Canada at the G8 and UN Committee on World Food Security: forum-shifting in global food security governance

Abstract

Following the 2007–2008 Global Food Crisis, the Government of Canada doubled its aid spending on food security and made fighting world food insecurity a key foreign policy objective. The Government of Canada positioned itself for, and claims to enjoy, global leadership in global food security governance. This article examines the Government of Canada's behavior at two leading institutions for global food security governance, the Group of Eight (G8) and the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS). I argue that the government has engaged in a forum-shifting strategy between these two institutions that has enhanced its reputation among a small group of peer states at the G8 but diminished its reputation and influence at the CFS. With the CFS emerging as a key institution for agenda-setting, norm-building and rule-making in global food security governance, Canada's marginal influence and peripheral status at this body undermines the government's claims of global leadership.

Dans la période qui a suivi la crise alimentaire mondiale de 2007–2008, le gouvernement du Canada a multiplié par deux sa contribution financière à la sécurité alimentaire et fait de la lutte contre l'insécurité alimentaire mondiale un objectif prioritaire de sa politique étrangère. Le gouvernement canadien s'est positionné en tant que leader de la gouvernance mondiale de la sécurité alimentaire et revendique ce rôle.

Cet article examine le comportement du gouvernement canadien au sein de deux institutions majeures impliquées dans la gouvernance mondiale de la sécurité alimentaire : le Groupe des huit (G8) et le Comité des Nations-Unies sur la sécurité alimentaire mondiale (CSA). Je soutiens que le gouvernement canadien s'est engagé dans une stratégie de changement de forum de l'une de ces deux institutions à l'autre et que cette stratégie a consolidé sa réputation dans un petit groupe de pays qui lui sont comparables au sein du G8, mais terni sa renommée et son influence au sein du CSA. Étant donné l’émergence du CSA en tant qu'institution clé pour l’établissement des programmes, la construction des normes et l’élaboration des règles pour la sécurité alimentaire mondiale, l'influence marginale et le statut périphérique du Canada dans cet organisme compromettent l'affirmation du pays selon laquelle il joue un rôle de leader mondial.

Keywords:

• Canada
• global governance
• food security
• Group of Eight
• UN Committee on World Food Security

Acknowledgements

I thank four anonymous reviewers, Alistair Edgar, James Manicom, John Cadham and Kristen Hopewell for their helpful comments. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Reclaiming Global Governance workshop in Waterloo, Canada on 21 March 2013. Part of the research for this article was undertaken during my time as the 2010–2011 Cadieux-Léger Fellow at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. I acknowledge support from the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Society for my writing time.

Notes

1. Author's calculations based on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and World Bank data.

2. It is estimated that at least US$6.5 billion was new money (OECD 2012).

3. FAO member states must be UN member states. The FAO has 194 Member Nations, two associate members (Faroe Islands and Tokelau) and one member organization, the European Union.

4. This includes the participation of nearly 70 high-level private-sector industry representatives spanning the entire food and agriculture and input sectors (author's communication with private sector representative to the CFS, June 2014).

5. CIDA spending on food security declined in 2010/2011 as this reflects the end of the 3-year (2009–2011) funding commitment Canada made as part of AFSI.

6. Interview with European Union and United States officials, November 2009.

7. For a G8 flagship initiative, the GAFSP has encountered significant implementation challenges, and of the US$658 million available for public financing, only $51 million has been dispersed and just $3.3 million distributed from an available pool of $300 million (GAFSP 2013).

8. Author's direct observation from the CFS reform working group meeting (14–17 October 2008).

9. Canada is a signatory to the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESR) that established the right to food, and endorsed the 2003 UN Voluntary Guidelines on the human right to food.

10. Interviews with Canadian delegation to CFS (October 2008; November 2009).

11. Communications with Sofia Monsalve of the Foodfirst Information Action Network (November 2009; October 2012).

12. Interviews with CFS global civil society mechanism and FAO member states (November 2009).

13. Confidential interviews with national delegates and international organization staff (FAO, OECD and World Bank) at the UN World Summit for Food Security (16–18 November 2009).

14. Interviews with CFS Chairperson, Maria del Carmen Squeff (October 2008; November 2009).

Endnote

15. Communications with Alexander Mueller (June 2013).

16. The CFS's work on the Global Partnership, and the principles on responsible agricultural investment and biofuels, were not delegated to it by the G8; rather, it has been the collective efforts of other states, global civil-society organizations and international organizations to shift these issues into the CFS.