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NTS Bulletin August 2011 (Issue 1)

Issues:

Note: Please click on the respective titles or headers for the full report.

Disclaimer: All links and news reports are correct at the time of publication.

Click here to register for the first International Conference on Asian Food Security 2011 (ICAFS).

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MAIN HIGHLIGHT

Food security is undoubtedly one of the defining global challenges of our time. The food price crisis of 2007–2008 caused spikes in prices of staple grains and edible oils across the world and recentred attention on the importance of food within the international system. The financial crises of 2008–2009 compounded this problem. Today, food sector issues continue to challenge a range of individuals, communities and states.

Such contemporary food-related challenges are particularly relevant for Asia. Over 60 per cent of the world’s undernourished – 578 million out of a recorded 925 million – reside in Asia. Additionally, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) has noted that rising food prices have prevented nearly 20 million people in the Asia-Pacific from climbing out of poverty.

The recently announced famine in the Horn of Africa, which has affected more than 11 million people across Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and South Sudan, is a stark reminder that global food insecurity continues to loom large on the international agenda. In view of such circumstances, there is a clear need to increase food production, combat food waste and inefficiencies, and pursue policies aimed at ensuring that food is both available and affordable.

This need has been duly recognised by the hosts of the first International Conference on Asian Food Security (ICAFS 2011) which will be held in Singapore from 10 to 12 August 2011. ICAFS is organised by the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and the Philippines-based Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA). The conference, themed ‘Feeding Asia in the 21st Century: Building Urban-Rural Alliances’, will bring together key public, private and civil society players in food security to analyse, discuss and chart directions for the four basic dimensions of food security: availability, physical access, economic access and utilisation.

For Conference highlights, see: Teng, Paul and Margarita Escaler, 2011, ‘Feeding Asia in the 21st Century: Building Urban-Rural Alliances’, NTS Alert, July (Issue 2), Singapore: RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies for NTS-Asia.

Additional Info:

Fielding, Richard, ‘Asia’s Food Security Conundrum: More Apparent than Real?’, RSIS Commentaries, No. 90, 13 June 2011.

Ewing, J. Jackson, Paul Teng and Margarita Escaler, ‘Resolving Asia’s Food Conundrum: Dual Strategy Needed’, RSIS Commentaries, No. 106, 18 July 2011.

Escaler, Margarita and Paul Teng, 2011, ‘“Mind the Gap”: Reducing Waste and Losses in the Food Supply Chain’, NTS Insight, June, Singapore: RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies.

Ewing, J. Jackson and Ong Suan Ee, 2011, ‘Food and Health in the Asia-Pacific: The Economics of Access and Its Implications for Health’, NTS Alert, June (Issue 1), Singapore: RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies for NTS-Asia.

Kuntjoro, Irene A. and Pau Khan Khup Hangzo, 2011, ‘The Challenges and Opportunities of Farmland Acquisition in Southeast Asia’, NTS Perspectives, No. 7, Singapore: RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies.

Ong, Suan Ee and J. Jackson Ewing, 2011, ‘Brave New World? Assessing the Health Risks of Modern Food Systems in Asia’, NTS Alert, June (Issue 2), Singapore: RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies for NTS-Asia.

Teng, Paul, Margarita Escaler and Mely Caballero-Anthony, 2011, ‘Urban Food Security: Feeding Tomorrow’s Cities’, Significance,June.

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CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY AND NATURAL DISASTERS

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), 2011, Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, Geneva.

This report highlights the political and economic imperative to reduce disaster risks, and the benefits to be gained from doing so. As the second biennial global assessment of disaster risk reduction prepared in the context of the UNISDR, it offers guidance and suggestions to governments and non-governmental actors alike on how they can reduce disaster risks in a collaborative manner.

Urban, Frauke and Tom Mitchell, 2011, Climate Change, Disasters and Electricity Generation, Strengthening Climate Resilience Discussion Papers 8, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.

This report urges governments and energy companies to rethink their energy infrastructure in light of changing disaster risks due to climate change. It notes that unless they improve their planning for natural disasters, lives could be lost, economies damaged and ecosystems destroyed; and it lays out simple guidelines to help them ensure that their energy supply is ‘climate smart’. This includes encouraging linkages between ministries of energy, climate and disasters to improve energy policy.

Swarup, Anita, Irene Dankelman, Kanwal Ahluwalia et al., 2011, Weathering the Storm: Adolescent Girls and Climate Change, Woking: Plan International.

The impacts of climate change vary for different populations. While children everywhere are inevitably badly affected, this report illustrates how girls, in particular, are bearing the greatest burden of such impacts, and it calls for the needs of adolescent girls to be better integrated into climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes. The findings are based on interviews with girls involved in Plan International’s programmes in Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

Events & Announcements

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ENERGY AND HUMAN SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

Kingston, Jeff (ed.), 2011, Tsunami: Japan’s Post-Fukushima Future, Washington, DC: Foreign Policy.

