Policies affecting agricultural trade and markets must be part of Africa’s response to COVID-19 and to recent trade tensions between major economies, said participants at a virtual regional dialogue for English-speaking Africa on December 8, 2020.

The event, organized by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and AKADEMIYA2063, came three weeks after a similar dialogue for francophone African countries and was the third in a series of four such virtual meetings.

While the pandemic and trade tensions formed a major focus of the discussion, participants also explored how governments could better ensure that trade policy supports food security and environmental sustainability, and the role of both regional integration and multilateral trade talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

COVID-19 and Africa’s Agricultural Trade

Event moderator Jonathan Hepburn, senior policy advisor at IISD, asked participants how COVID-19 had affected markets for food and agriculture.

“The main story is a big shock in terms of demand,” said David Laborde, Senior Fellow at IFPRI. He told participants that trade in staple foods had been relatively resilient, although some sectors such as cut flowers or fruit and vegetables had been more seriously affected.

Falling demand for many products had led people’s income to fall, Laborde added, highlighting the particular vulnerability of poor people in the crisis.

Elizabeth Nderitu, Senior Regional Manager with TradeMark East Africa, told participants that COVID-19 testing requirements for truck drivers had initially caused long queues to form at borders until government agencies agreed to online certification and other mechanisms that eased the movement of goods and people.

However, despite being more resilient than other sectors, the farm sector was also vulnerable to the impact of the pandemic on trade in services and manufactured goods, noted Doaa Abdel-Motaal, Senior Counsellor in the WTO’s Division on Agriculture and Commodities.

She highlighted in particular the impact of reduced trade in fertilizers and farm machinery for the farm sector.

Trade Tensions: African households hit

Meanwhile, African countries had not been left unscathed by the trade war between major economies, participants said.

“Africa depends heavily on China and the US as their primary trading economies,” said Elizabeth Nsimadala, President of the Pan Africa Farmers Organization and the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation.

She highlighted especially the impact on exports of fresh fish, horticultural products, vegetables and fruit, beef and pork, milk and dairy products, and maize. A lack of storage infrastructure was a key problem that producers faced, she said.

Nderitu concurred, noting that many export commodities are produced largely by small-scale farmers, and underscoring the impact of weakened prices “on household economies at that level.”

Nsimadala told participants that a shortage of storage infrastructure was a particular problem facing farmers. Falling foreign exchange earnings and debt servicing requirements had also pushed governments to raise taxes on agricultural inputs, pesticides, fuel, and mobile financial transactions, creating a double burden for producers.

Regional Integration: From rhetoric to action?

Participants highlighted the significant challenges that producers and consumers in Africa still face—and the potential for closer economic integration on the continent to help overcome these.

Nsimadala highlighted conflict, poor infrastructure, inadequate transport and communication networks, poor road and railway connections, and insufficient telephone connectivity, which she said “really makes it difficult to trade and move food within the continent itself.”

Closer economic integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could help address some of these challenges, Nderitu said.

She highlighted the agreement’s potential to “ensure the flow of goods from regions and countries with food surpluses to regions that experience seasonal or chronic food shortages as a result of their climatic environment.”

Different regional economic communities, ministries, and stakeholder groups should collaborate across areas where action was needed, she added. These areas included improving intermodal transport, enhancing the physical connectivity of markets, digitalizing trade processes, addressing non-tariff barriers, and ensuring that rules of origin facilitate intra-African trade.

Nsimadala said that African governments have excellent policies in place on regional and continental integration: the challenge was now to move “from rhetoric to action.”

Adding Value, Meeting Standards

One participant highlighted the issue of value addition, asking panelists how governments can best help firms meet international regulations and standards.

Nsimadala emphasized the importance of building an ecosystem of different actors who can support value chain development.

“Value addition should not be looked at as just a stand-alone, but it should be in a holistic approach where we look at the entire production chain from the farm to the fork,” she said.

