Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694840119889.pdf (Malta)
IT-TLETTAX-IL LEĠIŻLATURA P.L.

572 Dokument imqiegħed fuq il-Mejda tal-Kamra tad-Deputati fis-Seduta Numru 29 tat-18 ta’ Ottubru 2017 mill-Onor.

Edward Zammit Lewis, President tal-Kumitat Permanenti dwar l-Affarijiet Barranin u Ewropej.
___________________________ Raymond Scicluna Skrivan tal-Kamra EN EN EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 6.6.2016 COM(2016) 244 final REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Implementing EU food and nutrition security policy commitments: Second biennial report {SWD(2016) 155 final} 1.
INTRODUCTION This is the second report1 on progress towards achieving the aims of the ‘EU policy framework to assist developing countries in addressing food security challenges’, which was adopted in 20102.
Since then, further EU development policy commitments have been undertaken to reinforce priorities established in 2010; an Implementation Plan3 was produced and discussed in Council in April 2013, which requested that the European Commission establishes, jointly with Member States, consolidated EU-wide biennial progress reports from 2014 onwards.
Therefore, in line with Article 210(2) TFEU4, this second report is coordinated by the Commission with inputs from the following Member States: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom.

This report sets out how the EU and its Member States are delivering on the policy priorities for food and nutrition security, agreed in 2013.
The report is accompanied by a Commission Staff Working Document, which provides information on methodology and detailed case studies.

2.

GLOBAL AND EUROPEAN POLICY DEVELOPMENTS Substantial progress is being made in improving global food security.

The Global Hunger Index shows that the level of hunger in developing countries has fallen by 27 % since 2000.

However, the total number of people chronically undernourished is nevertheless at 795 million.
Climate change, overuse of natural resources, disease risks, food price volatility/inflation, changing diets and armed conflict continue to be significant risks to food and nutrition security, with a confluence of events creating and/or risking crisis scenarios at national, regional or global levels.

Furthermore, there has been a substantial increase in socio- economic inequality within countries, and this impacts on food and nutrition security.
Against this background, 2014/2015 saw a number of significant international agreements and commitments that have maintained global momentum and political will for food and nutrition security, and in which the EU and its Member States played a major role.

Importantly, ending hunger has become the second goal within the 2030 Agenda ‘Transforming our World’5.
The EU has actively supported the Committee on World Food Security, including the endorsement of the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment6.

Further, G7 leaders committed in 2015 to help lift 500 million people out of hunger and malnutrition by 2030.

The G20 adopted a long term Food Security and Nutrition Framework in 2014, followed by an Action Plan in 20157.
These actions are underpinned by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda8, where a political commitment to help finance sustainable development through innovative sources was affirmed.

1 COM(2014) 712 Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council - Implementing EU food and nutrition security policy commitments: first biennial report.
2 COM(2010) 127 final Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council - An EU policy framework to assist developing countries in addressing food security challenges.

3SWD (2013) 104 final Boosting food and nutrition security through EU action: implementing our commitments.

4 Article 210 (2) TFEU reads: "The Commission may take any useful initiative to promote the coordination referred to in paragraph 1."
5 Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, United Nations.

6 Supported by FAO-OECD Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains launched in March 2016 7 G20 Development Working Group Food Security and Nutrition: Implementation Plan of the G20 Food Security and Nutrition Framework 8 Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (Addis Ababa Action Agenda).
2 In December 2015, parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change signed the Paris Agreement charting a new ambitious course for the global effort to tackle climate change.

This has significant implications for food and nutrition security.

Several events focused on global food security were held during the 2015 Expo Milano hosted by Italy.
Donors have recognised the importance of responsible private sector investment in agriculture including sustainable fisheries and aquaculture and that the agricultural sector, in particular, is a major engine for inclusive growth and job creation in rural areas.

EU donors universally recognise the critical role women play in agriculture and food and nutrition security.
The EU Gender Action Plan for 2016-20209 commits the EU and its Member States to ensuring that girls’ and women’s economic and social rights are fulfilled and that they can participate fairly and actively in the economy.

Agricultural livelihoods and food and nutrition security are significant factors affecting political stability, security and migration.
The EUR 1.9 billion ‘Emergency EU Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration in Africa’10 will help to create employment opportunities, mainly for young people and women in rural areas.

It will also build resilience for food and nutrition security, thereby helping to address the root causes of migration.

