H.R. 2822 — Introduced in House

I 113th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2822 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 25, 2013 Ms. McCollum (for herself, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Schock, Mr. Clay, Mr. Rangel, Ms. Moore, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Rush, Mr. Garamendi, Mr. Honda, Mr. Moran, Mr. Polis, Mr. Kilmer, and Mr. Cohen) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs A BILL To establish the United States comprehensive strategy for assistance to developing countries to achieve food and nutrition security, increase sustainable and equitable agricultural development, reduce hunger, improve nutrition, and develop rural infrastructure and stimulate rural economies, and for other purposes. 1. Short title; table of contents (a) Short title This Act may be cited as the Global Food Security Act of 2013. (b) Table of contents The table of contents for this Act is as follows: Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. Sec. 2. Findings. Sec. 3. Definitions. Title I—Policy objectives, planning and coordination Sec. 101. Statement of policy. Sec. 102. Comprehensive global food security strategy. Sec. 103. Reports. Title II—Bilateral programs Sec. 201. Agriculture, rural development, and nutrition. Sec. 202. Agricultural and nutrition research. 2. Findings Congress makes the following findings: (1) Food and nutrition security is a foundation of development. Persistent hunger and malnutrition stunt the mental and physical development of the next generation and hinder education, health, economics and security. (2) More than 870,000,000 people worldwide suffer from chronic food insecurity. Food insecurity and malnutrition in developing countries forces tens of millions of people into poverty, contributes to political and social instability, erodes economic growth, and undermines United States foreign assistance investments in areas including basic education, global health, environmental protection, and democratic institutions. (3) According to the March 2013 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, food insecurity is a worldwide threat: Growing food insecurity in weakly governed countries could lead to political violence and provide opportunities for existing insurgent groups to capitalize on poor conditions, exploit international food aid, and discredit governments for their inability to address basic needs. (4) In the next 30 years, as the world’s population increases to nine billion people, agricultural productivity will need to double to keep pace with demand. Countries that are major agricultural exporters have greatly enhanced productivity over the past two decades, but many developing countries with good potential to improve their agricultural economies have not. Improving agricultural productivity in those countries in a sustainable and equitable manner will increase world food supplies and accelerate economic growth and incomes, while preserving natural habitat and resources. (5) Malnutrition remains one of the world’s most pressing and costly problems—close to 200,000,000 children are chronically malnourished. Undernutrition is responsible for 45 percent of child deaths, and eleven percent of the total global disease burden is attributable to maternal and child undernutrition. According to the Lancet more than 1 in 4 of the world’s children is stunted. Stunting leads to serious, often irreversible physical and cognitive damage. (6) Reducing maternal and child malnutrition, especially during the 1,000 days between pregnancy and age 2, is critical to increasing child survival, improving cognitive and physical development, and strengthening the immune system to bolster resistance to disease. (7) Many pregnant women living in developing countries cannot access nutrition services until the fifth or sixth month of their pregnancies, leading to children born small for their gestational age. For this reason, improving the nutritional status of women and adolescent girls before and during pregnancy is vitally important. (8) The greatest potential for achieving increased food and nutrition security for people in rural areas and augmenting world food production at relatively low cost lies in increasing the agricultural capacity, resilience, sustainability and productivity of smallholder farmers. Farmers should be actively engaged at all stages of education, participatory research and extension processes. (9) The most promising and scalable gains in smallholder agriculture production will come from the delivery of seed, fertilizer, and basic farmer extension education on farming techniques, such as row planting of crops. (10) According to the World Bank, growth in the agricultural sector has been twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors. In sub-Saharan Africa agriculture contributes about 35 percent of the total gross national product (GNP). Approximately 75 percent of the workforce in sub-Saharan Africa is engaged in the agricultural sector and three out of five of those suffering from hunger are rural, small-scale agriculturists. Thus, nutrition, agriculture and rural development strategies must include engagement of and provision of assistance to smallholder producers. Interventions to enhance agricultural productivity, conserve natural resources, and provide linkages to services, inputs, financing and markets for smallholder agricultural producers is an effective means of increasing and diversifying food supplies, improving incomes and preserving natural habitat. (11) Agriculture