Laborde reminded participants that most African countries already benefit from duty-free, quota-free access to markets such as the EU, although this alone has not been sufficient to support significant value addition in African countries. More important will be the emergence of domestic and regional markets in Africa, he said.

He noted that, for a long time, Africa did not have a “middle class” of urban consumers demanding more processed food.

“Now we have it,” he said.

What Role for the WTO?

Hepburn asked panelists what they were hoping governments would do at the WTO in the run-up to the global trade body’s next ministerial conference, as well as afterward.

Abdel-Motaal emphasized that WTO members can and should make progress on outstanding issues outside of the context of high-level conferences and large negotiating rounds. “We needn’t await a ministerial conference in order to have a result,” she said.

She also drew participants’ attention to the possibility of harvesting “low-hanging fruit,” i.e., negotiating topics where agreement may be easier to achieve, as broad consensus already exists.

These include issues such as food export restrictions, where WTO members are discussing how to improve transparency, as well as a possible exemption for the UN World Food Programme’s purchases of humanitarian food aid. In the area of agricultural market access, this could involve more clarity for exporters on the tariff duties that can be imposed on shipments of goods already “en route.”

Nsimadala emphasized the importance of fairer competition in global markets, highlighting in particular the challenges African producers face when subsidized production is dumped on the continent’s markets.

“There should be stricter and more stringent measures taken on countries and companies that deliberately misuse their production subsidies to distort the African market,” she told participants.

This issue was on the WTO agenda, Abdel-Motaal said, with governments exploring options for new disciplines on domestic support to the farm sector: along with other more complex issues, the question could form part of a work program that WTO members pursue after the next ministerial conference.

Laborde noted that Africa’s participation in both regional and international markets was set to grow, meaning the continent needed to play an active role both in helping shape global trade rules and participating in settling disputes about those rules.

Africa’s involvement in WTO talks and in reform of the global trade body is now “more important than ever,” he concluded.

The video recording is now available at this link.

This event was the third of a series of events on the same topic, each with a regional perspective. The events, organized by IFPRI and IISD, will cover Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For more information on the Regional Series of Dialogues check out this page (in English and in French).

This event focuses on the skills and employment in a circular economy.   

In the event we will discuss two key issues:  

• The circular economy is necessary for a transition to a sustainable future. But can it bring about well-being, equality and other social benefits too?  
• How do resource efficiency, product life extension, sharing platforms and other new circular economy business models affect employment and what new skills will be required? 

The webinar is an official WCEF online side event. The event is co-organised by Sitra, Circle Economy, and IISD. 

British Columbia is on the heels of an election, with the government focusing on climate change action through its flagship CleanBC plan. Yet BC has the second-highest level of fossil fuel subsidies of Canadian provinces. This webinar will delve into the province’s fossil fuel subsidies, examining their impacts but also potential to phase them out to support climate action.

In 2017–18, BC’s fossil fuel subsidies totaled at least CAD 830 million. We’ll go through the different types of subsidies in the province and explain their role in the expansion of liquefied natural gas (LNG), including what this means for competing clean energy. We’ll discuss the BC NDP election promise to review the oil and gas royalty framework, and how this could be used as a starting point for subsidy reform. We’ll see how fossil fuel subsidies and climate change impact communities directly, including First Nations, but also highlight the potential to kickstart clean solutions if government money is reinvested wisely.

The coronavirus outbreak has imperilled progress on tackling global hunger and malnutrition under the framework set out under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through its impacts on trade in food and farm goods. At the same time, the farm sector is under increasing pressure to respond to new environmental challenges—especially those associated with climate change. With the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) next ministerial conference postponed due to the pandemic, both the substance and process of talks in Geneva on updating the global trade rulebook have been affected amid ongoing tensions between major economies. As governments revisit their priorities in this new context, it is important that they engage with different constituencies in their regions and beyond to ensure that negotiating strategies reflect an inclusive vision of public policy goals, one that can contribute to economic recovery and improve resilience to future food system shocks.

