Sec. 102. Comprehensive global food security strategy
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The President shall designate an individual to serve in the Executive Office of the President as the Special Coordinator for Food, Nutrition and Agricultural Development. The coordinator shall— advise the President on global food security, nutrition security, and agricultural development; take such actions as are necessary to ensure the coordination of programs of the United States related to global food security, nutrition security, and agricultural development efforts, including those resulting from contributions to multilateral organizations and nongovernmental organizations; make recommendations regarding the staffing needs and necessary qualifications and expertise of staff needed to swiftly and effectively carry out the strategy described in subsection (c); establish a mechanism for regular consultation with representatives of Federal departments and agencies, multilateral institutions, private voluntary organizations, cooperatives, the private sector, and other nongovernmental organizations to develop the strategy described in subsection
(c)and to consult on methodologies, conditions in targeted countries, progress towards goals and other relevant information about needs and interventions; and oversee the development and implementation of the strategy described in subsection (c). The United States Agency for International Development shall be the lead agency in implementing the strategy described in subsection (c). The strategy described in this subsection is a comprehensive food security, nutrition security, and agricultural development strategy that shall— recognize food security and nutrition as essential contributors to global development, health, peace and stability; reflect a whole-of-government approach that incorporates and encompasses the programs of relevant Federal departments and agencies that engage in some aspect of food security, nutrition security, agricultural development, and international health, including the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development, the Peace Corps, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Defense, the Department of Interior, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Department of the Treasury, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative; integrate and coordinate the stages of emergency food aid and long-term development programs to more effectively reduce hunger, improve nutrition, improve health, and build economic capacity and resilience among food insecure populations, especially for smallholder farmers; increase and improve agricultural production and availability, access, utilization, and stability of food among women and smallholder farmers in order to decrease poverty and hunger, improve health, and prevent stunting, as the most direct means for achieving household food and nutrition security; increase the yield and capacity of smallholder farmers, through access to seed and fertilizer, assistance for sustainable agricultural production, village-level farming groups, farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchanges, agriculture value chains, agricultural extension agents, market access, innovative intellectual property frameworks, food safety nets for the most vulnerable, agricultural education, nutrition, agricultural research, natural resource management, improvements to land tenure, and rural infrastructure; assist smallholder farmers in obtaining the resources, services, tools, and information they need including technology, financial services, seed varieties, fertilizer, risk management, post-harvest storage systems, water, soil conservation methods, ecologically appropriate nutrient, soil, water, seed and pest management, weather forecasting and projections in ways that assure gender equitable access; prioritize research efforts that respond to the needs and priorities of smallholder farmers, including farmer-driven research, recognize that research must include both international and localized agricultural research and extension programs, and strive to build the educational capacity of smallholder farmers; incorporate research efforts to better understand causes of gender inequity in agriculture, and expand research in best practices in achieving nutrition outcomes through agriculture, social protection, women’s empowerment and other sector programs; build the resilience of smallholder farmers through agricultural extension services, village-level farmer groups, risk assessment and management tools, such as micro-insurance, and dissemination of research to farmers, increase ability of smallholder farmers to access inputs, technology, and information, to connect with markets, to engage in local and national planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation regarding food and nutrition and related issues, to undertake new or diversified production while maintaining stable food supply, to be resilient in the face of shocks and stresses, and to respond to projected changes in weather patterns; target investments in appropriate technologies and approaches to increase sustainable agricultural production, improve post-harvest storage, enhance family livelihood and nutrition, stimulate broad-based economic growth, and improve access to local, regional, and international markets; target research, development of new technologies, extension agents, and funding towards the goal of reducing post-harvest losses by 50 percent or more; incorporate approaches directed at reducing hunger and malnutrition for people living in extreme poverty and those most vulnerable to malnutrition, especially pregnant and lactating women, children in their first 1,000 days, and children under age 5, adolescent girls, communities in hard to reach areas, and marginalized populations, including availability, access, nutritional education, consumption and utilization of food, and delivery platforms such as community health workers; recognize international food assistance programs as important to improving maternal and child health through improved nutrition among the poorest and most vulnerable populations, and focus on increasing their flexibility to increase program efficiency, impact, and the number of people reached; address the nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating mothers, children in their first 1,000 days, children who have not attained the age of 5, and adolescent girls, and recognize the importance of prioritizing interventions, such as exclusive breast-feeding, complementary feeding practices, iron folate supplements, Vitamin A and zinc supplements, good hygiene and other evidence-based interventions; prioritize, support, and promote the central role of women in agricultural production and related activities, including in household, local, and national decision-making processes, in the countries of operation; ensure programs and approaches address the special needs of women farmers, women living in poverty, and the needs of all people who are agriculturalists, pastoralists, or otherwise engaged