development to increase the yield, biodiversity and resilience of smallholder farmers is an efficient engine of sustainable economic growth, and benefits these farmers’ education, income, and health. (12) Agriculture is essential for economic growth, comprising large portions of the total labor force in many developing countries. The agricultural sector is as high as 70 to 80 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly one-half of the world’s food insecure live. In this region agriculture also contributes about 35 percent of the total gross national product (GNP). (13) Post-harvest losses can waste 40 percent of agriculture products and negatively impact nutritional content of crops. A renewed focus on reducing post-harvest losses is needed to meet the goal of increasing income generation from agricultural production. (14) Women produce as much as 80 percent of food in sub-Saharan Africa, but have access to less than 10 percent of land, credit, and extension services. Women comprise 43 percent of the agricultural labor workforce in developing countries. They make up a large proportion of smallholder farmers, including 80 percent in East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and face unique challenges and heightened vulnerability to food and nutrition insecurity. Increasing women’s leadership, incomes, and access to food benefits the entire household as women are more likely to share these resources with family members. (15) The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and others have documented growing numbers of acquisitions and lease agreements of millions of acres of land in Africa, Latin America, and Central and Southeast Asia by private investors and foreign governments. These land acquisitions may threaten global food and nutrition security and agricultural development, increase political unrest, and deepen local poverty in developing nations unless adequate legal and procedural mechanisms are in place and functioning to protect the rights and welfare of people who depend on agriculture for their livelihood. (16) The accelerating loss and degradation of natural ecosystems in developing countries and changing long-term weather patterns undermine and impact efforts to improve sustainable agricultural production. According to the World Bank, changing weather patterns could reduce yields in some developing countries by as much as 50 percent. This could leave millions more children undernourished. (17) A comprehensive approach to long-term food security and agricultural development should encompass improvements in agricultural education, agricultural productivity, agricultural extension, nutrition, household incomes, rural infrastructure, finance and markets, safety net programs, job creation, research and technology, emergency relief, global health and the environment. 3. Definitions In this Act: (1) Administrator The term Administrator means the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. (2) Agricultural development The term agricultural development means methods to use agriculture as a basis for food and nutrition security, family livelihood, and economic growth by increasing the productivity of those involved in the cultivation of food, fuel, and fiber, conserving the environment and natural resources, and improving the economic livelihoods of those involved, including farmers, fishers, foresters, and pastoralists, particularly those that operate on a small scale, and linking them and their products to markets, including post-harvest activities such as storage, processing, transport, and improving market efficiency. (3) Appropriate congressional committees The term appropriate congressional committees means— (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and (B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives. (4) Chronic food insecurity The term chronic food insecurity means ongoing and persistent lack of access to sufficient food to meet dietary needs for an active and healthy life. (5) Ecosystem services The term ecosystem services means natural goods, services, and processes that the environment provides and on which people depend and from which they benefit, such as pollination, water cycles and regulation, pest control, and soil formation. (6) Extreme poverty The term extreme poverty means income of less than one-half of the poverty level as defined by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the relevant year. (7) Food security The term food security means the condition of having, at all times, access to nutritious, affordable, sufficient, and safe food to maintain a healthy and active life. (8) Malnutrition The term malnutrition means poor nutritional status caused by nutritional deficiency or excess. (9) Resilience The term resilience means the ability of people, households, communities, countries and systems to mitigate, adapt to, recover from, and withstand events that result in social disruption and economic hardship. (10) Rural infrastructure The term rural infrastructure— (A) means public and private facilities and services necessary for agricultural production and other activities in non-urban (rural) areas; and (B) includes roads or other means of transportation, water supplies including irrigation, rural electrification, communication technology, financial services, storage, warehousing, and processing facilities needed for increasing agricultural production and linking producers to markets, including policies and regulations of such sectors in addition to physical infrastructure. (11) Smallholder The