The CFS is the United Nations' forum for reviewing policies concerning world food. It is the most inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all relevant stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition.
About the Committee on World Food Security
Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests
Outline UCFA
Summary UCFA
Updated CFA (UCFA)
The UCFA is offered as a tool to inspire and inform Member States as they engage in discussions around matters related to food and nutrition security in different intergovernmental bodies.
56th Commission on the Status of Women (New York, 27 February-9 March 2012)
19th Human Rights Council (Geneva, 27 February - 23 March 2012)
2012 Spring Meetings, World Bank and International Monetary Fund (Washington, 20-22 April 2012)
UNCTAD XIII (Doha, 21-26 April 2012)
65th World Health Assembly (Geneva, 21-26 May 2012)
UNICEF Executive Board (New York, 5-8 June 2012)
101st Session of the International Labour Conference (Geneva, May 30 - June 15 2012)
WTO Geneva Week for Non-Resident Members and Observers (Geneva, July 9-13 2012)
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14 August 2011 – The United Nations humanitarian chief today toured the world's largest refugee camp, telling residents of Dadaab in north-eastern Kenya that the international community must do more to help the large number of famine-stricken Somalis who continue to cross the nearby border to seek aid.
Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, visited Dadaab at the end of a three-day mission to Somalia and Kenya to see first-hand the crisis gripping Horn of Africa, where drought, failed harvests and conflict have pushed millions to the brink of starvation.
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1 August 2011, Rome - Urgent and concrete measures intended to heighten the international response to the worsening crisis in the Horn of Africa will be the focus of a high-level operational meeting hosted by FAO on 18 August 2011.
10 August 2011 – The prices of grain and milk in the drought-hit Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have risen to record highs, exacerbating hardship for the estimated 12.4 million people in the region who are facing severe food shortages and famine in some parts of Somalia, the United Nations reported today.
3 August 2011 – The United Nations today declared a famine in three more areas in drought-ravaged Somalia, bringing to five the number of regions in the Horn of Africa country where acute malnutrition and starvation have already claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, said the Afgoye corridor outside Mogadishu, the capital itself, and the Middle Shabelle region are now in a state of famine. On 20 July the UN declared outright famine in Lower Shabelle and in southern Bakool region.
3 August 2011, Lomé, Togo/Rome - The European Union's (EU) investment in agricultural rehabilitation in Togo has led to benefits that are almost double their cost, according to FAO. The Organization used EU funding to help Togolese farmers cope with high food prices and climatic adversities.
Togo's rural population suffered the most from floods and sharp increases in food prices that hit the country in 2007 and 2008.
2 August 2011 – As aid agencies continue to scale up their response to the dire humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is appealing to the air transport sector to provide free and discounted cargo space to bring emergency food supplies into the region.
“Commercial air transport costs as much as the value of the food,” Marixie Mercado, UNICEF’s spokesperson in Geneva, told a news conference there.
An estimated 11 million people in and around Somalia are at risk of starvation amid the worst drought to hit the nation in a generation, a crisis so dire it is about to force the Obama administration to ease rules meant to block the funding of terrorist groups.
Billions of dollars in aid has been pledged by the global community to help stave off the mounting disaster, and it's increasingly reaching those most in need, but a damning obstacle remains in the form of an Islamic terror group called al-Shabab.
1 August 2011 – The United Nations humanitarian chief warned today that the famine in Somalia could spread if the international community does not provide the funds required to respond to the hunger crisis, which, she said, had claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people.
UN humanitarian agencies last month declared outright famine in two areas of southern Somalia.
“Unless we see a massive increase in response, the famine will spread to five or six more regions,” Valerie Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters at UN Headquarters. “Tens of thousand of Somalis have already died and hundreds of thousands face starvation,” she said.
28 July 2011 – The United Nations refugee agency today revised upwards the amount of funds it requires to effectively respond to the hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa, asking donors to provide an additional $8.6 million on top of the $136.3 million already requested for its humanitarian operations in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.
26 July 2011 – Up to 100,000 internally displaced people have arrived in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, over the last two months in search of food, water, shelter and other vital humanitarian assistance after fleeing famine-hit areas, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.
The Independent External Evaluation (IEE) of the HLTF Coordination Team was issued in May 2013
IEE Final Report Volume I
IEE Final Report Volume II
Management Response of HLTF Coordination Team to IEE Report
Many different groups are moving forward on an effort to scale up nutrition (SUN). We are witnessing the emergence of a movement.
For more information visit www.scalingupnutrition.org
UN Conference on Sustainable Development - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 20-22, 2012
Rio+20 Outcome document The Future We Want
Position Paper from the UN System High Level Task Force on Global Food Security
To read more about the structure and functions of the High Level Task Force, please visit our page on Structure
We have compiled a list of useful links from a variety of sources, including governments, international agencies, NGOs and scientific organizations. Please feel free to inform us of additional web sites for consideration.
The spike in food prices of last year (2008) underscored what experts have been telling us for many years: the world's food systems are in crisis