Governing food security globally - stakeholders` opinions

While more than 850 million people are starving (FAO, 2012) around the world, agricultural production grew at about 2.3% per year in the past 50 years and access to food increased with an even higher rate. By 2012, almost 65% of all implemented agricultural policies (focused at national, regional and global level) that have a reference on food security only aim on solving present day crisis, without integrating policies for preventing future ones.
While the League of Arab States (LAS) called for an integrated Arab approach to agricultural policy to the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), the League of African Nations did not yet agree on common objectives in matters regarding agriculture and rural development despite AGRA Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, a network of US based iNGOs` who`s board is chaired by Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, took on the challenge of reforming this continent`s agriculture. Although the European Union has the Common Agricultural Policy that works on a 7 years framework with a wide budgetary support from the European Commission and all 27 Member States and China has an agricultural policy working under the ridged 5-years system, food security and food quality are becoming the main concerns in the world leaders minds with the population reaching 7 billion on October 31st 2011 and resources becoming scarce.
This paper analyses the stakeholders` opinions on the possibility of changing the policy instruments status quo that would enable a coherent exchange of good practices and information throughout the world to a global approach to food security and food quality that is necessary for overcoming problems like famine in Africa, obesity in North America and high risk and vulnerability for human health and the environment.
The key questions that are answered in this paper are:
What are the common elements of agricultural policies with regional reach that can constitute objectives for a Global Agricultural Policy (GAP)?
Which organization could manage a GAP and what would be its main driving mechanisms?
What kind of impact would have a global mechanism in agriculture and rural development acting at different levels?
What are the determinants for the successful creation and implementation of a GAP?