The 2021 Global Food Security Index PDF

The 2021 Global Food Security Index: Encouraging Signs for Jordan September 2022 Knowledge is Power | The 2021 Global Food Security Index: Encouraging Signs for Jordan| September 2022 1 1. Background “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to...

The 2021 Global Food Security Index: Encouraging Signs for Jordan September 2022 Knowledge is Power | The 2021 Global Food Security Index: Encouraging Signs for Jordan| September 2022 1 1. Background “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” (World Food Summit / 1996). Access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food is a basic need, and should be treated as a basic human right. Indeed, apart from being a human right, sustainable development would be impossible without food security. Food The Economist Intelligence Unit has been Affordability publishing “The Global Food Security Index’ (GFSI) since 2012 for 113 countries. The conceptual Natural Food Global Food framework of the Index is based on four categories Availability Security Index Resources & Resilience of food security, and these are affordability, availability, quality and safety, and natural resources and resilience. The index uses 58 Quality & Safety indicators that measure the drivers of food security across countries. 1st Category: Food Affordability: “Measures the ability of consumers to purchase food, their vulnerability to price shocks and the presence of programs and policies to support customers when shocks occur”. 2nd Category: Food Availability: “Measures the sufficiency of the national food supply, the risk of supply disruption, national capacity to disseminate food and research efforts to expand agricultural output”. 3rd Category: Quality & Safety: “Measures the variety and nutritional quality of average diets, as well as the safety of food”. 4th Category: Natural Resources & Resilience: “Assesses a country's exposure to the impacts of climate change; its susceptibility to natural resource risks; and how the country is adapting to these risks”. On 12 October 2021, the Economist Intelligence Unit released the 2021 Index. Relative to the scores and ranking of the 113 economies, this "Knowledge is Power", issued by the Jordan Strategy Forum (JSF), sheds some light on the performance of Jordan on the index. Naturally, the overriding objective is to recommend some policy measures whose objective is to improve Jordan’s standing on the Index. Knowledge is Power | The 2021 Global Food Security Index: Encouraging Signs for Jordan| September 2022 2 2. The Global Food Security Index: Where is Jordan on the Index? Based on the 2021 Global Food Security Index, we outline below a number of observations. A. With a score of 84.0, Ireland tops the world. Burundi, with a score of 34.7, comes in last. Global Food Security Index / Top & Bottom Five Economies Ireland 84.0 Austria 81.3 UK 81.0 Finland 80.9 Switzerland 80.4 Malawi 37.3 Sudan 37.1 Mozambique 35.9 Yemen 35.7 Burundi 34.7 B. With a score of 73.6, Qatar ranks 24th globally, and tops the Arab countries. With a score of 64.6, Jordan ranks 49th globally, and 7th regionally. Global Food Index: Scores of Arab Global Food Index: Rankings of Arab Economies Economies Qatar 73.6 Qatar 24 Kuwait 72.2 Kuwait 30 UAE 71.0 UAE 35 Oman 70.0 Oman 40 Bahrain 68.5 Bahrain 43 Saudi Arabia 68.1 Saudi Arabia 44 Jordan 64.6 Jordan 49 Algeria 63.9 Algeria 54 Tunisia 62.7 Tunisia 55 Morocco 62.5 Morocco 57 Egypt 60.8 Egypt 62 Syria 37.8 Syria 106 Sudan 37.1 Sudan 110 Yemen 35.7 Yemen 112 Knowledge is Power | The 2021 Global Food Security Index: Encouraging Signs for Jordan| September 2022 3 C. In terms of the 4 categories of the Index, Jordan’s performance is encouraging in two categories, and poor in the other two. In the “natural resources & resilience” category, Jordan ranks 36th out of 113 economies, and tops the Arab countries. In the “affordability” category, Jordan ranks 42nd globally, and 3rd among Arab countries. In the “quality & safety” category, Jordan ranks 64th out of 113 economies, and 9th among the Arab countries. In the “availability” category, Jordan ranks 64th globally, and 9th among Arab countries. Natural Resources & Resilience Affordability 107 99 96 93 92 91 89 84 77 61 57 51 44 36 Jordan 54.2 107 103 96 68 56 53 52 50 47 46 44 42 31 18 Oman 88.8 Egypt 52.0 Qatar 83.8 Algeria 50.7 Jordan 80.4 Morocco 49.0 Kuwait 80.1 Tunisia 47.6 Bahrain 79.2 Oman 45.2 Algeria 77.9 Saudi Arabia 44.3 UAE 75.9 UAE 43.6 Morocco 75.1 Qatar 43.4 Saudi Arabia 75.0 Syria 43.3 Tunisia 74.4 Kuwait 43.0 Egypt 66.5 Yemen 42.1 Yemen 39.3 Sudan 