term smallholder refers to farmers with a low asset base, limited resources including land, capital, skills and labor, and farming less than 5 hectares of land. (12) Strategy The term strategy means the United States Comprehensive Global Food Security strategy outlined in section 102. (13) Stunted; stunting The terms stunted and stunting mean a condition— (A) of being too short for one’s age, with a height-to-age ratio that is more than 2 standard deviations below the median for the population; (B) caused by poor diet and frequent infections, occurring before age 2, and is a sign of chronic malnutrition; and (C) leading to long-term poor health, delayed motor development, and impaired cognitive function and decreased immunity. (14) Undernutrtiton The term undernutrition— (A) means several outcomes of insufficient food intake, such as being underweight for one’s age, too short for one’s age (stunted), dangerously thin for one’s height (wasted), or deficient in vitamins and minerals (micronutrient malnutrition); and (B) can be identified by anthropometric indices (underweight, stunting, and wasting) or by the missing micronutrients in poor-quality diets. (15) Voluntary guidelines The term Voluntary Guidelines means the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, adopted with the leadership of the United States throughout the negotiation process, in May 2012 at the Special 38th Session of the United Nations Committee on Global Food Security. The objective of the Voluntary Guidelines is to improve food security through land governance for the benefit of all, with an emphasis on vulnerable and marginalized people. (16) Wasting The term wasting, with respect to an individual, means the condition of weighing too little for such individual’s height. Wasting indicates both long- and short-term nutritional deprivation. Wasting is a traumatic process of substantial weight loss that is usually associated with starvation or serious disease. Wasting is calculated by comparing a child’s weight-for-height with those of a reference population of well-nourished and healthy children. Because wasting is strongly related to mortality, wasting rates are often used to indicate the severity of hunger emergencies. I Policy objectives, planning and coordination 101. Statement of policy It is the policy of the United States to assist foreign countries in achieving food and nutrition security by increasing sustainable and equitable agricultural production, improving nutrition, and strengthening agricultural value chains, with a focus on smallholder farmers, in order to reduce global hunger, malnutrition and poverty, promote rural development, and improve the nutritional status of all people. 102. Comprehensive global food security strategy (a) Special coordinator The President shall designate an individual to serve in the Executive Office of the President as the Special Coordinator for Food, Nutrition and Agricultural Development. The coordinator shall— (1) advise the President on global food security, nutrition security, and agricultural development; (2) take such actions as are necessary to ensure the coordination of programs of the United States related to global food security, nutrition security, and agricultural development efforts, including those resulting from contributions to multilateral organizations and nongovernmental organizations; (3) make recommendations regarding the staffing needs and necessary qualifications and expertise of staff needed to swiftly and effectively carry out the strategy described in subsection (c); (4) establish a mechanism for regular consultation with representatives of Federal departments and agencies, multilateral institutions, private voluntary organizations, cooperatives, the private sector, and other nongovernmental organizations to develop the strategy described in subsection (c) and to consult on methodologies, conditions in targeted countries, progress towards goals and other relevant information about needs and interventions; and (5) oversee the development and implementation of the strategy described in subsection (c). (b) Implementation The United States Agency for International Development shall be the lead agency in implementing the strategy described in subsection (c). (c) Content of strategy The strategy described in this subsection is a comprehensive food security, nutrition security, and agricultural development strategy that shall— (1) recognize food security and nutrition as essential contributors to global development, health, peace and stability; (2) reflect a whole-of-government approach that incorporates and encompasses the programs of relevant Federal departments and agencies that engage in some aspect of food security, nutrition security, agricultural development, and international health, including the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development, the Peace Corps, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Defense, the Department of Interior, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Department of the Treasury, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative; (3) integrate and coordinate the stages of emergency food aid and long-term development programs to more effectively reduce hunger, improve nutrition, improve health, and build economic capacity and resilience among food insecure populations, especially for smallholder farmers; (4) increase and improve agricultural production and availability, access, utilization, and stability of food among women and smallholder farmers in order to decrease poverty and