The Commission is committed to a knowledge economy and recognises the essential role of research and innovation in food and nutrition security.
In 2014, within the framework of the EU Africa Partnership, EU and African Heads of States endorsed a jointly-funded EU-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership11, which identified food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture as the top priority.

Consequently, the EU policy framework remains highly relevant.

As this report illustrates, the EU and its Member States have maintained a strong commitment to and some of them, have significantly increased their support12.

3.
3.

REPORTING AND PROGRESS This section provides an account of the food and nutrition security disbursements and progress towards the policy priority performance criteria since the first report in 2014.

Disbursements Compared to the first report, the EU and its Member States’ spending on food and nutrition security increased by 9 %, from EUR 3,365 million to EUR 3,659 million13, which represents 8 % of total official development assistance (ODA) 14.
These disbursements from the EU and its Member States reflect a diverse portfolio of support for key global, regional and national level priorities for achieving food and nutrition security.

9 SWD(2015)182 Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment: Transforming the Lives of Girls and Women through EU External Relations 2016-2020 and Council Conclusions on Gender Action Plan 2016-2020, 26 October 2015.
10 C(2015) 7293 final Commission Decision on the establishment of a European Union Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa.

11 http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/index.cfm?pg=africa 12 For example: Germany with its special initiative ‘One World — No Hunger’.

13 Spain started reporting this year and represents 20 % of the increase.

14 OECD DAC data published in December 2014 was used for this second report.
DAC codes used are wider than the agriculture and food security codes.

Emergency and humanitarian aid related to food security is not included in the assessment.

3 Country level interventions represent two thirds of total investment.

In 2014, 25 % of aid was disbursed at global level, 9 % at regional level and 66% at national level.

Table 1 shows that Africa remains the largest beneficiary of the EU and its Member States' food and nutrition security ODA at 45 %, or EUR 1,663 million.
Overall, the geographic spread of investment remains broadly similar to 2012.

Table 1.
Table 1.

Geographical distribution of aid disbursement in 2012 and 2014 per continent Continent Africa — sub-Saharan Global Asia Latin America and Caribbean Neighbourhood countries Other15 Total 2012 (EUR million) 1,439 958 593 231 88 56 2012 (%) 43 % 28 % 18 % 7 % 3 % 2 % 2014 (EUR million) 2014 ( %) 1,663 45 % 899 25 % 539 15 % 225 231 102 6 % 6 % 3 % 3,366 100 % 3,659 100 % This is despite several Member States experiencing general downward pressure on ODA disbursements.
This continued substantial investment, along with new policies and programmes, reflects the commitment of the EU and its Member States to delivering on the EU’s food and nutrition security policy.

Progress towards policy priorities and performance criteria Table 2.

Progress against performance criteria Policy priorities Year 1.

Improve smallholder resilience and livelihoods of which research programmes 2.

Support effective governance 3.

Support regional agriculture and food and nutrition security 4.
Strengthen social protection mechanisms for food and nutrition security Number of programmes 2012 2014 1,560 1,822 149 410 98 94 154 588 188 102 5.

Enhance nutrition 278 341 Support received (EUR million) 2014 2,137 58 % 2012 2,022 60 % 379 395 12 % 151 4 % 209 6 % 467 14 % 122 4 % 300 535 15 % 191 5 % 133 4 % 504 14 % 159 4 % Number of countries 2012 2014 108 103 84 92 40 63 18 40 64 37 6.
Enhance coordination of humanitarian and development actors to increase resilience Total 63 148 2,503 3,343 3,366 3,659 15 ‘Other’ covers programmes in the Middle East, Pacific or more than one region or continent.

4 Table 2 shows disbursements and the number of programmes which received funding per policy priority.

The funding allocated to policy priority 1, which received 60 % of funding, has remained the same, but there has been a major increase in the number of programmes.
The number of programmes and disbursements under policy priority 6 has increased significantly.

In general, the results suggest steady and continued progress across all criteria.

Policy priority 1 is the major focus of the EU and its Member States.
It includes measures to support smallholders in sustainable intensification, improve the provision of services, promote pro-poor research and innovation, provide opportunities for off-farm employment and to link smallholders to market by developing the value chain.
Europe has remained a key supporter of research and innovation, including to the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Fund (EUR 169 million), and was an important bilateral donor (EUR 69 million) to CGIAR institutions.