41.4 Syria 34.0 Bahrain 39.1 Sudan 31.8 Availability Quality & Safety Qatar 74.4 112 111 109 74 66 64 59 56 49 21 20 14 12 9 8 85 84 71 67 64 54 51 42 41 29 28 20 16 88.8 Kuwait 72.3 Kuwait 86.4 UAE 71.3 83.8 Saudi Arabia 67.8 Qatar 83.5 Bahrain 67.5 79.9 Egypt 60.0 Saudi Arabia 79.8 Algeria 58.0 72.3 Oman Tunisia 72.1 57.3 Jordan 63.5 55.2 Algeria 62.0 Tunisia 54.0 60.7 Morocco 51.8 Syria 53.2 Sudan 31.6 52.4 Syria 30.1 10 Yemen 37.4 Yemen 27.6 Knowledge is Power | The 2021 Global Food Security Index: Encouraging Signs for Jordan| September 2022 4 3. TO SUM UP Jordan showed a significant improvement in the Global Food Security Index in 2021 compared to the year 2020. Indeed, the food security ranking increased from 62 in 2020 to 49 in 2021 on the Global Food Security Index. Given the four main categories of the global food security index, Jordan distinguished itself in "natural resources and resilience", which includes several sub-indicators that are based on land degradation and forest change. In addition, Jordan has also performed well in "Affordability”, which includes another variety of sub-indicators such as the change in average food costs, proportion of population under global poverty line and food safety net programs. On the other hand, Jordan's performance leaves a lot to be desired in “availability” and “quality and safety” categories. Within this context, it is important to note that all relevant stakeholders should examine the sub-indicators used in the composition of the overall index to improve food security. For the availability category, some of the used indicators are government spending on agricultural Research and Development (R&D), access to agricultural technology, total factor productivity of agriculture (annual growth in agricultural output minus annual growth in agricultural inputs), crop storage facilities, road infrastructure, and air, port and rail infrastructure. For the quality and safety category, some of the used indicators are the share of non- starchy foods in total dietary energy consumption, an assessment of whether the government has published guidelines and conducted educational campaign within the past 1-2 years to disseminate messages on a balanced and nutritious diet, an assessment of whether the government has a currently published national strategy to improve nutrition for both children and adults, an assessment of whether the government requires packaged foods to include nutrition labeling information (nutrient declarations) in accordance with Codex recommendations, a measure of the availability of iron and zinc (expressed in mg/capita/day), and a measure of the amount of high-quality protein in the diet using the methodology of the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS). Relative to the above-mentioned observations, it is worth mentioning that His Majesty King Abdullah II launched the “Economic Modernization Vision” on Sunday 5 June 2022. This vision is the outcome of the National Economic Workshops (“Advancing into the Future: Unleashing Potential to Modernize the Economy”), which was launched upon the King’s directives in his letter in late January 2022. Knowledge is Power | The 2021 Global Food Security Index: Encouraging Signs for Jordan| September 2022 5 The produced vision, to be implemented in three phases over 10 years, covers 8 national economic drivers, and 366 initiatives in various sectors. One of the economic drivers is “High Value Industries” which includes “Agriculture and Food Security”. The experts who looked at this sector proposed few initiatives. These include: 1. The establishment of a specialized food security governing body. 2. The establishment of a national food security research center. 3. The establishment of a food data intelligence system. 4. Reform agriculture and livestock regulations and policies. 5. Encourage modernization and innovation of the agricultural sector and expand the use of modern technologies. 6. Provide Agri education and vocational training for farmers’ upskilling. 7. Support investment projects, AgTech, and R&D in FoodTech. Relative to the mentioned above, if all relevant stakeholders succeed in implementing these initiatives, Jordan's performance should improve in the food availability category, and in the overall index as a result. Moreover, it is also important to examine all the sub-indicators involved in the composition of the food quality and safety category, as this would help in developing the plans needed to promote awareness regarding a healthy and balanced diet across the kingdom. 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