Panel, Conference Presentation
Creating Stronger Partnerships for Global Food Security
Milken InstituteDavid Evans, Hunter Biden, Mpule Kuala Gopal, Greg Page, Axton Salim, John Pierre-Foiry, AJ Gandhi
- Emergency levels are projected to remain at post-World War II highs driven by civil conflict and climate change, though solutions are anticipated to emerge through private sector innovation, government action, and UN collaboration.
- Food security interventions face persistent gaps, with 30% of the global population still lacking access to iodized salt, while long-term sustainability requires addressing subscale farming to prevent soil nutrient mining and declining yields.
- Women are identified as critical to solving hunger, responsible for producing 80% of Africa's food despite holding only 1% of assets, with financing directed toward women projected to be four times more effective at reducing poverty.
- Commercial agriculture in export sectors like cocoa and palm oil must achieve sufficient land scale to provide net incomes covering essential needs, including school fees, to avoid long-term poverty.
- Smallholder support strategies include leveraging employee expertise and monetary gifts for yield improvements, matching entrepreneurs with technical advisors for shelf-life stability, and adopting solar-based dehydrators to manage produce surges in low-infrastructure environments.
- Targeted initiatives are currently impacting specific demographics, with one program reaching 10,000 children and 5,000 lactating mothers, while having already served 424,000 children in Indonesia and aiming to expand to 2.5 million people in Bangladesh.
- Future innovation is expected to be driven by mobile technology, crowdsourcing for emergency response, and an innovation lab in Washington designed to scale small-scale solutions for food-insecure areas.
- Logistics providers are expected to continue supplying expert supply chain management during crises, while aid delivery via debit cards is anticipated to enhance refugee dignity and support local economic contributions.
- Financing models are forecast to shift from catalytic philanthropy to impact investment and private equity, requiring new metrics to define social development alongside financial returns in the African market.
- U.S. agricultural innovation is expected to accelerate through the land-grant university system to disseminate best practices, while the private sector is positioned to identify market gaps and scale replicable solutions for malnutrition globally.
- The financial community is encouraged to collaborate with the World Food Programme to develop new risk management and emergency preparedness solutions.
- Mobile technology and crowdsourcing are anticipated to become primary tools for emergency response and public safety information dissemination.