The European Initiative for Agricultural Research and Development remains an effective platform for donor coordination and provides Europe with a strong voice in the CGIAR reform.
Textbox 1: Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) The Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme led by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa and supported by the EU and several Member States proved that IAR4D is a good and effective approach to agricultural research in responding to farmers’ needs.

Individuals participating in IAR4D innovation platforms attained an average income of EUR 99 per year, 231 % above the baseline figure of EUR 44 per year.
Under policy priority 2, the EU and its Member States have been active in supporting regional and national level policies.

At pan-African level, they continued to substantially support the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme process.
Further, the EU and various Member States delivered support to decentralisation processes, which are key to rural transformation, and supported the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests.

The EU and its Member States continued to ensure Policy Coherence for Development in the area of food and nutrition security.
The 2015 EU report on Policy Coherence for Development16 scrutinises the EU and its Member States’ agricultural and fisheries policy initiatives to identify their impact on developing countries and summarises the steady progress made since 2013.
Policy priority 3 saw continued support for regional programmes addressing trade, sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures and regional cooperation for food security and fisheries governance, with a slight increase in funding and a near doubling in the number of programmes.

Policy priority 4 saw a drop in disbursements from EUR 209 million to EUR 133 million.

However, 102 social protection programmes, 8 more than in the last report, are still being implemented across 40 countries.
Under policy priority 5 the EU and its Member States have substantial portfolios, with 341 programmes in 64 countries.

Progress under this priority area is covered in Section 5.

Policy priority 6 has seen a far greater focus on programmes to promote resilience being implemented in the Sahel and Horn of Africa with a view to facilitating countries’ and regional organisations’ resilience agendas.
In West Africa, the EU and its Member States are strongly involved in addressing the underlying causes of food crises through their work with 16 SWD (2015) 159 Policy Coherence for Development - 2015 EU Report.

5 the Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative (AGIR) and the Club du Sahel.

Moreover, at its 42nd session, the Committee on World Food Security endorsed a ‘Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises17’.
Coordination, Complementarity and Coherence (3Cs) Coordination continues to play an important role in ensuring the EU and its Member States' aid is effective at country level, because in 45 countries support is provided by five or more donors.

The number of projects reported has increased significantly from 2,503 in 2012 to 3,343 in 2014.

Overall, 109 countries are supported.

Thirty-five countries receive almost 80 % of funding.
The EU and its Member States are committed to a country-led approach to development and align their strategies and investment plans with those of partner countries.

Member States and the EU are actively involved in sector coordination and dialogues.

There are many examples of how the EU and its Member States co-fund programmes and carry out joint work on analysis, monitoring and evaluation.
At pan-African level, the EU and its Member States participate the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme's Development Partner Task Team, with Germany taking over the chairmanship in 2016 from the Commission.

in Joint programming has expanded since 2014, with 14 countries having a new Joint Strategy.

Ethiopia is a leading example of joint context analysis and joint programming where the EU and its Member States are achieving significant results together.
Textbox 2: EU Joint programming in the nutrition sector in Ethiopia Early in 2013, the EU and the 20 EU Member States represented in Ethiopia plus Norway (EU+) endorsed the EU+ Joint Cooperation Strategy for Ethiopia.
The aim of this strategy was to ensure a coherent and cohesive response to Ethiopia’s development challenges, to better align support for the Ethiopian government’s nutrition policies, improve harmonisation, the results-based approach, predictability and transparency, while avoiding overlapping or fragmented interventions.

The EU established a core group of seven Member States to address the issue of undernutrition.
The group established a roadmap, finalised a mapping exercise of nutrition interventions, commissioned and completed a ‘Situation Analysis of the Nutrition Sector in Ethiopia 2000-2015’ (SITAN) and developed the EU+ nutrition strategy.

SITAN’s findings have been used by all development partners.

This is an excellent example of how the EU+ Joint Cooperation Strategy has been harmonised to support Ethiopia’s nutrition policy and planning.
Through the strategy, Member States speak with one voice when demonstrating action on aid effectiveness commitments.

4.

RESULTS REPORTING A significant observation by the Council in relation to the first biennial report18 was the ‘importance of developing and harmonising measures to track progress on food and nutrition security commitments.

The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and the Commission19 have been able to provide aggregated data from across their programmes (Table 4).
However, different methodologies are used, which makes it difficult to compare and aggregate the findings.