hunger, improve health, and prevent stunting, as the most direct means for achieving household food and nutrition security; (5) increase the yield and capacity of smallholder farmers, through access to seed and fertilizer, assistance for sustainable agricultural production, village-level farming groups, farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchanges, agriculture value chains, agricultural extension agents, market access, innovative intellectual property frameworks, food safety nets for the most vulnerable, agricultural education, nutrition, agricultural research, natural resource management, improvements to land tenure, and rural infrastructure; (6) assist smallholder farmers in obtaining the resources, services, tools, and information they need including technology, financial services, seed varieties, fertilizer, risk management, post-harvest storage systems, water, soil conservation methods, ecologically appropriate nutrient, soil, water, seed and pest management, weather forecasting and projections in ways that assure gender equitable access; (7) prioritize research efforts that respond to the needs and priorities of smallholder farmers, including farmer-driven research, recognize that research must include both international and localized agricultural research and extension programs, and strive to build the educational capacity of smallholder farmers; (8) incorporate research efforts to better understand causes of gender inequity in agriculture, and expand research in best practices in achieving nutrition outcomes through agriculture, social protection, women’s empowerment and other sector programs; (9) build the resilience of smallholder farmers through agricultural extension services, village-level farmer groups, risk assessment and management tools, such as micro-insurance, and dissemination of research to farmers, increase ability of smallholder farmers to access inputs, technology, and information, to connect with markets, to engage in local and national planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation regarding food and nutrition and related issues, to undertake new or diversified production while maintaining stable food supply, to be resilient in the face of shocks and stresses, and to respond to projected changes in weather patterns; (10) target investments in appropriate technologies and approaches to increase sustainable agricultural production, improve post-harvest storage, enhance family livelihood and nutrition, stimulate broad-based economic growth, and improve access to local, regional, and international markets; (11) target research, development of new technologies, extension agents, and funding towards the goal of reducing post-harvest losses by 50 percent or more; (12) incorporate approaches directed at reducing hunger and malnutrition for people living in extreme poverty and those most vulnerable to malnutrition, especially pregnant and lactating women, children in their first 1,000 days, and children under age 5, adolescent girls, communities in hard to reach areas, and marginalized populations, including availability, access, nutritional education, consumption and utilization of food, and delivery platforms such as community health workers; (13) recognize international food assistance programs as important to improving maternal and child health through improved nutrition among the poorest and most vulnerable populations, and focus on increasing their flexibility to increase program efficiency, impact, and the number of people reached; (14) address the nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating mothers, children in their first 1,000 days, children who have not attained the age of 5, and adolescent girls, and recognize the importance of prioritizing interventions, such as exclusive breast-feeding, complementary feeding practices, iron folate supplements, Vitamin A and zinc supplements, good hygiene and other evidence-based interventions; (15) prioritize, support, and promote the central role of women in agricultural production and related activities, including in household, local, and national decision-making processes, in the countries of operation; ensure programs and approaches address the special needs of women farmers, women living in poverty, and the needs of all people who are agriculturalists, pastoralists, or otherwise engaged in agriculture-related enterprises; ensure use of gender analysis to enable identification of barriers and relevant interventions to address gender inequality; (16) uphold and promote the principle of free, prior, and informed consent in relation to land access and use rights; monitor and document the trend of large scale land acquisitions and lease agreements in developing countries; promote global standards of transparency for large international land deals; (17) expand and prioritize United States assistance programs that strengthen land management in developing countries and actively support efforts to develop guidelines and support applications of land governance tools; (18) include and provide appropriate linkages with existing United States international water, energy, forest, weather and biodiversity programs; include assessment and monitoring of the effects of global changing weather patterns; prioritize the enhancement of natural resources and ecosystem resilience and the reduction of negative environmental impacts from agricultural activities through sustainable natural resource management practices including building local capacity and transferring skills and knowledge; (19) ensure inclusion