“We have the ability to reshape the global food security system to alleviate hunger, end poverty, and promote sustainable development.”– Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan referred to the lack of food security for almost one billion people as an ‘unconscionable moral failing,’ and ‘a major brake on overall socio-economic development. As both the climate and food crises continue to grow, the Kofi Annan Commission on Food Security aims to bring urgent answers in the form of a reenergized global governance structure to the persistent challenge of food insecurity.
About the Commission
The Kofi Annan Foundation, with the support of The Rockefeller Foundation, is convening an eminent group of leaders – the Kofi Annan Commission on Food Security – to review the current challenges to the global food security architecture; develop policy recommendations and possible models for a transformed global food governance system; and mobilize political commitment to adopt a new system that is fit-for-purpose to achieve a world with sustainable, equitable and resilient food security.
“In 2022, 29.6 percent of the global population were moderately or severely food insecure.”
Since the mid-2010s, progress against food insecurity and poor diet quality has stalled. Multiple shocks, including the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, have exacerbated the situation and put the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2 on Zero Hunger further out of reach. According to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2023 report, about 29.6 percent of the global population – 2.4 billion people – were moderately or severely food insecure in 2022, with food security disproportionately affecting women and people living in rural areas.
Governments in both high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries have made commitments to address food insecurity, but the need for humanitarian food aid continues to grow. The Kofi Annan Commission on Food Security will make an in-depth and frank review of the governance architecture – including both formal organizations and the web of less-formal public and private networks – that shape global action on food and nutrition.
The Commission will complement these existing efforts by focusing specifically on multilateral mechanisms and other elements of the global governance structures for food and security, and on opportunities for improvements, innovation or even a complete redesign of these structures.