17 http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/cfs/Docs1415/FFA/CFS_FFA_Final_Draft_Ver2_EN.pdf 18 COM(2014) 712 Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council - Implementing EU food and nutrition security policy commitments: first biennial report and Council Conclusion of 26 May.

6 There are also many examples of results being reported for specific programmes and interventions.
Table 5 presents three of these.

These tables also illustrate the type of measurements that can be used to improve how results are reported.

Table 4: Corporate results reporting United Kingdom 3,500,000 people achieved food security, including 1,800,000 women; Nutrition programmes reached 28,500,000 children under 5, breastfeeding and pregnant women; Land rights improved for 5,800,000 people.
The Netherlands 8,000,000 malnourished people reached worldwide; 4,500,000 smallholder farmers improved production and access to markets; Rights secured for 1, 400, 000 hectares of land worldwide with half of title certificates being issued to women.
Commission 4,544,000 women and children benefited from nutrition-related programmes; 51,000 people have secure tenure of land; 528,000 people received advisory services: 2,883,000 hectares of agricultural and pastoral ecosystems with improved land management practices; 988,000 food-insecure people received assistance through social transfers.

France 800,000 family farms benefited from projects in sub- Saharan Africa.
Table 5: Results reporting — specific examples of interventions Austria In Armenia, 1,400 smallholder farmers were linked with cooperative activities, leading to the establishment of small- scale processing businesses and a 33 % increase in women cooperative board members.

Ireland In Malawi, over 13,000,000 vines of orange fleshed sweet potato were sold to 44,200 households with individual multipliers earning an average of EUR 118 from vine sales.
Household real income more than doubled from EUR 199 in 2010 to EUR 384 in 2014.

Interventions also contributed to reducing malnutrition from an average of 47 % in 2010 to 42 % in 2014.

Spain In a nutrition programme in Mali, 56,000 children received vitamin A supplements and deworming, 520 women were supported with nutrition sensitive agriculture and 12 villages were provided with functioning water.
The EU and its Member States are well aware of the need to improve how results are reported and are working to strengthen the capabilities and systems for generating the data that show results from within their programmes and with partner institutions.

However, all donors have noted the challenges of aggregating and synthesising results data across a diverse and complex portfolio of interventions.
Further collaboration is needed between the EU and its Member States to refine a robust and realistic reporting framework.

5.

THEMATIC FOCUS As requested by the Council, this report examines two themes in greater depth — enhanced nutrition and inclusive agrifood chains and systems.
19 The Commission's result aggregation is based on the EU International Cooperation and Development Results Framework SWD(2015)80 final 7 Enhanced nutrition Ensuring greater food production and availability alone is not enough: this must go hand in hand with ensuring access to and consumption of affordable, safe and nutritious food.

Undernutrition is the principal cause of death of more than 3.1 million children each year.

Over 159 million children were reported as being stunted in 2015.
The 2013 Nutrition for Growth initiative during the UK Presidency of the G8 led to increased attention on nutrition and resulted in commitments for greater investment.

The importance of nutrition was reinforced by the Rome Declaration on Nutrition agreed at the 2014 Second International Conference on Nutrition, and by the 2014 G20 Framework for Food Security and Nutrition.
Subsequently, ending hunger has become the second of the UN’s sustainable development goals with targets to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030.

Member States and the EU have been at the forefront of promoting and financing the global agenda for improved nutrition.

The EU committed to helping partner countries reduce stunting in 7 million children by 2025 and allocated EUR 3.5 billion over 2014-2020 to reach this ambitious goal.
The UK Government has committed to improve by 2020 the nutrition of 50 million people who would otherwise go hungry and to take measures, together with all Nutrition for Growth signatories, to prevent 20 million children becoming stunted by 2020.

In 2014, the German Government declared food security and nutrition top priorities and launched the special initiative ‘One World — No Hunger’.
The Netherlands has made eradicating existing hunger and malnutrition the first of its three food and nutrition security policy priorities20 and has intensified its work on nutrition.

Ireland identified addressing maternal and child nutrition as a priority in its 2008 Hunger Task Force Report and continues to meet commitments made in 2013 to double Irish Aid’s investment in nutrition by 2020.
The EU and its Member States are pursuing a multi-sector approach to tackling undernutrition, which includes working to ensure that agriculture increasingly contributes to improving nutrition.

Textbox 3.

