Addressing the food crisis: governance, market functioning, and investment in public goods

The 2007–08 food price crisis has not only increased food insecurity around the globe, but also exposed long-term failures in the functioning of the world food system. Establishing a global governance architecture for governing food, nutrition, and agriculture as well as improving market functioning and increasing investment in public goods will be critical for the way forward. Three high-priority policy actions are necessary to cope with urgent needs for food and nutrition security and at the same time build a stronger food system that can respond to future challenges: (1) improve productivity and scale up research investments; (2) expand nutrition and social protection, (3) strengthen markets and trade.

Joachim von BraunEmail:

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Joachim von Braun   has been the Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) since 2002. Before coming to IFPRI, von Braun was the Director of the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and Professor of Economics and Technological Change at the University of Bonn. His fields of expertise and interest are international economics, agricultural and rural development, science and technology, trade and aid, famine, gender, health, and nutrition.