Global Food Security Initiative

The Network of European Foundations' Mercator Fund

The work of The Network of European Foundations' Mercator Fund is underpinned by the principle that the global philanthropic community has a vital role to play in promoting and implementing the work necessary to bring about social and political change. The Mercator Fund aims to generate innovative ideas to respond to key global challenges through the development of projects that address core global social issues.

Sir Ratan Tata Trust

Set up in 1919, a year after the untimely demise of Sir Ratan Tata at the age of 47, the Sir Ratan Tata Trust is one of the oldest philanthropic institutions in India, and has played a pioneering role in changing the traditional ideas of charity and introducing the concept of philanthropy. Through its grant making, the Trust supports efforts in the development of society, through institutional grants in areas of Education, Health, Arts & Culture, Enhancing Civil Society & Governance and Rural Livelihoods & Communities. Besides institutional grants, the Trust also makes individual grants for education and medical relief. Since inception, the Trust has disbursed over Rs. 5.58 billion to various institutions in the above mentioned themes, besides individuals. The uniqueness of the Trust is characterised by its practise of giving grants to individuals and organisations engaged in developmental and creative activities, rather than undertaking such activities on its own.

Located at Bombay House, in Bombay, the Trust is today an embodiment of the humane ideals of its founder, Sir Ratan Tata, and his desire to contribute to the development of India. It has pursued the goal of constructive philanthropy by supporting institutional solutions to social problems and enhancing human capabilities to overcome them.

Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives

Nearly 70% of the tribal communities of India reside in central India, extending from Orissa in the east to south Rajasthan in the west. These tribals, constituting nearly 100 ethnic groups, are concentrated in about 110 districts within the nine central Indian states. The region is endowed with rich natural resources; however, issues such as abject poverty, primitive farming methods, improper use of water resources, naxalism, etc. ensure that this tribal belt lags behind other parts of India. Central India Initiative, one of the flagship initiatives of the Trust, was initiated in 2004, with the basic objective of enhancing tribal livelihoods through a Natural Resource Management (NRM) based approach.

Over the last six years, the initiative has worked with about 25 field partners spread across eight states, international research institutions, agricultural universities and governments to enhance livelihoods of tribals. About 450,000 households have been supported through various livelihood interventions and results have been encouraging, with increased food security and additional income for tribal communities. Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), a registered organization seeded by the Trust, is the nodal agency for the Central India Initiative and is currently focusing on the following key programmes:

Kharif Paddy Stabilization in east India, which focuses on stabilizing the paddy crop in Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh;

Kharif Maize Stabilization in west India, which focuses on stabilizing the maize crop to ensure year round food security;

Non Timber Forest Produce, towards sustainable utilization of forest produce for tribals;

Diversion Based Irrigation to promote gravity based irrigation systems;

Promoting Community Based Organizations (CBO) for management of livelihood resources and strengthening community development; and

Microfinance and Livelihood, focusing on linking livelihoods and microfinance for livelihood enhancement.

The International Council on Security and Development

ICOS is an independent international organisation providing local solutions to tackle new global challenges. Through an innovative combination of research, analysis and project implementation, ICOS examines the root causes of current challenges to achieve measurable and direct results.

ICOS works towards its goals through a series of projects run out of its regional centres of excellence, using its own unique cutting edge "Labs" methodology.

For further information visit www.icosgroup.net

About Global Food Security

There are more than 1.02 billion hungry people in the world Source:FAO 2010

Providing global food security is one of the principle challenges for humanity in current times. The scale of the challenge is immense. According to an FAO estimate over 1 billion people suffer from hunger. One sixth of all humanity currently goes hungry every day. This is a challenge that has reached unprecedented levels in recent years. There are more people hungry today than at any time since 1970.

Malnutrition has also been growing since the mid-1990s, and in 2008 was affecting approximately 915 million people. These trends are expected to worsen given high food prices, and structural issues relating to the recent downturn in the global economy.

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