in agriculture-related enterprises; ensure use of gender analysis to enable identification of barriers and relevant interventions to address gender inequality; uphold and promote the principle of free, prior, and informed consent in relation to land access and use rights; monitor and document the trend of large scale land acquisitions and lease agreements in developing countries; promote global standards of transparency for large international land deals; expand and prioritize United States assistance programs that strengthen land management in developing countries and actively support efforts to develop guidelines and support applications of land governance tools; include and provide appropriate linkages with existing United States international water, energy, forest, weather and biodiversity programs; include assessment and monitoring of the effects of global changing weather patterns; prioritize the enhancement of natural resources and ecosystem resilience and the reduction of negative environmental impacts from agricultural activities through sustainable natural resource management practices including building local capacity and transferring skills and knowledge; ensure inclusion and consideration of assessments and projections of the impacts of changing weather patterns on program priorities, objectives and beneficiaries; promote inclusion of local knowledge and perceptions of local conditions; prioritize the enhancement of human capacity to respond to increasing extreme weather events and current and projected changes in weather patterns; prioritize the enhancement of natural resources and ecosystem goods and services and the reduction of negative environmental impacts from agricultural activities through sustainable natural resource management practices including building local capacity and transferring skills and knowledge; support capacity building of national governments to administer safety net and social protection programs that connect, integrate and expand existing programs to meet food and nutrition security objectives and target the chronically hungry and poor; support national governments’ efforts to strengthen the quality, ambition, and coverage of national nutrition plans, through community health workers and other approaches; include specific, measurable metrics, goals, benchmarks, time frames, and a plan of action to achieve the objectives described in section 101; with respect to such metrics shall include annual evaluation of improved nutritional status of women and children, prevalence of stunted children, prevalence of wasted children, prevalence of underweight women, prevalence of anemia among women and children, sustainable agricultural sector growth, changes in agricultural sector GDP, changes in rural income levels, changes in per capita expenditures in rural households, knowledge of smallholder farmers regarding effective farming practices, increased empowerment of women smallholder farmers, and numbers of beneficiaries reached; provide for annual monitoring and evaluations of programs that shall include gender analysis and gender disaggregated data and address progress toward improvements in emergency assistance, access to food, availability of food, nutritional value of food, utilization of food, agricultural development, agricultural education, and capacity to manage risk among food insecure populations; include aggregated reporting of indicators such as increases in income, poverty reduction, agricultural productivity and child stunting in order to clearly show the total impact of the United States investment in changing lives; include community-level capacity building, agricultural extension services, enhancements to agricultural infrastructure and productivity; increased access to financial services and markets, research and technology, credit and markets, availability and functioning of local institutions serving rural communities’ needs, such as farmer-owned cooperatives, safety net programs, job creation, household incomes, research and technology, global health and the environment; utilize the expertise of private voluntary organizations and cooperatives, international organizations, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, and local administrators to improve the sustainability and productivity of agriculture, increase access to markets, enhance infrastructure, promote economic opportunity, address food and nutrition security and agricultural development needs at the household and community level, and protect the natural resource base on which rural, agricultural communities depend; ensure United States investments in promoting food and nutrition security address key determinants of food insecurity, particularly— availability and access, through investments in agricultural productivity, value chains and market development, and equitable distribution of and control over productive resources; utilization of food, through a multifaceted approach to nutrition; and stability, through ensuring that effective mechanisms are in place to address chronic and cyclical food insecurity; and ensure and promote— alignment with and support of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program and other recipient country and regional strategies for addressing sustainable agricultural development; coordination and integration of food and nutrition security programs between departments and agencies described in paragraph
(2)and between relevant bureaus within the United States Agency for International Development, including the Bureau of Food Security, the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs, the Bureau of Economic Growth, Education and the Environment, and the Bureau for Global Health; inclusion of the resources of both public, private sector, and local private sector providers of appropriate agriculture inputs, processors, and marketers, including through the Global Development Alliances of the United States Agency for International Development and other measures; ensuring that private sector investments comply with the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security regarding large-scale transactions; consultation and coordination at national and local levels with local and international academic and research communities, civil society, representatives of small-scale food providers, United States and international nongovernmental organizations, cooperatives, international organizations, international financial institutions, the governments of developing and developed countries, and other program implementers; consultation with and engagement of local civil society, local communities, farmer groups and cooperatives, and women’s groups in inclusive planning processes as well as the implementation and monitoring and evaluation of programs; and national government capacity to coordinate food and nutrition security planning and programs across all relevant ministries and levels of government, including the ability to implement comprehensive plans and programs to scale up nutrition intervention and through linkages with complementary health, water and sanitation systems.