and consideration of assessments and projections of the impacts of changing weather patterns on program priorities, objectives and beneficiaries; promote inclusion of local knowledge and perceptions of local conditions; prioritize the enhancement of human capacity to respond to increasing extreme weather events and current and projected changes in weather patterns; (20) prioritize the enhancement of natural resources and ecosystem goods and services and the reduction of negative environmental impacts from agricultural activities through sustainable natural resource management practices including building local capacity and transferring skills and knowledge; (21) support capacity building of national governments to administer safety net and social protection programs that connect, integrate and expand existing programs to meet food and nutrition security objectives and target the chronically hungry and poor; (22) support national governments’ efforts to strengthen the quality, ambition, and coverage of national nutrition plans, through community health workers and other approaches; (23) include specific, measurable metrics, goals, benchmarks, time frames, and a plan of action to achieve the objectives described in section 101; (24) with respect to such metrics shall include annual evaluation of improved nutritional status of women and children, prevalence of stunted children, prevalence of wasted children, prevalence of underweight women, prevalence of anemia among women and children, sustainable agricultural sector growth, changes in agricultural sector GDP, changes in rural income levels, changes in per capita expenditures in rural households, knowledge of smallholder farmers regarding effective farming practices, increased empowerment of women smallholder farmers, and numbers of beneficiaries reached; (25) provide for annual monitoring and evaluations of programs that shall include gender analysis and gender disaggregated data and address progress toward improvements in emergency assistance, access to food, availability of food, nutritional value of food, utilization of food, agricultural development, agricultural education, and capacity to manage risk among food insecure populations; (26) include aggregated reporting of indicators such as increases in income, poverty reduction, agricultural productivity and child stunting in order to clearly show the total impact of the United States investment in changing lives; (27) include community-level capacity building, agricultural extension services, enhancements to agricultural infrastructure and productivity; increased access to financial services and markets, research and technology, credit and markets, availability and functioning of local institutions serving rural communities’ needs, such as farmer-owned cooperatives, safety net programs, job creation, household incomes, research and technology, global health and the environment; (28) utilize the expertise of private voluntary organizations and cooperatives, international organizations, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, and local administrators to improve the sustainability and productivity of agriculture, increase access to markets, enhance infrastructure, promote economic opportunity, address food and nutrition security and agricultural development needs at the household and community level, and protect the natural resource base on which rural, agricultural communities depend; (29) ensure United States investments in promoting food and nutrition security address key determinants of food insecurity, particularly— (A) availability and access, through investments in agricultural productivity, value chains and market development, and equitable distribution of and control over productive resources; (B) utilization of food, through a multifaceted approach to nutrition; and (C) stability, through ensuring that effective mechanisms are in place to address chronic and cyclical food insecurity; and (30) ensure and promote— (A) alignment with and support of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program and other recipient country and regional strategies for addressing sustainable agricultural development; (B) coordination and integration of food and nutrition security programs between departments and agencies described in paragraph (2) and between relevant bureaus within the United States Agency for International Development, including the Bureau of Food Security, the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs, the Bureau of Economic Growth, Education and the Environment, and the Bureau for Global Health; (C) inclusion of the resources of both public, private sector, and local private sector providers of appropriate agriculture inputs, processors, and marketers, including through the Global Development Alliances of the United States Agency for International Development and other measures; (D) ensuring that private sector investments comply with the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security regarding large-scale transactions; (E) consultation and coordination at national and local levels with local and international academic and research communities, civil society, representatives of small-scale food providers, United States and international nongovernmental organizations, cooperatives, international organizations, international financial institutions, the governments of developing and developed countries, and other program implementers; (F) consultation with and engagement of local civil society, local communities, farmer groups and cooperatives, and women’s groups in inclusive planning processes as well as the implementation and monitoring and evaluation of programs; and (G) national government capacity to coordinate food and nutrition security planning and programs across all relevant ministries and levels of government, including the ability to implement comprehensive plans and programs to scale up nutrition intervention and through linkages with complementary health, water and sanitation systems. 