When a Breadbasket Burns: The Global Food Crisis of 2022

People are paying more for food in 2022 - a lot more!  And in countries where food security is frail, access to the basics is going to get harder.  Price spikes are being felt around the world.  In some cases leading to violence, in other cases, triggering famine warnings.  Russia's war in Ukraine is fuelling the crisis first by targeting Ukraine's wheat and sunflower oil producers, and second by disrupting global trade networks.  What should G7 and G20 nations be doing about this?  According to Ian Mitchell, it may be time to go beyond traditional notions of food aid, and to look at a bigger determinant:  Finance.

Ian Mitchell is a senior fellow and the director of development cooperation in Europe at the Center for Global Development. He leads CGD’s work in Europe on how governments’ policies accelerate or inhibit development and poverty reduction—considering both the effectiveness of aid and policies beyond aid including trade, migration, environment, and security. He is also an associate fellow at Chatham House and at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Mitchell has expertise in the economics and developmental impact of including on trade, agriculture, and policy development in the EU and G20. He leads the annual Commitment to Development Index (CDI) and the Quality of Official Development Assistance (QuODA). Recently, he has developed new measures of how agriculture and trade policies affect lower income countries; identified new metrics of aid effectiveness; and developed new approaches to the UK’s development policy post-Brexit.

Follow Professor Huish on Twitter:  @ProfessorHuish