Uma Lele

Many developing countries are falling behind sustainable development goals: food and nutrition levels have deteriorated due to conflict, climate change, and the Covid pandemic, while global ambitions for achieving sustainable food security and adequate nutrition have increased. But what are the prospects of achieving sustainable, healthy food for all? What is the best response to concerns about growing differentiation among developing countries in terms of domestic agricultural and industrial performance? How have global institutions, established during the post-World War Two period, helped developing countries to deal with the past economic fallout of food, fuel, and financial crises? Food for All explores how developments since these organizations were established have led to changes in the provision of international financial and technical assistance in support of the global food and agriculture system and how developing countries' own efforts have helped transform them These developments, and the increase in the number of global actors, have expanded and complicated global governance, presenting both opportunities for as well as challenges to the improvement of food systems. This volume provides an analysis of the structure, coordination, and management of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (WFP). It also looks at the World Bank, the largest international funder of policy advice and investment projects, and CGIAR, a leading funder of international agricultural research. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

'The World Bank Forest Strategy: Striking the Right Balance' identifies seven factors that would make the World Bank forest strategy more pertinent as well as strengthen the World Bank's ability to achieve its strategic objectives in the forest sector. The report recommends that the World Bank use its global reach to address both mechanisms and finances for international resource mobilization on concessional terms outside its normal lending activities. It also advises the World Bank to be proactive in establishing partnerships with all relevant stakeholders, governments, the private sector, and civil society to meet both its country and global roles. The focus on primary tropical moist forests should be broadened to include all types of natural forests of national and global value. The book suggests that illegal logging needs to be reduced through the promotion of improved governance and enforcement. Other recommendations are to give consideration to forest issues in all relevant sector activity and macroeconomic work, address the employment needs of all poor people while continuing to protect the rights of indigenous people, and to realign the World Bank resources with their objectives in the forest sector. This report assesses progress since the World Bank first issued its comprehensive Forest Strategy in 1991. The earlier document sent a strong message about changed objectives in the forest sector and provided a new focus on conservation. In examining implementation over the past decade, the new report finds that the effectiveness of the strategy has been modest, and the sustainability of its impact is uncertain.