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NTS Bulletin

NTS Bulletin September 2013

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NTS VIEWPOINT

‘Stock’ solution to regional food security: Which way forward?

By Belinda Chng

Consumption patterns in Southeast Asia are changing rapidly. As the region becomes more affluent, demand for protein and wheat is expected to increase. Such shifts may leave countries with no choice but to seek regional or multilateral options to complement their own food security strategies.

At present, many countries still focus on national-level strategies. For example, traditional rice-importing countries Indonesia and the Philippines seek to be self-sufficient in rice through a combination of national stockpiling schemes, imports, and domestic production and procurement.

However, such national-level measures are costly, and are vulnerable to factors such as volatility in the prices of production inputs, availability of land, labour and capital, environmental hazards, trade policies of exporting countries, the import capacity of a country, and even losses from spoilage. The Philippines made international headlines in 2011 when a local non-governmental organisation reported that 500,000 tons of rice were rotting in government warehouses due to poor management.

Such issues suggest that alleviating food supply vulnerabilities requires the use of multiple approaches. Within this context, a regional stockpile becomes attractive, which explains to some extent the creation of the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR).

Food reserves are however costly and tedious to manage. Studies show that stabilising prices through buffer stocks and trade policies requires rigorous conditions, including sufficient access to finance, and well-timed purchases and sales. When reserves are released in non-emergency situations, it can cause instability in the international markets.

APTERR itself has seen limited success. Contributions from the 10 ASEAN countries make up just 11 per cent of the current reserves, with Japan, China and South Korea making up the balance. Total reserves stand at 787,000 tons – less than two days of consumption in Southeast Asia and East Asia. This is despite ASEAN member states being among the world’s largest producers, exporters and stockpilers of rice.

This does not mean that food-stock mechanisms are ineffective. Properly crafted, such measures can strengthen a country’s resilience to food supply shocks. There is a need, however, to look at what could be done to improve their design.

To begin with, ASEAN could look at how APTERR can be enhanced. Specifically, countries will need to step up their commitment to APTERR, by increasing their rice pledges and providing higher financial support to boost operational capacity.

Beyond that, a range of other bilateral, multilateral and regional arrangements that involve partnerships with the private sector could be considered. Shared management of specific food items could allow countries to hold a lower level of stocks in other items, which could help them manage costs and strengthen access to a wider range of food stocks. Governments could also tap private-sector logistics networks to facilitate rapid and smooth distribution of food stocks.

There is still much scope at the regional level to improve existing mechanisms, and to explore new ones – both to mitigate the risks inherent in national-level strategies, and to enhance stability of food supply in the region. What is needed now is the will to push this agenda forward.

Belinda Chng is Research Fellow with the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.

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CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY AND NATURAL DISASTERS

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

The brief discusses the importance of promoting green spaces in urban areas as a key mechanism for the conservation of nature elsewhere. In addition to studies that note the importance of exposure to nature in cultivating an appreciation for ecosystems and thereby building awareness on environmental issues, the concentration of people, wealth and political power in urban areas makes cities an important focus area for biodiversity conservation.

Through an analysis of academic and policy literature, and a number of interviews with key informants in the field, this paper seeks to assist humanitarian and development actors to better promote urban resilience and disaster risk reduction and to respond effectively to the humanitarian emergencies that are likely to occur in cities.

This publication explores the use and impact of company–community grievance mechanisms in the oil and gas, forestry and mining sectors. It highlights the importance of having an open and responsive approach to stakeholder engagement within which a grievance mechanism can sit. It cites effective approaches for enhancing dialogue as well as recommendations on how to design grievance mechanisms to better meet the needs of communities and to avoid the risk and costs of community disputes for business.

Events & Announcements

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ENERGY AND HUMAN SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

This document provides an overview of an ADB project with a private-sector partner to provide affordable, clean energy (solar-powered energy) to Indian rural households. The project allows poor homes to purchase energy on a pay-as-you-go basis using mobile phones.

