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This joint working paper lays out a rationale and strategic framework for improving food security and managing food-price shocks in the Arab countries. The paper does not provide country specific policy and project recommendations. Such recommendations will follow from the country by country application of the framework, taking into account each country's political and cultural preferences, resource endowments, and risk tolerance. In 2007 and the first half of 2008, a sharp rise in agricultural commodity and food prices triggered grave concerns about food security, malnutrition and increased poverty throughout the world. While the threat of a prolonged food-price shock receded with falling energy and commodity prices and a weakening global economy in the second half of 2008, many factors underlying the volatility in food prices appear here to stay and will require careful management if the world is to avoid future food-price shocks. This paper suggests three critical strategies that, together, can serve as pillars to help offset future vulnerability to price shocks: a) strengthen safety nets, provide people with better access to family planning services, and promote education; b) enhance the food supply provided by domestic agriculture and improve rural livelihoods by addressing lagging productivity growth through increased investment in research and development; and c) reduce exposure to market volatility by improving supply chain efficiency and by more effectively using financial instruments to hedge risk.

These organizations have joined together to recommend the principles presented below. The document concludes with anticipated next steps, which point toward a toolkit of best practices, guidelines, governance frameworks, and possibly codes of practice by the major sets of private actors.

Metadata only record ; This is a module in the "Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook" published by the World Bank, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and International Fund for Agricultural Development. This module examines the necessity for good governance and gender sensitivity within agricultural practices and institutions. While efforts to reform are taking place in the public sector, rural areas and specifically rural women still face barriers in representing their interests effectively. Methods to achieve good governance include quality agricultural policies, inputs and support; transparency and minimized corruption; and the existence of a just legal system. This issue is expanded upon in the following Thematic Notes: Gender in Policy-Making Processes; Institutionalizing Gender in the Agriculture Sector; Decentralization and Community-Driven Development; and Gender, Self-Help Groups, and Farmer Organizations in the Agricultural Sector. Specific cases from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Cote d'Ivoire, and Sri Lanka are also examined.

Metadata only record ; This is a module in the "Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook" published by the World Bank, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and International Fund for Agricultural Development. This module examines the role that women play in the management and conservation of natural resources. Impoverished individuals living in rural areas are directly affected by environmental degradation because they depend on natural resources as sources of food and income. Utilizing the unique perspectives and skills women possess in strategies of natural resource management reduces time and labor spent on subsistence and can allow more time for crop production for profit, child care, etc. However such practices are not possible without secure land rights and access to resources to implement policies of environmental management and conservation. This issue is expanded upon in the following Thematic Notes: Gender and Biodiversity; Gender Dimensions of Climate Change; Gender and Bioenergy; Gender and Natural Disasters; and Gender Dimensions of Land and Water Degradation and Desertification. A specific case from India is also examined.

The approach taken in this report reflects the view of the collaborating international organizations that price volatility and its effects on food security is a complex issue with many dimensions, agricultural and non-agricultural, short and long-term, with highly differentiated impacts on consumers and producers in developed and developing countries. The report begins with a discussion of volatility and of the ways in which volatility affects countries, businesses, consumers and farmers. Lessons learned from recent experiences are briefly reviewed as well as the factors determining likely levels of volatility in future. This report offers suggestions for a systematic and internationally coordinated response building on the lessons learned as a result of the 2007-2008crisis. It is important to distinguish between policy options designed to prevent or reduce price volatility and those designed to mitigate its consequences. Both types of intervention are explored in detail. Scope is identified for actions at individual, national, regional and international level. Some would help to avert a threat; others are in the nature of contingency plans to improve readiness, while still others address long-term issues of resilience. Finally, the report explores mechanisms of international cooperation to implement this report's recommendations and to monitor progress.