Policy Brief | Global Food Security Act Reauthorization

In response to the global food price crisis of 2007-2008, President Obama pledged to provide $3.5 billion over three years at the G8 Summit in 2009 in L’Aquila to support global agriculture and combat food insecurity, leading to the creation of Feed the Future (FTF) in 2010. FTF has since become a whole-of-government effort, codified by the Global Food Security Act (GFSA) of 2016 and led by USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security. The 2016 GFSA recognized global food security’s importance for United States (U.S.) national security and economic interests and mandated a whole-of-government approach. FTF currently coordinates with at least 11 U.S. government agencies to achieve cross-sectoral international development goals and align U.S. food and agriculture programs.

To reduce global poverty, hunger and malnutrition, FTF has three objectives: 1) inclusive and sustainable agriculture-led growth; 2) strengthened resilience among people and systems; and 3) a well-nourished population, especially among women and children.

Recommendations:

As Congress begins its GFSA reauthorization efforts, we urge the U.S. government to recommit to addressing the root causes of poverty, hunger and malnutrition and build on its past successes, as promised at the UN Food Systems Summit and Nutrition for Growth Summit of 2021. To meet the refreshed GFSS’ goal to reduce poverty and hunger by 20 percent, and address the pressing issues of climate change in a context of global income inequality, CRS makes the following recommendations:

1. Strengthen investments in small-scale farmers, particularly women small-scale farmers.
2. Increase investment in natural resource management.
3. Enhance transparency of FTF target and aligned country selection processes.
4. Commit to sharing country graduation data.
5. Improve flexibility of and coordination between U.S. government-funded emergency and non-emergency programs to bridge the humanitarian-development-peace nexus to prevent food crises.  
6. Strengthen commitments to localization by increasing funding to local organizations and defining ‘local entities.’
7. Invest in strengthening host country governance capacities and linkages at all levels (e.g., community, national, and regional).
8. Increase  investments in social protection mechanisms for the most vulnerable households and communities.

Published April 2022

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