Increasing food price volatility since 2007, which is likely to continue and possibly amplify in the future, presents a major challenge for the world’s policymakers. While much has been written about the nature and causes of food price fluctuations since 2007, little is known about the processes that led to the policy responses and the relative power, behavior, and influence of the participating stakeholder groups. Understanding how and why governments responded as they did will help enhance existing knowledge of the political economy of food price policy and assist governments in their policymaking as they confront future food price fluctuations.

After having been largely eliminated by structural adjustment programs in the 1980s and 1990s, many African countries have reintroduced large-scale input subsidy programs. The subsidy programs’ benefits, however, are highly contested, and there remains a lack of recent and high-quality research to inform policy discussion and guide research on more targeted “smart” subsidy programs implemented recently across the region.

The first Food Security Futures conference will bring together senior researchers from CGIAR and FAO to present their perspectives on research priorities for the 21st century. The conference is being held in Dublin, Ireland, the week before the EU Presidency (held the by Irish government) Meeting on ‘Hunger – Nutrition – Climate Justice: Making Connections for a More Sustainable World’, 15-16 April 2013.

Brussels Development Briefing, organized by CTA in collaboration with the ACP Secretariat, the EC/DEVCO, Concord and IFPRI

Which are the key challenges posed to strengthen resilience in agriculture?

This Briefing will discuss the concept and approaches to resilience and highlight proven approaches and instruments around some key areas of special benefit to the small-scale farmers in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.