The reform of the committee on world food security: The quest for coherence in global governance

Abstract

The global surge in prices of food commodities in 2007-2008 led governments to identify gaps in the global governance of food security as a major obstacle to the realization of the right to food. The reform of the Committee on World Food Security, completed at the end of 2009, was to remedy that: its objectives were to introduce more consistency across policy areas, and to serve as an inclusive platform for a modest form of monitoring by peer review, and for collective learning. The reform is an ambitious one. But it is most remarkable for its recognition that unless food security policies are informed by the views of the victims of hunger and permanently tested and revised, they shall fail: participation and experimentalism are therefore key components of the new mechanism that has been established. Combating hunger and malnutrition is a complex task, and it can only be achieved through multiyear strategies and coordinated efforts at different levels and in different sectors: this chapter explores whether the reform, that has now entered its implementation phase, can meet the challenge it has set for itself.