103. Reports (a) Annual reports (1) In general Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, and not later than December 31 of each year thereafter through 2019, the President shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the implementation of the strategy described in section 102(c) and how it fulfills the policy objectives described in section 101. (2) Content The report required under paragraph (1) shall include— (A) a copy of the strategy and an indication of any changes made in the strategy during the preceding calendar year; (B) an assessment of progress made during the preceding calendar year toward meeting the objectives described in section 101 and the specific goals, benchmarks, and time frames specified in the strategy described in section 102(c); (C) a description of United States Government bilateral programs, and investments in multilateral institutions, contributing to the achievement of the objectives described in section 101, including the amounts expended on such programs during the preceding fiscal year; (D) an assessment of United States efforts to encourage business and philanthropic participation in United States food and nutrition security and agricultural development programs, and to coordinate, harmonize, and align such programs with similar efforts of international organizations, international financial institutions, the governments of developing and developed countries, and United States and international nongovernmental organizations; (E) an assessment of progress made and capacity gaps in implementing and institutionalizing a comprehensive approach to food and nutrition security, including integration of cross-cutting issues such as gender, environment, and nutrition, through coordinating and integrating global food and nutrition security and agricultural development research activities with other United States bilateral and multilateral development efforts in the areas of operation; (F) an assessment of land tenure rights and land purchases within each country and their consistency with the Voluntary Guidelines on Land Tenure; (G) a description of those countries with the greatest level of food insecurity, stunting, and malnutrition for the primary goal of increasing food and nutrition security; and (H) a transparent, open, and detailed budget of agriculture and food security spending and progress pertaining to the strategy described in section 102(c). (3) Government accountability office report Not later than 270 days after the submission of each report under paragraph (1), the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report that contains— (A) a review of, and comments addressing, the report submitted under paragraph (1); and (B) recommendations relating to any additional actions the Comptroller General believes are important to improve a global food security, nutrition security, and agricultural development strategy and its implementation. (b) Five-Year program review (1) In general Not later than 5 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report containing— (A) an assessment of progress made during the preceding 4 years toward meeting the objectives described in section 101 and the specific goals, benchmarks, and time frames specified in the strategy described in section 102(c); and (B) an evaluation of the impact during the preceding 5 years of United States food and nutrition security programs on food security, agricultural development, nutrition, health, stunting, water and soil health, biodiversity, and economic growth in countries suffering from chronic food insecurity. (2) Basis for report The report required under paragraph (1) shall be based on assessments and impact evaluations utilizing sound quantitative and qualitative methodologies and techniques used in the behavioral and social sciences, and shall incorporate the views of smallholder farmers in the recipient countries. (c) Availability to public Each report required under this section shall also be made available to the public. II Bilateral programs 201. Agriculture, rural development, and nutrition (a) Authority Section 103(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151a(a)(1)) is amended— (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking and malnutrition and inserting stunting, and malnutrition; (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking ; and and inserting a semicolon; (3) in subparagraph (C), by striking the period at the end and inserting ; and; and (4) by adding at the end the following new subparagraphs: (D) to improve nutrition of vulnerable populations, such as children under the age of 5, women of reproductive age, pregnant or lactating women, including through programs of nutrition and health improvement for mothers and children, including but not limited to breastfeeding and all other optimal infant and young child feeding, as well as food-based approaches such as diet diversification, home gardening and nutritional education linked to agricultural extension; (E) to expand the economic participation of women, people living in extreme poverty and those who lack