This volume focuses on the question of what has been the impact of the recent Japanese tsunami and earthquake on Japan’s society, economy and politics. Edited by Temple University’s Jeff Kingston, it comprises articles by journalists and scholars working in Japan, including Financial Times Asia-Pacific Editor David Pilling, former Economist Editor Bill Emmott and author Robert Whiting.

Thomson, Elspeth, Chang Youngho and Lee Jae-Seung, 2011, Energy Conservation in East Asia: Towards Greater Energy Security, World Scientific Series on Energy and Resource Economics, Vol. 8.

This publication examines energy conservation policies and the progress to date in East and Southeast Asia, that is, China, Japan and Korea, and seven ASEAN countries. It begins with a summary of current and projected energy supply and demand patterns in the region. It also discusses the need and basis for cooperation in energy conservation.

Events & Announcements

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FOOD SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

Huda, Samsul, Victor Sadras, Suhas Wani et al., 2011, ‘Food Security and Climate Change in the Asia-Pacific Region: Evaluating Mismatch between Crop Development and Water Availability’, International Journal of Bio-resource and Stress Management, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 137–44.

This paper argues that an understanding of the impacts of climate change on key crops will enable farmers, community workers and policymakers to better prepare for and adapt to climate change. Phenological development in relation to climatic conditions and variations must be taken into account in decision-making and policymaking. It also describes an international project which combines an analysis of changes in meteorological parameters with the use of climate change projections to assess shifts in crop phenology and pattern of rain and water availability.

Mukhopadhyay, Swapan Kumar, Arup Chattopadhyay, Ivi Chakraborty et al., 2011, ‘Crops That Feed the World 5. Sweetpotato. Sweetpotatoes for Income and Food Security’, Food Security, 19 July.

This article proposes that more attention should be given to the sweet potato as a potential staple crop. Sweet potatoes produce more edible energy on marginal land than any other major food crop, and are an important element of subsistence farming efforts by poor households. Additionally, with its high starch content and its suitability for the production of animal feed, it has industrial value. For these reasons, the sweet potato could play a significant role in efforts to enhance food and nutrition security in developing and under-developed countries where small-scale farming is prevalent.

Events & Announcements

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HEALTH AND HUMAN SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

Fidler, David P. and Lawrence O. Gostin, 2011, ‘WHO’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework: A Milestone in Global Governance for Health’, Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 306, No. 2, pp. 200–1.

In this article, the authors analyse the pandemic influenza preparedness framework (for the sharing of influenza viruses, and access to vaccines and other benefits) which was finalised in April 2011. They note that the framework’s most progressive reform lies in the provisions for increased transparency of virus transfers and the standardisation of transfer agreements. However, the framework appears to omit any mention of norms to encourage developed countries to make contributions (such as vaccine donations) to developing countries in the event of an outbreak.

Nuzzo, Jennifer B. and Gigi Kwik Gronvall, 2011, ‘Global Health Security: Closing the Gaps in Responding to Infectious Disease Emergencies’, Global Health Governance, Vol. 4, No. 2.

This article highlights two gaps in international frameworks governing global responses to public health threats: first, the strong disincentives for states to report disease outbreaks, and second, the lack of comprehensive standards of practice to regulate systems for detecting and responding to infectious disease outbreaks. To overcome these hindrances, states should be offered greater incentives to report disease outbreaks, there has to be greater enforcement of countries’ international health obligations, and political and scientific communities must develop pragmatic standards for sample sharing.

Events & Announcements

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You are free to publish this material in its entirety or only in part in your newspapers, wire services, internet-based information networks and newsletters and you may use the information in your radio-TV discussions or as a basis for discussion in different fora, provided full credit is given to the author(s) and the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). Kindly inform the publisher (NTS_Centre@ntu.edu.sg) and provide details of when and where the publication was used.

About the Centre:

The Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies was inaugurated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Dr Surin Pitsuwan in May 2008. The Centre maintains research in the fields of Food Security, Climate Change, Energy Security, Health Security as well as Internal and Cross-Border Conflict. It produces policy-relevant analyses aimed at furthering awareness and building capacity to address NTS issues and challenges in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. The Centre also provides a platform for scholars and policymakers within and outside Asia to discuss and analyse NTS issues in the region.

In 2009, the Centre was chosen by the MacArthur Foundation as a lead institution for the MacArthur Asia Security Initiative, to develop policy research capacity and recommend policies on the critical security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific.

The Centre is also a founding member and the Secretariat for the Consortium of Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies in Asia (NTS-Asia). More information on the Centre can be found at www.rsis.edu.sg/nts.