The analysis highlights China’s strong political will in advancing renewable energy policy, driven by energy security concerns. That will is demonstrated by emphases on the environment and green technology development, with environmental and social agenda featured in national plans since the 11th Five-year Plan (2006–2011). Institutional arrangements under the Renewable Energy Law have also successfully incentivised the development of wind power, an energy source that still needs to be maximised.

Events & Announcements

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FOOD SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

This policy report presents a typology of the diverse livelihood strategies and development pathways for smallholder farms in developing countries, and offers recommendations to help potentially profitable smallholders meet emerging risks and challenges.

The report indicates that equality of treatment between women and men and food security are mutually reinforcing. However, gender equality remains an elusive goal in many parts of Asia and the Pacific. There is thus a need for a transformation of traditional gender roles and to build on improved information about the range of inequalities and the specific constraints facing women.

Events & Announcements

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HEALTH SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

This report underscored the need for research to define the services and supporting policies needed in specific settings, including financial risk protection for populations that need these services and the cost (out-of-pocket payments) for such services. It is also vital to measure progress towards universal coverage using valid indicators and appropriate data.

Through an analysis of performance ratings of Global Fund grants from 2003 to 2012, this article argues that a complex, multi-step system for grant ratings tends to be subjective and discretionary, and leads to disincentives for recipients. The article recommends a redesign of the Global Fund’s system based on independently measured health outcomes.

Events & Announcements

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INTERNAL AND CROSS-BORDER CONFLICT

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

This report offers guidance for developing national instruments for addressing internal displacement. The state has the responsibility to protect the rights of internally displaced people and national legal frameworks facilitate the efforts to achieve this end. The report discusses the processes of developing such instruments as well the challenges and difficulties that arise during the process.

This article discusses the responsibilities of the international community with regard to the protection of people against mass atrocities. It argues that the different elements of the responsibility to protect (RtoP) could each undermine the others’ effects, rather than be mutually reinforcing; and it reframes the RtoP as protection, prosecution and palliation (diverging from the version unanimously adopted at the 2005 UN World Summit).

Events & Announcements

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TRANSNATIONAL CRIME

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

This paper presents the findings of a survey of court cases from 2007 onwards, including the first year and a half of the operation of Indonesia’s Law 6/2011 on Immigration (May 2011 – December 2012). It argues that any efforts to increase the scope and depth of cooperation between Australia and Indonesia must take into account the progress made by, as well as the challenges confronting, law enforcement agencies in prosecuting people smugglers in Indonesian courts.

According to this report, more than 100,000 people were smuggled out of East Africa in 2012 alone, generating over USD15 million for organised criminal networks. Ivory poaching led to an additional USD30 million in illicit revenue just from Asian markets. Illicit drugs are increasingly becoming lucrative, with up to 22 tons of heroin trafficked to and through the region annually. Finally, Somali piracy was worth an estimated USD150 million in 2011, equivalent to almost 15 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Events & Announcements

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WATER SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

This paper investigates the potential impacts of Johor’s economic growth and the attendant social changes on future water supply to Singapore. It argues that the development of the Iskandar Malaysia economic corridor could lead to an increase in demand for water across all sectors. This could potentially affect Singapore’s imports of water from Johor, which remains substantial despite ongoing self-reliance efforts.

This report analyses the meltwater resources of Asia’s river basins. The Syr Darya and Mekong river basins are likely to become glacier-free if temperature increases by 4–5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Glaciers in the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra and Amu Darya river basins will survive, but total basin ice reserves may decrease by as much as three quarters from levels in 1961–1990.

This article analyses hydroelectric dam building efforts by India – it has plans to construct 292 – on the Himalayan rivers. The article warns that the human and ecological impacts of the extensive dam building would be disastrous, and as such, careful consideration should be given to the potential consequences.

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 NTS Studies, based in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), 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 Climate Change, Food Security, 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.

The Centre is the Coordinator of the ASEAN-Canada Research Partnership (2012–2015) supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. It also serves as the Secretariat of the initiative.

In 2009, the Centre was chosen by the MacArthur Foundation as a lead institution for its three-year Asia Security Initiative (2009–2012), to develop policy research capacity and recommend policies on the critical security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific. It 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.


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