Although the pandemic has had a significant effect on economies in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, agricultural production and trade have been less affected. Trade plays an important role as a mitigation strategy of potential consumption disruptions and/or loss of export capacities for this heterogeneous region. Some countries are net food importers while others are net food exporters; some produce many value-added goods while others primarily staple goods. Investing in infrastructure, promoting regional integration,  having a stable multilateral trade system, and opening new market opportunities will be critical for the region’s economic recovery.

This event was organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the International Institute For Sustainable Development (IISD)

You can read a related blog Policy seminar: Promoting recovery and resilience for Latin America’s agrifood industry

See the video recording of this event here

This was  the second of a series of events on the same topic, each with a regional perspective. The events will cover Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For more information on the Regional Series of Dialogues check out this page

Moderator: 

• Valeria Piñeiro, Senior Research Coordinator, IFPRI

Panellists: 

• Eugenio Diaz Bonilla, Head of the Latin America and the Caribbean unit, IFPRI
• Manuel Otero, Director General, IICA 
• Gloria Abraham Peralta, WTO, Costa Rican Ambassador to the WTO in Geneva and Chair of the negotiations on Agriculture. Member of the IICA Advisory Council for Food Security in the Americas   
• Flavio Bettarello, Deputy Secretary for Trade and International Relations, Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply (MAPA)
• Bosco de la Vega, President of the National Agricultural Council of México (CNA)

This international virtual event hosted by IISD and Environment and Climate Change Canada is part of a series of initiatives under the Global Commission on Adaptation’s Nature-Based Solutions Action Track that Canada is co-leading with Mexico. The objective of the event is to profile Canada’s experience with Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for adaptation to a global audience and discuss successes, challenges, lessons learned and opportunities to shape Canada’s leadership in this area going forward.

The goal of the Nature-Based Solutions Action Track under the Global Commission on Adaptation is to demonstrate the significant potential of NBS, at scale, for adaptation and resilience. The Action Track will culminate in a summative event during the Climate Adaptation Summit, taking place on January 25, 2021.

Agenda

• Opening Remarks 
  • Jane McDonald, Facilitator, Executive Vice President of the IISD
  • Manitok Thompson, Indigenous Elder, Prayer and Blessing
  • The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada (video presentation) 
• Session 1: High-Level Panel on Canada’s challenges and successes in implementing NBS for adaptation 
  • Christine Hogan, Deputy Minister, Environment and Climate Change Canada
  • Kennedy Stewart, Mayor of Vancouver
  • Craig Stewart, Vice-President, Federal Affairs, Insurance Bureau of Canada
  • Eli Enns, President IISAAK Olam Foundation, Coordinator for North America of the Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Areas and Territories Consortium
  • AnnLisa Jensen, Councillor, Parkland County, Chair of the Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development Standing Committee for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities
  • Dr. Richard Florizone, CEO and President of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) 
• Session 2: Indigenous and local leadership in Canada
  • Chaired by Niall O’Dea, Assistant Deputy Minister, Canadian Wildlife Service at Environment and Climate Change Canada
  • Steven Nitah, Northwest Territories Advisor for the Indigenous Leadership Initiative: Indigenous leadership in implementing NBS
  • Dr. Danika van Proosdij, St. Mary’s University: Implementation of Managed Realignment for Salt Marsh Restoration and Climate Change Adaptation  
  • Sarah Hanson, Regional Director North America, Youth4Nature 
  • Melina Scholefield, Green Infrastructure and Rain City Strategy, City of Vancouver: Adapting to precipitation change with NBS
• Q&A from the audience on Indigenous and local leadership in Canada
• Session 3: Approaches for financing and scaling up NBS
  • Chaired by Patricia Fuller, Canada’s Ambassador for Climate Change
  • Martin Beaudoin Nadeau, Founder and CEO, Viridis Terra: Canadian clean-tech companies and the shift towards NBS and a greener economy
  • Paige Olmsted, Senior Research Associate, Smart Prosperity Institute: Key policy tools to support private and public investments
  • Tim Sopuck, CEO of the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation: Building the business case for natural infrastructure initiative at the provincial level 
  • Roy Brooke, Executive Director at Municipal Natural Assets Initiative: Supporting local governments in accounting for natural assets in their municipal financial planning 
• Q&A from the audience on financing and scaling up NBS projects
• Closing Remarks 
  • Youth Rapporteur, Ludmilla Ameur, Climate Change Adaptation Policy at Environment and Climate Change Canada, recipient of two ministerial awards 
  • The Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities 

