A/HRC/25/57 general comment No. 12 on the right to adequate food (para. 21) and with guideline 3 of the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security. He was encouraged by the significant progress made in a number of regions, though especially in Latin America and in Africa, towards implementing these recommendations (A/68/288, paras. 42–46). 41. Such strategies are a key component for the governance of the transition towards sustainable food systems that can contribute to the eradication of hunger and malnutrition. Indeed, regardless of how innovative they may be, local initiatives can only succeed, and be “scaled out” by successful experiments being replicated across large regions, if they are supported, or at least not obstructed, by policies adopted at the national level. Moreover, poor nutritional outcomes are explained by a range of factors, and combating hunger and malnutrition requires taking into account the full set of immediate, underlying and basic causes, at the individual, household and societal level respectively: this calls for a multisectoral approach, involving the full range of relevant ministries. Finally, because food systems are in need of reform, it is not sufficient to protect existing entitlements or to preserve the status quo. Instead, transformative strategies must be adopted, with a view to guaranteeing access to adequate food for all by simultaneously supporting small-scale food producers’ ability to produce food sustainably, improving employment opportunities in all sectors and strengthening social protection. 42. For such strategies to succeed, the careful sequencing of actions matters, requiring strong cross-sectoral coordination. For instance, support to small-scale food producers should be paired with investments in local food packaging and processing industries and in food retail, in order to maximize the benefits to the local economy of the growth of the agricultural sector. Support to small-scale food producers should also go hand in hand with investments in the manufacturing and services sectors for the delivery of consumer items, since increased incomes in rural areas have the potential to raise demand for locally traded goods and services: this “consumption linkage” is estimated to be four to five times more important than the “production” linkage between food producers and agro-processing activities.39 The multiplier effects are particularly significant where agricultural growth is widely spread across large segments of a very poor population. 43. The gradual substitution of policies focused on low prices of foodstuffs by rightsbased social protection, as a means of ensuring access to adequate food for the poorest groups of the population, again illustrates the importance of a careful sequencing of reforms. Today, 75 to 80 per cent of the world population still does not have access to social security to shield them from the effects of unemployment, illness or disability – not to mention crop failure or soaring food costs.40 There is now an international consensus in favour of making the full realization of the right to social security a priority. On 12 June 2012, the International Labour Conference adopted Recommendation No. 202 concerning national floors for social protection, with 453 votes in favour and 1 abstention. The G-20 has subsequently acknowledged the importance of this objective.41 In the long run, the establishment of robust social protection schemes in line with this recommendation should protect not only poor households but also vulnerable households against the risk of falling into poverty. Thus, governments would shift away from their exclusive focus on maintaining low prices of food items, a focus that has often come at the expense of food 39 40 41 L. Christiaensen, L. Demery and J. Kuhl, “The (evolving) role of agriculture in poverty reduction – an empirical perspective”, Journal of Development Economics, vol. 96, No. 2 (November 2011), pp. 239–254. International Labour Organization, Social Protection Floor for a Fair and Inclusive Globalization: Report of the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group (Geneva, 2011), p. xxi. G-20 leaders’ declaration, G-20 meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, 18–19 June 2012, para. 22. 17