Integrating agriculture and nutrition education for improved young child nutrition Food security interventions and participatory nutrition education greatly improve children’s diet and can have an impact on stunting.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, financially supported by Belgium, the EU and Germany, carried out projects in Malawi and Cambodia that improved the food security, diet and nutritional status of 49,500 vulnerable families and 11,100 young children aged 6-23 months.

The approach combined diversifying local agriculture and food systems with providing nutrition education on infant and young child feeding practices and resulted in programme lessons.
Member States are making good progress in supporting nutrition programmes in partner countries.

Spain and Belgium are supporting nutrition programmes in Mali.

The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland and the EU are actively supporting the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement and making their investments in nutrition publicly visible through the SUN movement and the Global Nutrition Report.
The Commission has developed a strong policy framework21 and an Action Plan on Nutrition22 around its 2012 commitment to address stunting and its 2013 pledge to improve nutrition.

Since the launch of the plan, 40 EU delegations have identified nutrition as an 20 Policy letter: Dutch contribution to global food security, December 18, 2014.

21 SWD(2013) 72 Enhancing Maternal and Child Nutrition in External Assistance: an EU Policy Framework.

22 SWD (2014) 234 Action Plan on Nutrition.


8 objective in their support to partner countries through a range of focal sectors, notably agriculture/rural development and health.

The EU and its Member States acknowledge that the rise of obesity, including in developing countries, is increasingly creating a double burden for the countries concerned.
Inclusive agrifood chains and systems The EU and its Member States recognise that poor food and nutrition security is predominantly caused by poverty and therefore improving access to food through increased incomes is a policy priority.

As noted, for example by the United Kingdom, much of the solution to hunger will therefore depend on inclusive economic growth, in particular in the agriculture sector.
This aligns with the African Union Malabo Declaration where agricultural growth and transformation is recognised as critical to achieving food and nutrition security and rural prosperity.

Textbox 4: Sustainable Cocoa Business and Cocoa-Food Link Programme In West Africa, where cocoa is a source of income for 3 million smallholder families, the EU and Germany co-founded the Sustainable Smallholder Agri-Business Cocoa-Food Link Programme (SSAB).
They have founded a Farmers’ Business School to develop farmers’ business skills and have established business service centres to help farmers and smallholders access technical advice, market information and micro-finance.

17,000 farmers have graduated from the Farmers’ Business School, with 90 % increasing their cocoa yields by more than 33 %.
Germany addresses inclusive agrifood chains and systems in a holistic manner through four out of six priorities in its special initiative ‘One World - No Hunger.’ France has made high employment and sustainable agricultural value chains priority areas for intervention in sub- Saharan Africa.

For the Netherlands, promoting inclusive and sustainable growth in the agriculture sector is the second priority in its food and nutrition security policy.
Ireland has included better functioning, climate resilient food systems and markets as one of its ten high level outcomes and several Member States are supporting the development of partnerships between the agrifood sectors in their home country and in Africa.

In 2015, the EU launched the Agriculture Financing Initiative, which responds to the lack of financing mechanisms adapted to farmers and agri-entrepreneurs.
With 1,822 programmes under policy priority 1, the EU and its Member States donors have substantial portfolios of agrifood value chain work.

Textbox 5: Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH – Initiatief Duurzame Handel) IDH accelerates the scaling up of sustainable trade by building coalitions of pioneering companies, civil society organisations, governments and other stakeholders.

By the end of 2013, IDH had leveraged EUR 56 million of private sector funding.

IDH is clearly having an impact.


For example, Rainforest Alliance smallholder tea farmers in Kenya trained through IDH interventions increased their yield by an average of 30 %.

6.

OVERALL FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This report illustrates that EU development cooperation is making a substantial contribution to global food and nutrition security through its EUR 3.7 billion in investments.
The EU and its Member States have been instrumental in influencing key global agreements and commitments, and through their food and nutrition security programming are now well placed to support their implementation.

This report indicates significant alignment with the EU 9 policy framework.

The EU and its Member States have renewed policy commitments to food and nutrition security and in a number of cases have substantially improved their focus and funding.

Recommendations for the way forward 1.


Keep food and nutrition security at the forefront of the global and national policy agenda to support implementation of the sustainable development goals.

Food and nutrition security is a long-term issue requiring sustained policy attention and investment.

Policy making and programming must be based on a food system approach and consider the linkages between nutrition, health, job creation, growth, sustainable production and social protection.
Continued emphasis is needed on transforming the role of women and on building the resilience of vulnerable communities.

