Introduction
Food is one of the fundamental needs of human. Food security is the ability to access food by those who need it. Every household is termed as secured food wise if it has access to safe and enough food hence freedom from hunger. The World Food Organization describes this security as access to nutritious, safe and sufficient food to cater for the basic human desires.
The rapid increase of population all over the world is the major result for food insecurity (Harman 18). To ensure the situation does not run out of hand, the global body Food and Agricultural Organization has been at the forefront since time immemorial to cater for issues related to this basic human need. Central to this organization is governance. This can ensure that even if there is increased population, there can be enough resources or produce to cater for the increase and even shortages.
Global Governance
Food security has become a complex task to achieve with the development of globalization. Initially the main focus of the governing body was on agriculture. This ensured carefully monitoring of production and even the surplus that are stored. Today, different issues of concern have cropped up. These are in terms of food processing, food distribution and food consumption. Governance of food security has become challenging with the forms of contradictory policies that exist.
Most third world countries have weak connections with the global governance (Harman 18). These countries are always the worst hit groups when there is hunger breakout. On the other hand America and most of its environs have high influence in the global governance. Their exports have greatly increased while other third world countries exports have reduced. These countries used to export in a massive way but have since declined in production.
These countries are not promising at all. Therefore they have less influence of the global investment kitties. One will find that those countries that are stable in terms of agricultural production and are also doing great in the processing have much attraction to investment and are therefore considered a priority by the governing bodies
Importance and Aids by Global Governance
Research
Several methods have been employed to cater for increasing cases of food insecurity. One of these methods is research. The cases of reduced land for tenure have been the main cause of low agricultural production. Currently, researchers have introduced novel ways of producing crops.
This has been aided greatly by biotechnology. This new research concept has enabled the production of crops that can resist adverse conditions. In addition, other crops can also do well in green houses. Unfortunately, other countries cannot afford this. Although global governance has given out these good options, some countries cannot afford. This is because their government cannot afford the finances in one way or another (Harman 18). This paints a bad picture of the governance while it is evident that it is not their fault.
Other forms of governance that would improve food security include Rule of law, internal peace, improvement of infrastructure from rural areas and support from the government for research. These proposals are best when employed on the ground. Developed countries have already put these practices in place and are ahead. There have been problems caused by global warming and other related disaster but this has been solved by having alternative methods. This does not mean that the conventional methods have been neglected.
Adoption measures have been for the purpose of bridging the gap between production and consumption. There is need for all countries to be stakeholders of global food programmes and government. This will ensure that there is a legitimate process for handling problems and also providing solutions for future activities. Unfortunately, the developing countries do not take part in the same footing. This therefore calls for a better government that will have honor for legitimate, political and democratic process.
Current Global Economic Situation
This is an economy which comprises all the economies of the world. The issue of globalization brought a great revolution in the economy of the world. This revolution comprised of merging of trade markets, free trade in international stock markets and many more. Initially, this impacted nations in a positive way (Harman 18). There was expansion of markets and industries, creation of employment opportunities for both the young and old the people and a paradigm shift from job search to creation of jobs. More so was the issue of innovation that brought about great investment both in foreign and indigenous countries.
Developed and developing countries have had different effects due to the dynamic global economy. Currently, the economy is at its worst. The economic metrics stand at a free fall at the moment. Some are quite rapid that it has become so scary. The situation has continued to deepen day by day from banks bail out to individual country bail outs.
Central to this crisis is the unavailability of basic commodities such as food. In addition, oil prices have posed the hardest hit to most countries. The oil crisis was brought about by the unstable situation in Japan and Northern part of America. These unrests led to reduced production of oil from the main oil producing countries such as Libya. The rising oil prices have been due to the scarce in the commodity or the raw material. This crisis has also translated to the current energy crisis
On the other hand is food crisis. This has also arisen due to globalization of the economy. Increased industries led to the deterioration of the environment. This consequently led to global warming. Global warming has had a great impact on Agriculture. The climate of the globe has changed tremendously towards the negative. This has contributed to the accumulation of greenhouse gases hence global warming.
Therefore the climate has changed affecting the agricultural activities. This has directly affected food prices mostly for people living in poor countries and the Asian community. This has since resulted in high increase in food prices. For instance, in Asia the food prices have increased to 10%. This has affected about sixty five million people in the country.
Another factor that has put the current economy at risk is the weakening of the Dollar. This has led to the rapid rise in market prices. The American people have huge debts to pay hence this has greatly affected their economy and even the grand global economy. Goods traded across the global market are as expensive as has never been experienced before.
The most affected are the developing countries which have to add an extra coin to get goods across the global market. There has been cumulative unemployment for fresh college students in both developing and developed nations. Also there has been a rebound in the trade globally. In 2010 the increase in trade was about 12% which was positive.
Resolution for the Crisis
The main resolution strategy to the current economic crisis is the issue of changing policies. This can be achieved by using neutral bodies that can help save the matter starting with the matters that are of priorities. First of all the weakening of the Dollar is one crisis that should be resolved. It actually affects the global markets and hence touches every part of the world. The crisis in the economic sector unfortunately combines almost all international affairs from trade, agriculture, social status, political status and many more affairs.
This then means that there is need to restructure the financial operations. As mentioned above, a policy reform is the ways to go. International organizations dealing with specific global issues should sit down and allow room for policy interventions that will be able to advocate for the independence of countries in terms of control of each country resources (Pacula etal., 276).
For instance, every country should have the sovereign authority to strategize on self sufficiency. That is, every country should have the capacity to state their productivity, consumption and even surplus without being influenced externally. Central regulation has proven to lack transparency hence failure in the part of governance.
The issue of central control can be avoided by having each country regulate their resources and present what they have to the international organizations. This does not mean that the mandates of these international organizations are being neglected but it means that the essence of external interventions is nullified.
Another critical sector that needs quick salvaging is the financial sector. There are policies that were imposed by the World health organization, World Bank, international Monetary Fund and the regional and bilateral trade (Pacula etal., 276).
These policies have tremendously caused the current financial crisis that has been predicted to last for about two years before it picks up in a steady state. It is speculated that the years 2012 and 2013 will be bad years for more so the developed countries. Controls such as the forced quotas, regulated market prizes, control of imports should be solely left within the agreements by countries.
In the case of finances, the issue of financial literacy needs to be worked out. The current crisis means that there has been inefficiency in management of money matters. It there was a well sophisticated system able to work out the financial problem and even speculate the trends in an actual way then the issue of global crisis could not be a pandemic at the moment. For example, the issue of high mortgage ownership in developed countries has led to the banks running in huge debts hence a need for bailouts.
If there were plans put in place to train the consumers who were taking credits then there would not be the issue of debt default. This would mean that the consumers would be aware of the steps they are taking and would only participate in taking debts that they are able to clear. This can also translate in the global credit acquisition by countries. There have been increasing complexities in the financial markets both in individual countries and globally. Having financial literacy would solve the issue of this crisis.
Approach to Crisis Resolution
Fortunately, these approaches are underway as there have been non partisan groups that are lobbying for reforms and policy change in international organizations. Having and ear for the cry of these lobbyists will be a good step taken by the developed countries and even the international organization in working out the crisis. Therefore, to have success, there should be great interest by these organizations and countries to take part in reforms especially on the issue of financial education which is very important.
Works Cited
Harman, Chris. “Financial and Economic Crisis”. The Guardian Weekly 3 Aug. 2007: 18. Print.
Pacula etal. “Politics of the United Nations”. Journal of Political Economy. 95.2 (2006): 107-300. Print.