World risks 'sleepwalking' into food crisis, Yvette Cooper warns

The world is at risk of “sleepwalking” into a food crisis, Yvette Cooper has warned, with Iran’s three-month closure of the Strait of Hormuz continuing to strangle key supply chains for energy and fertiliser.

The foreign secretary made the comments at the Global Partnerships Conference in London, co-hosted by the UK and South Africa, which aims of building new partnerships and set out a “new approach to international development” following devastating cuts to foreign aid from the UK, US and elsewhere.

Speaking during a keynote address, Ms Cooper warned that the world was “more volatile, more contested, more unstable than ever”, with events in the Middle East one of a myriad of threats that wealthy nations need to be able to better address.

“The global economy is being held hostage, with the Global South paying the biggest price,” Ms Cooper said of Iran’s continued blockade of Hormuz, which has hit communities at a time when they should be planting for the next harvest. “The agricultural clock is ticking, and damage is already being done that will affect crop yields and food prices well into next year.

“As the World Food Programme has warned, some 45 million people in the global south are at risk of being pushed into acute hunger this year; the world risks sleepwalking into a global food crisis.”

In the same speech, Ms Cooper warned of other “concurrent crises” facing the world today, such as “conflict, climate, [and] communicable diseases”, with the ongoing crisis around Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo highlighted as a particular concern.

Given the myriad of threats facing the world, as well as aid cuts, “bold new approaches” to international development are now needed, the foreign secretary continued – with the UK’s new strategy of prioritising aid for fragile and conflict-affected countries, while building new investment partnerships with more stable developing countries, exemplifying this.

“[We need to] mobilise much wider investments and different forms of capital investment and support,” she said. “The second shift is to make sure that we focus our humanitarian grant aid on the countries and communities that most need support.”

Key conference announcements that reflect this new approach to development include £1bn of climate investments from the government-owned development investor British International Investments, which is set to unlock a further £3.5bn in private capital, according to the FCDO.

The UK also announced the formation of new “Communities of Expertise”, which are new “demand-led, interdisciplinary hubs” that will allow the UK to share expertise with developing key areas including climate and energy, education, health, finance, and governance.

On the ground at the conference, however, there was something of a mixed response to the UK position as laid out by the foreign secretary, with some wondering whether the slashing of the UK aid budget from 0.5 to 0.3 per cent of gross national income (GNI) will mean the UK really can deliver on its ambition.

“I remain concerned that the ambition pinned to the conference far outstrips the reality of what can be achieved with a much-reduced budget,” Sarah Champion, the chair of the International Development committee, told The Independent.

“The conflict in the Strait of Hormuz highlights how fragile global food and energy security is, but it is not the cause,” she continued. “Patient investment in preventing the root causes of poverty, conflict, inequality and climate change should be our focus if we want to support a sustainable world.”

Ms Champion’s comments come as other countries such as Norway have said that they are also adpating their development strategies for the new global reality – but are doing so without cutting their overall budgets.

Meanwhile, one senior official from an African embassy in London told The Independent at the conference on Tuesday that they were sceptical that companies from the Global North will really now begin to invest in his country due to continued misplaced “risk perception” around investment opportunities.

“There remains a historic perception from investors that all the diverse African countries are actually the same, and all are risky, even when that is not the case,” he said. “There is a lot of talk here about moving from ideas towards implementation, but I am struggling to see that really happening.

“The cost of insuring a shipment from Brazil to Europe is around 20 per cent of the cost of insuring that same shipment from Africa to Europe, and so far that has not changed.”

UK NGOs approached by The Independent also expressed concern about the UK’s new approach to development.

In response to the foreign secretary’s warning of a food crisis, Jennier Larbie, Christian Aid’s UK Influencing Lead said: “There is little urgency to provide new funds to meet immediate needs or cancel the debts of most affected low-income countries [when] this crisis should spur solidarity.

“The UK government should introduce a new law that will compel private sector creditors to deliver immediate debt relief so countries can respond to geopolitical crises out of their control.”

Richard Hawkes, Chief Executive of Oxfam GB, added: “The UK government cannot credibly speak about peace and stability while continuing arms sales to Israel and cutting the very aid that supports people caught up in crisis.

“There is a clear choice to be made. Ministers could be leading on fair taxation of the super-rich and fossil fuel companies profiting from global instability, instead of asking people who have done nothing to cause conflicts and the injustice of poverty to face the consequences.”

Meanwhile, Dorothy Sang, Head of Advocacy and Policy at CARE International UK, said: “Ministers are right to raise the alarm about the coming food crisis, but they need to think more radically.

“Like so many global challenges, food insecurity is a deeply gendered crisis: CARE’s work has consistently found that countries with higher gender inequality face worse hunger and safety situations, while in moments of crisis, women still eat last and least.

“Without the right voices in the room, the billions raised could struggle to deliver the transformative change we need. There must be room in the tent to both raise finances at scale while also putting the experiences and expertise of women at the centre of solutions that last.”