The EU and its Member States need to work proactively with civil society organisations, the private sector and other partners to maintain the focus on/promote economic and development issues in order to achieve sustained investments and lasting results.

2.

Strengthen a joint multi-sectoral approach to tackling undernutrition.
In order to increase the effectiveness of nutrition interventions, the EU and its Member States must give more attention to coordination when engaging with partner governments in policy dialogue to improve the implementation of nutrition initiatives.

This should involve the EU and its Member States creating a better division of labour across different sectors.

3.
3.

Join forces to support partner countries to address the impact of climate change, while implementing the best options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farming and rural areas.

The EU and its Member States will support partner countries to design, fund and implement climate resilient food and nutrition security and action plans in line with their Nationally Determined Contribution at UNCC-COP 21.
Due attention will be given to programmes that provide small-scale family farmers with multiple benefits in terms of food and nutrition security and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

4.

Recognise rural transformation as a critical process to create jobs, raise income and achieve food and nutrition security in the long-term.

The EU and its Member States recognise the importance of economic growth and creating decent jobs, especially for young people and women, in rural areas.
This has significant linkages with tackling economic inequality and migration, which are underlying drivers of food insecurity and instability.

More work is needed to create the conditions for economic investment and development in rural areas, for example through decentralisation, territorial approaches, implementing policies and improving infrastructure.

5.

Enhance mechanisms to boost responsible private sector engagement and to learn from inclusive business models.
The EU and its Member States are increasingly working in partnership with the private sector to help drive significant change for small-scale family farmers.

Innovative, inclusive financial services are needed to make sustainable investments feasible for local stakeholders.
Much work remains to be done to create effective public private partnerships that ensure governance mechanisms in which producer organisations and civil society organisations have a voice, to apply the principles for responsible agricultural investment and to implement the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests.
There is also a need for greater learning and sharing about the effectiveness of ‘inclusive business’ approaches to ensure that small-scale family farmers benefit from domestic, regional and global value chains.

10 6.

Ensure continued investment in research and innovation and scale up the impact of investment.

The EU and its Member States continue to focus on the effectiveness of global, regional and especially national research and innovation systems and make investments that improve them.
In doing so, there is a need to mobilise European expertise and research resources and strengthen partnerships between European and southern research institutions, including through the jointly funded EU Africa Research Partnership.

Further work is also needed to better understand future food and nutrition security trends and risks and possible responses to them.

7.

Strengthen results reporting.


With new food and nutrition security commitments in place, attention must be on effective implementation and having an impact on the ground.

This in turn requires substantially improved data gathering, monitoring and impact assessment mechanisms at all levels.

However, such reporting is undeniably complex and difficult.
The Commission will aim to coordinate with EU Member States to create common indicators and develop methodologies which mean the results reported can be aggregated more easily at European level.

8.

Strengthening joint programming.

The continued distribution of support across some 109 countries, combined with the need for a cross-sector food systems approach, mean that joint programming is an important priority, both for the EU and its Member States and for in-country coherence.
Over the next reporting period improved joint programing initiatives should be taken forward in at least three countries.
11 FINAL BRIEF EUROPEAN AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE Working Group 1 COM (2016) 244 MEMORANDUM ON A REPORT FORM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL – Implementing EU Food and Nutrition Security Policy Commitments: Second Biennial Report Legal Base N/a Implementing Ministry Participating Ministry Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) N/A Aim This is the second report on progress towards achieving the aims of the ‘EU policy framework to assist developing countires in addressing food security challenges’, which was adopted in 2010.
Since then, further EU development policy commitments have been undertaken to reinforce priorities established in 2010; an Implementation Plan was produced and discussed in Council in April 2013, which requested that the European Commission establishes, jointly with Member States, consolidated EU-wide biennial progress reports from 2014 onwards.
Therefore, in line with Article 210 (2) of the TFEU, this report is coordinated by the Commission with inputs from the following Member States: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.

This report sets out how the EU and its Member States are delivering on the policy priorities for food and nutrition security, agreed in 2013.
The report is accompanied by a Commission Staff Working Document, which provides information on methodology and detailed case studies.

The Maltese Government welcomes the second Biennial Report from the Commission on Implementing EU Food and Nutrition Security Commitments.

Committee Recommendation The Committee concurs with the Ministry’s position contained in the Explanatory Memorandum 3819 of 19 January 2017 and has therefore decided to clear this document from scrutiny.

RS 08/08/2017