About the Global Commission on Adaptation

The Global Commission on Adaptation is a two-year initiative launched in October 2018 to catalyse a global movement to bring scale and speed to climate adaptation solutions. Under the leadership of Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the IMF, the Commission released a flagship report in 2018, Adapt Now, calling for a shift in understanding, planning and financing adaptation. From this report, eight priority areas were identified and related action tracks established to scale up climate adaptation solutions and drive innovative thinking in the areas of Nature-Based Solutions, Food Security, Finance, Cities, Infrastructure, Locally-led Action, Water and Disaster Risk Management.

About Nature-Based Solutions Action Track and Climate Adaptation Summit

Through its NBS Action Track, co-led by Canada and Mexico, the Commission is bringing much-needed attention to nature’s largely untapped role in adaptation. Outcomes of the work under the NbS action track, including this event will be showcased at the Climate Adaptation Summit on January 25, 2021.

85 researchers spanning 25 countries worked intensely for the past three years to identify the most promising solutions to end hunger sustainably, with a focus on the role of donors. Their efforts, which combined artificial intelligence, state-of-the-art modelling, and a strong partnership with Nature Research, was released on October 13,  as part of a series of events, hosted by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and a call to action from the research community. 

Ceres2030’s team will engage EU stakeholders on their new research and show that by doubling aid between now and 2030 and spending it wisely, we could end hunger, double smallholder farmer incomes and protect the climate. 

The audience for this meeting will be composed of a mix of the European Commission staff, non-profit organizations, Brussels-based international organizations, Parliamentarians, lobbyists and academics.

You can register here.

Speakers

• Leonard Mizzi, Head of Unity of Rural Development, Food Security, Nutrition, DEVCO C1
• David Laborde, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI & Co-Director Ceres2030
• Jaron Porciello, Associate Director, Cornell University & Co-Director Ceres2030
• Carin Smaller, Director, Agriculture, Trade and Investment, IISD & Co-Director Ceres2030

Trade in food and farm goods has been hit hard by both the COVID-19 crisis and tensions between major economies, adversely affecting the food security of vulnerable populations. On November 17, 2020, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Institute For Sustainable Development (IISD), and Akademiya2063 hosted a virtual regional dialogue for francophone Africa to look at the issues facing the continent in this area in the run-up to the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) 12th ministerial conference (MC12).

Panellists included senior government officials from Benin and Niger, experts from IFPRI and the WTO, and a speaker from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

COVID-19: Staples largely spared as falling demand hits other exports
Event moderator Francine Picard, policy advisor with IISD, began the discussion by asking participants how COVID-19 has affected markets for food and agriculture—the first of four themes addressed by the panellists.

As in other world regions, African countries had benefited from the robust stocks that existed prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, said David Laborde, senior research fellow at IFPRI.

Laborde said trade in staples had been hit less hard than other sectors such as fruit and vegetables or cut flowers, where falling demand and a sharp decline in air travel had disproportionately affected air-freighted goods and other perishable non-essential items.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated other challenges faced by countries in the region, emphasized Francoise Assogba Komlan, the Secretary-General of Benin’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, pointing to the decision to close Nigeria’s border as one example.
Mounkaila Hassane, Director-General of Niger’s Trade Ministry, pointed to the impact of floods on rice cultivation in West Africa as another such case.

Coping Mechanisms in Place

At the same time, panellists emphasized that governments had implemented coping mechanisms that have so far helped people to weather the storm. Food trade was often exempted from border closure measures, Hassane pointed out, and Assogba explained how producers in Benin had benefited from storage aid from surplus production. 

