to food-deficit countries, which
use export earnings to finance food imports. The team’s body
of work has also served to bolster congressional testimony and
U.S. participation at several international forums, including the
December 2002 G-8 meeting.
Progress in meeting the World Food Summit’s overall goal
has been slow to date, and significant challenges remain. ERS’s
Global Food Security Team will continue to serve as a complement
to the U.S. foreign food assistance mission, providing policymakers
and others with analysis on the nature, scope, and root causes
of hunger and food insecurity. Adds Shahla, “We see the fruits
of our efforts when other agencies and organizations use our work
and decisions are made based on our research results.”
