UK announces aid package to tackle rising global food prices

Notes for editors

1. The current crisis is being caused by high and rising food prices, not a shortage of food. The solution is to improve access to food for poor people. Prices are rising because of increasing demand for food due to population growth, and increasing oil prices and their impact on the cost of food production, processing and distribution.

2. The round table event at Downing Street will involve more than 25 key international figures, including Josette Sheeran of the World Food Programme, Paul Collier of Oxford University, Justin King, Chief Executive of Sainsbury’s and David Mepham, Director of Policy Save the Children.

3. The event will focus on the how the international community can respond, in a joined up and comprehensive way, to the growing global food price crisis.

4. DFID’s aid package announced today will combine with the existing work of the department, investing in short and long term solutions to tackling world hunger, the first of the Millennium Development Goals. The £400 million for agricultural research is part of a larger funding announcement to be made today by the Secretary of State for International Development for £1 billion over five years for DFID’s research strategy. Our approach focuses on protecting poor and vulnerable people in countries susceptible to food shocks; increasing incomes of the poor; and supporting agricultural growth.

5. DFID has already provided more than £70 million ($140 million) in humanitarian assistance to Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, taking into account the increased costs of food, and responded to appeals (£3 million in Afghanistan and £1 million in Yemen).

6. Each year DFID invests £50 million ($100 million), helping more than 10 million vulnerable people in Africa get better access to food, through safety net and social protection programmes, providing people with the right instruments, such as livestock, tools, seeds and fertilisers, that mean no longer having to rely on short-term, expensive and often unreliable food relief.

7. DFID has also ring-fenced £4 million ($8 million) for monitoring activities in Africa to help avoid widespread malnutrition as a result of the current price crisis.

8. In the longer term, DFID is investing in the agricultural sectors of poor countries, in more research and improving transport, boosting of incomes for the poor to help reduce the impact of high prices, including:

• £400 million ($800 million) over five years in international agricultural research aimed at higher crop yields, better pest control and better forest management;
• £120 million ($240 million) a year to boost the agricultural sector in poor countries, with more funding to come.
• £34.7 million ($70 million) funding to reduce the cost of transportation within Africa;
• being instrumental in setting up the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa which has realised more than $14 billion a year in support over the last two years; and
• £37 million ($70 million) to set up a new International Growth Centre to improve incomes in poor countries, with promoting growth of the agricultural sectors as a key priority.

For further information, contact Nic Fearon-Low on 020 7023 0533 or 020 7023 0600, e-mail pressoffice@dfid.gov.uk or call our Public Enquiries Point on 0845 300 4100.

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