Doaa Abdel-Motaal, senior counsellor in the WTO’s Agriculture and Commodities Division, recalled that many governments had collaborated to issue high-level declarations calling for trade in food and farm goods to remain open during the crisis and for measures to be taken that keep supply chains functioning normally.
Nonetheless, public health measures limiting the movement of people had also constrained trade in food and farm goods, Hassane said, while alternatives such as e-commerce remain poorly developed in many parts of Africa.

“This is not the last such crisis,”

Ousmane Badiane, Chair of Akademiya2063

“This is not the last such crisis,” said Ousmane Badiane, Chair of Akademiya2063, as he underscored the importance of being prepared for further shocks in the future.

Trade Rules to Protect the Weakest

Picard also asked participants to explain how Africa had been affected by tensions between major economies—such as the trade war between the United States and China that has dominated headlines during the Trump Administration.

Antoine Bouët, senior research fellow at IFPRI, said African countries have had to navigate their way through a tide of rising protectionism—although he also said this might now change following the U.S. election.

In particular, falling economic growth in countries like China could mean a decline in Africa’s exports of certain goods to these markets, warned Fadel Ndiame, deputy president of AGRA. He emphasized that African economies are often poorly diversified, with a heavy reliance on a handful of unprocessed commodities such as cotton and coffee.

At the same time, Assogba highlighted the potential for Africa to step in and fill the gap left by the decline in farm exports from other world regions. Tariffs and retaliatory measures on farm trade have seen China seek out new suppliers for key farm goods such as soybeans, a product widely used as animal feed.
Bouët cautioned that African countries have made little use of the WTO’s dispute settlement function, which is designed to defuse trade tensions and provide a peaceful route to settling disagreements over trade when these do occur. 

However, Laborde emphasized that rules were needed to prevent global trade from being governed by the “law of the jungle.”

“The rules protect the weakest countries,”

David Laborde, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI

“The rules protect the weakest countries,” he told participants.

Diversifying and Adding Value
Abdel-Motaal recalled the importance of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which aims to build on the regional integration that has taken place to date under Africa’s Regional Economic Communities and improve value addition on the continent.

Ndiame underscored the importance of improving the competitiveness of farming in Africa, and suggested that strengthening regional trade could represent a stepping stone toward greater integration on global markets. Assogba also highlighted the potential for geographical indications to ensure recognition for the quality of Benin’s food and agricultural exports within the region.

Alongside Ndiame, Laborde and Assogba also emphasized the importance of the diversification of products and export markets as part of a broader strategy to improve the resilience of African trade to shocks and unexpected events, and increase the extent to which value is added within supply chains on the continent.
“The keyword is ‘invest in agriculture,’” said Picard.

Laborde concurred, saying that governments needed to ensure adequate provision of “public goods” such as infrastructure and information while also creating the conditions for fair competition.

WTO and the Road to MC12
“International trade is a source of income, of opportunity—but also sometimes a source of worries,” Laborde said.

Better rules are needed so that “the actions of some don’t lead to damage to others,” he added, underscoring the importance of trade rules in improving the predictability of the trading system for economic actors.

On issues like cotton production subsidies—where African countries have long called for an update of WTO farm subsidy rules—Laborde argued that compensation should be paid to producing countries in Africa if subsidies proved impossible to reform for domestic political reasons. 

Abdel-Motaal reminded participants that COVID-19 and the election process for the next WTO Director-General continue to overshadow preparations for MC12, the date of which remains uncertain.

However, she emphasized that WTO members don’t need to wait for ministerial conferences in order to make decisions. “Nothing prevents WTO members from producing results immediately,” she said.

Abdel-Motaal pointed to a number of “low-hanging fruits” where negotiating outcomes might be more easily attainable than in other areas, including on topics of importance to Africa. These included issues around improved transparency, rules around tariffs on in-transit shipments, or export restrictions on food—with the last topic being particularly important to net food-importing nations, such as many of those in Africa.

