On April 26, the Council launched a new report, Growing Food for Growing Cities: Transforming Food Systems in an Urbanizing World, at the Global Food Security Symposium 2016. Each week, we will highlight one of the report’s recommendations on the Global Food for Thought blog. Watch for a new post each Wednesday, and join the discussion using #GlobalAg.
Given the scale of the challenge of feeding cities, private sector investment will be critical. The United States and other donors can and should play a significant role, but the sector is well positioned to deliver solutions to ensure that food systems can meet the demand of growing urban markets. As urban markets grow and small-scale farmers’ capacity and production improves in Africa and Asia, supply chain investment is a significant and growing market opportunity for the private sector, with the potential for high returns.
For U.S. companies to make such investments, however, the U.S. government must play a role in helping to reduce the risks of investing in low-income countries, even in areas that welcome investments. The U.S. government has several support services and partnership programs across several agencies to enable successful investment. Bilateral engagement to alert U.S. companies to such opportunities, enabling national policies and incentives, can help U.S. companies make investments with financial and social returns.
In the same way that Feed the Future takes a whole-of-government approach toward a common goal, U.S. government programs that support and incentivize responsible private-sector engagement should be scaled up as well as made more transparent and coordinated. To ensure that private-sector investment can have the biggest effect possible on reducing rural poverty, the U.S. government should incentivize investments that are inclusive of small-scale farmers and rural entrepreneurs. Inclusive private-sector investment would, over time, lead to “triple wins”—expanded and more resilient supply chains, increased societal food security, and reduced poverty.
At the same time, the U.S. government also has the ability to invest in programs that support local and regional small and medium enterprises (SMEs) along the supply chain in low-income countries. SMEs are critical to supply chain development in order to feed cities, generate rural employment opportunities, and ultimately, achieve poverty alleviation. A dual investment strategy of supporting local SMEs and leveraging and encouraging U.S.-based expertise and investment potential can make sizable contributions to the development of the food system and the reduction of poverty.
The report calls for the U.S. government, alongside U.S. businesses, to:
- Enable and leverage private-sector investment by U.S. firms and lead multinational efforts to spur private-sector investment.
- Partner with and support local SMEs in low-income countries to foster employment opportunities and build rural economies.
U.S. Leadership Essential to Feed an Increasingly Urban World