access to agriculturally productive land, including but not limited to through development of rural infrastructure, disaster risk reduction, health and nutrition programs, access to local and international markets, and by integration of those living in extreme poverty into the economy; (F) to improve smallholder farmers’ agricultural productivity, income, education, capacity, and ability to manage risk including but not limited to through the expansion and improvement of agricultural and food enterprises, access to seed, fertilizer, and extension agents, farmer to farmer exchanges, cooperatives and associations focused on increasing the productivity and incomes of these farmers through the transfer of skills and knowledge; and through the enhancement of access to information, resources, tools, equipment, seeds, technology, and planning and decisionmaking processes; (G) to support natural resource management, conservation management, sustainable water management and other sustainable agricultural techniques to build resilience to shocks and stresses, adapt to changes in weather patterns, and respond to projected changes in water shortages while protecting natural resources; (H) to promote global standards of transparency for international land deals, strengthen programs to provide land tenure to international smallholder farmers, and actively support the principle of free, prior and informed consent in relation to land rights and access; and (I) to use the best available metrics, measurements, and data analysis tools to monitor, measure and evaluate effectiveness of such aid, with reduction in stunting, decrease in poverty, and increase in smallholder farmers’ agricultural production being key components of evaluating effectiveness. . (b) Priority and other requirements Section 103 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151a) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: (h) Priority and other requirements In providing assistance under this section, the President shall meet the following priority and other requirements: (1) Assistance under this section shall be used primarily for activities that are specifically designed to meet the purposes described in subsection (a)(1), including such activities as— (A) expansion and improvement of agricultural and food enterprises, cooperatives and associations that can increase the productivity and incomes of the poor in part through the transfer of skills and knowledge; (B) linking farmers, entrepreneurs, enterprises and institutions in poor areas with regional and national businesses, institutions and systems; (C) providing access to markets, inputs, financing, extension services, and appropriate technologies for the rural poor; (D) expansion of rural infrastructure and utilities such as farm-to-market roads, water management systems, land improvement, storage facilities, and energy, specifically renewable energy whenever practicable; (E) establishment of more equitable and more secure land tenure and resource rights arrangements; and (F) creation and strengthening of systems to provide other services and supplies needed by farmers, such as extension, research, training, financing, fertilizer, water, forestry, soil conservation, and improved seed, in ways which assure gender equitable access to such services and supplies by small farmers. (2) In circumstances in which development of major infrastructure is necessary to achieve the purposes of subsection (a), assistance for those purposes may only be provided under this section in association with significant contributions from other countries working together in a multilateral framework. Infrastructure projects so assisted should be environmentally sensitive and complemented by other measures to ensure that the benefits of the infrastructure projects reach the poor. (3) Where appropriate to meet the purposes of subsection (a), assistance shall be provided under this section to maintain, enhance and value ecosystem goods and services in developing countries. Such assistance shall include the protection of watersheds and soil, sustainable agricultural, forest, fisheries, and agro-forest management, and the provision of alternative household fuels that reduce demand for and emissions from the combustion of local forest resources. . (c) Private voluntary organizations and cooperatives In providing assistance under section 103 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151a) for purposes described in subparagraphs (D) through (I) of section 103(a)(1) of such Act, as added by subsection (a) of this section, the President shall enter into partnerships with and provide grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance to private voluntary organizations and cooperatives to mobilize and assist low-income populations. 202. Agricultural and nutrition research Section 103A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151a–1) is amended in the first sentence— (1) by striking , and (3) make and inserting , (3) make; and (2) by striking the period at the end and inserting , (4) include research, including farmer-driven research, on technological advances appropriate to local ecological condition, culture, and the desires, needs, and priorities of the local communities, and (5) include research on the effects and ways to address the effects of changing weather patterns on agriculture and nutrition and the measures or techniques necessary to enhance the capacity of local communities to adapt to observed or anticipated effects through conservation management and other techniques..