More complex and controversial questions might need to be addressed as part of a work program that WTO members agree to pursue after MC12, she said, with domestic agricultural support and improved market access among the issues that would be addressed in this longer time frame.
 

The video recording for this event is available here.

This was the first of a series of events on the same topic, each with a regional perspective. The events will cover Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For more information on the Regional Series of Dialogues check out this page

The critical issue of compensation (or "damages") in international investment law is gaining increased attention due to concerns about the high (and growing) scale of awards. Today, there are 50 known cases in which a tribunal has awarded compensation over USD 100 million, including eight known claims of over USD 1 billion. States’ concerns about the unexpected and unintended size of arbitral awards have led to the issue of compensation being included on the agenda of the UNCITRAL Working Group III for ISDS Reform.   

But what would real compensation reform under international investment law look like? How could the principles of compensation and valuation techniques applied by arbitral tribunals be fundamentally reoriented to address concerns with outsized awards? This webinar aimed to start a discussion on these questions, presenting some potential options for reform as outlined by Jonathan Bonnitcha and Sarah Brewin in a new IISD publication, Compensation Under Investment Treaties.

The event was held on Tuesday, November 24, 2020, at 12 PM CET and had English-French interpretation. The video recording is available below.

As part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Race to Zero Dialogues, this event explored the challenges and opportunities for gender-responsive climate action with a focus on resilience and social protection.

We have provided three different times for this event, each of which will have a slightly different focus targeted to the location of its audience.

Co-hosted with the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC), these interactive dialogues featured conversations with a diverse group of prominent speakers and allow time for discussion and reflections in smaller groups.

Watch the full recording of the event targeted to Asia and Pacific:

Watch the full recording of the event targeted to Latin America and the Caribbean

Watch the full recording of the last event, focused on Europe, Africa and Middle East

To drive the transformation that is needed to build resilient economies, ecosystems, and societies– while ensuring that no one is left behind–stakeholders must show leadership and commitment in promoting gender-responsive, participatory, and representative governance approaches.

Together with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), IISD is organizing a series of four virtual regional dialogues. The events will cover anglophone and francophone Africa, South Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The regional dialogue series will seek to bring together policy-makers and other relevant constituencies to revisit how policies affecting trade in food and agriculture can better deliver on food security, environmental sustainability, and other public policy goals in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in the run-up to the 12^th Ministerial Conference.

Trade in food and farm goods has been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, imperilling efforts to make progress on tackling hunger and malnutrition according to the framework set out under the Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, the farm sector is under increasing pressure to respond to new environmental challenges—especially those associated with climate change. With the WTO’s next Ministerial Conference postponed due to the pandemic, both the substance and process of talks in Geneva on updating the global trade rulebook have been affected, amidst ongoing tensions between major economies. As governments revisit their priorities in this new context, it is important that they engage with different constituencies in their region and beyond to ensure that negotiating strategies reflect an inclusive vision of public policy goals—one that can contribute to recovery and improve resilience to future food system shocks.

Partners:

IFPRI and IISD will partner with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) for the dialogue focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean region, and with Akdemiya2063 for the two dialogues focusing on Africa.

Dates:

1. Africa (French panel) on November 17, 3:30 p.m. WAT / 2:30 p.m. GMT.  

The report and video recording for this event are now available  here.  The event report is in English and in French.

2. Latin America and the Caribbean (Spanish panel) on November 23, 9:30 a.m. EST.  The page is available in English and in Spanish. 

3. Africa (English panel) on December 8, 2:30 p.m. GMT

4. South Asia (English panel) on December 17. 4:30 p.m. IST (6 a.m. EST)

Live-cast : The events will be live-cast from IFPRI website

Format

All four dialogues will be organized as virtual roundtable discussions. Each event will last approximately 1 hour and will be moderated by a facilitator who will give a brief introduction of the topic of the event and ensure that interventions remain within the pre-allotted time.