International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) Report

A new report (2023) by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) warns that at least 21 countries, including Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Lebanon, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, are at risk of catastrophic levels of both debt distress and rising hunger. This is happening even as record-high food prices have receded a year after Russia’s war on Ukraine. The report highlights the global hunger crisis and its link to high debt levels in many countries.

This is a topic relevant for the IAS exam. Read all about this report and its significance in this article.

IPES-Food Report Highlights

Rising Debt and Hunger:

• The report states that global public debt was at its highest levels in almost 60 years, and countries are having to choose between repaying debts and feeding people. 
• About 60% of low-income countries and 30% of middle-income countries are at high risk of debt distress or are already in it. 
• The world’s poorest countries saw the costs of servicing their debt increase by 35% in 2022. 
• During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, 62 developing nations spent more on debt repayment than on medical care.

Food Insecurity and Debt:

• By November 2022, 45 countries needed external food assistance, and 349 million people in these countries were facing acute food insecurity, with 49 million on the brink of famine. 
• The report warns that the food price crisis is entering a dangerous phase – a debt crisis that could plunge millions more into hunger. 
• Dozens of low-income nations will progressively lose the ability to deal with the escalating difficulties they are facing because they will be forced to deal with fundamentally increased import costs and debt repayments in the near future. 

Also read: Food security in India

Root Causes of the Crisis:

• According to the report, a significant contributing reason to rising debt and hunger is unsustainable food systems. 
• The world’s poorest nations are experiencing financial instability as a result of import dependence, exploitative financial flows, boom-bust commodity cycles, and agricultural systems that are vulnerable to climate change. 
• Africa’s reliance on food imports has risen in recent decades, leaving nations vulnerable to price surges like the one in 2022 and forcing them to generate money from exporting crops in order to pay off their loans rather than supplying local food needs.

Call for Action:

• The report urges immediate action to offer debt relief and development finance on a scale to meet the needs of climate-resilient food systems, COVID-19 recovery, and sustainable development goals. 
• It also urges policymakers to repair historical injustices that have left countries funnelling profits and exports to the global North – through windfall taxes on food profiteers and further steps to achieve tax justice, climate justice, and repay ‘ecological’ as well as historical debts.

International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) Report:- Download PDF Here