Reaction: G7 Development Ministers publish plans for Apulia Food Systems

G7 Development Ministers published detailed plans for the Apulia Food Systems Initiative at their summit.

Reactions and analysis is given below.

Cristiana De Lia, an independent expert on food and climate said:  “There are things to celebrate in the G7 Apulia Food Systems plan. It recognizes that a lot more finance is needed to support agriculture adaptation and mitigation in Africa, and that this money should be targeted at vulnerable communities including family farmers. It also acknowledges that diverse and nature friendly approaches such as agroecology are key to building climate resilience. The big problem is that there is still no new money to deliver on these plans – and no clear idea of how much funding will be reallocated from elsewhere.”

Stephen Muchiri, CEO of East Africa Farmers Federation which represents 25 million family farmers across the region said: “As the G7 moves from planning to implementation it is critical that they deliberately work with family farmers, and the organisations which represent them and provide dedicated direct channels of support. This is the only way to ensure that the Apulia plan meets the needs of Africa’s small-scale farmers who produce 70% of the continent’s food – and benefits from their experience and expertise.”

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Analysis

The G7 Development Ministers Communique can be found here. Key points include:

• Recognises urgent need to increase scale of finance for food security, sustainable food systems, and nutrition and to improve access and impact of climate finance to support smallholder farmers, women and youth. However no new money – and no clarification on how much funding will be reallocated from elsewhere.
• Announces a new voluntary coffee fund – the Global Coffee Sustainability and Resilience fund – to deploy financial resources in support of smallholder farmers but there are no funding commitments.
• Recognises agroecology and traditional local approaches as important for adaptation and climate resilience
• Highlights need to explore costs and benefits of debt swaps and other innovative financial tools.
• Public Development Banks (PDBs) & Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) to coordinate initiatives, enable knowledge sharing and leverage more public/private funding. Emphasises the importance of local contexts and supporting local employment opportunities.
• Highlights importance of aligning the Apulia Food Systems Initiative (AFSI) with other initiatives and calls for the inclusion of food systems in national policies (e.g. national climate plans (NDCs) and biodiversity strategies (NBSAPs) and national adaptation plans (NAPs). It also  highlights synergies between climate, food and biodiversity and the need to align to the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework.