Policy Brief: Achieving the G7 Elmau commitment in the context of the covid-19 pandemic and climate change

This Ceres2030 paper provides policy options for what the G7 can do based on the evidence and research consensus on how much and what action to take—and where to take it—to achieve the Elmau commitment by 2030, while at the same time improving incomes of the poorest and protecting the climate. These investments need to include humanitarian and crisis-related spending, including through the commitments made by the G7 in 2021, as well as investments in peacebuilding in contexts where hunger and famine arise in conflicts

KEY MESSAGES

• Hunger levels are rising as a result of worsening conflict, economic downturns from COVID-19, the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather-related events, high food prices, and inflation.
• The need for immediate assistance to respond to the current crises and longer-term investments to address the fundamentals of poverty and low performance in agriculture and food systems are key challenges that need to be addressed in order to end global hunger by 2030.
• Since the G7 Elmau commitment to lift 500 million people out of hunger and malnutrition in 2015, G7 countries have increased their spending on emergency food assistance but have not increased spending for longer-term investments in agriculture and food security.
• For the G7 to meet the Elmau commitment together with other development partners, they need to mobilize an additional USD 14 billion per year on average until 2030, on top of current spending

OPTIONS FOR ACTION FOR G7 COUNTRIES IN 2022:

1. Pledge to double G7 aid for longer-term investments in agriculture and food security needed to achieve the Elmau commitment.
2. Commit to investing in more effective and sustainable interventions.
3. Commit to spending at least half of the additional aid in Africa
4. Ensure that other aid finance programs are prioritizing investments in agriculture and food systems as part of the solution
5. Scale up efforts to track commitments by assessing collective action and coordinating current and future action.
6. Actively support the implementation of related actions that emerged from the UNFSS