A/HRC/12/31* page 22 number of silent short sells over a period of time in futures markets around the world at a price lower than the current spot price, thus increasing the supply of future sells and minimizing speculative attacks.36 39. Other measures could consist of improved management of grain stocks at the global level. Improved information about and coordination of global grain stocks could limit the attractiveness of speculation. Rebuilding stocks in order to minimize temporary shortages linked, for instance, to weather-related events, and thus to buffer sharp price movements, would also limit volatility. At a minimum, the establishment of an emergency reserve allowing the World Food Programme (WFP) to meet humanitarian needs through access to grain at pre-crisis market prices would be justified.37 40. UNCTAD calls for “a new global institutional arrangement consisting of a minimum physical grain reserve to stabilize markets, to respond effectively to emergency cases and humanitarian crisis and an intervention mechanism”.38 Despite numerous calls to this effect, however, no progress has been made on this issue in the past year. The systemic risks associated with the current organization of the global food system remain unaddressed. Like the failure of the international community to reach a consensus on agrofuels, it reveals a gap in global governance for which people are paying a very high price. In the final section of the present report, the Special Rapporteur examines how this gap could be bridged. VII. REFORMING GLOBAL GOVERNANCE 41. There is a common thread running through the different themes explored in the present report: the need to strengthen multilateralism to address effectively the structural causes of the global food crisis. International agencies have worked remarkably well together since April 2008 as a result of the High-level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis set up under the leadership of the Secretary-General, which agreed on the Comprehensive Framework for Action that lists the operational measures that Governments could take with the support of the international community. Governments too have to act in a coordinated fashion in order to ensure that investments in agriculture, including as a result of transnational large-scale land acquisitions or leases, contribute to sustainable development; they have to act together to agree on guidelines for the production and use of agrofuels; and they have to act together to establish a reinsurance mechanism to make the strengthening of social protection an option that is both 36 J. van Braun and M. Torero, op. cit. Although in principle the future sells would not need to be realized and the operation would remain a virtual one, the costs of a failure to stabilize markets would be potentially very high. 37 On the basis of the current emergency requirements of WFP, the International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that an emergency reserve of around 300,000 tons of basic grain would be sufficient for this purpose. 38 UNCTAD/GDS/2009/1, p. 38.