Assembly/AU/ 7 (X)I Page 8 6. Invest in social protection. Comprehensive social protection initiatives are required to address the risks facing the poor due to reduced access to food as a consequence of high prices. A hierarchy of appropriate social protection interventions includes both protective actions to mitigate short-term risks and preventative actions to preclude long-term negative consequences. Introducing or scaling up these interventions is complex, associated with substantial costs, and dependent on knowledge base and capacity. At the core of the protective actions are conditional cash transfer programs, pension systems, and employment programs. These programs exist in many low-income countries and should be scaled up. Where such interventions do not exist, targeted cash transfer programs should be introduced in the short term. If food markets function poorly or are absent, however, providing food is a better option than providing cash. Microfinance, which includes both credit and savings, is also advisable to permit the poor to avoid drastic actions such as distress sales of productive assets that can permanently damage their future earning potential. The large global networks of microfinance institutions should consider responding to the price crisis by temporarily loosening repayment conditions, as the poor need access to food consumption credit and debt relief. Preventative health and nutrition programs targeted to vulnerable population groups (such as mothers, young children, and people living with HIV/AIDS) should be strengthened and scaled up to ensure universal coverage. This measure is essential to prevent the long-term consequences of malnutrition on lifelong health and economic productivity. In addition, school feeding programs can play an important role in increasing school enrollment, retaining children in school, and enhancing their academic achievement. Interventions should be coordinated with the emergency actions already mentioned (action 1). Many of these actions must take place at the national level, but many countries lack the resources to implement them. Donors should expand support for such programs in conjunction with sound public expenditure reviews. These steps can prevent the long-term adverse consequences of early childhood malnutrition, protect the assets of the poor, and maintain school participation rates. 7. Scale up investments for sustained agricultural growth. To transform the crisis into an opportunity for farmers and to build resilience to future food crises, a transition to viable long-term investments in support of sustained agricultural growth is urgently needed. Such investments are particularly needed in view of the emerging stress factors for agriculture from climate change that threaten to perpetuate the current crisis. Investments for sustained agricultural growth include expanded public spending for rural infrastructure, services, agricultural research, science and technology. New and innovative crop insurance mechanisms should be introduced and tested at a larger scale. Information technology, improved weather data, and the expected high returns to insurance make innovation in this field now much more feasible. Developed countries should facilitate the sharing of agricultural innovation and research that are relevant to enhancing productivity and transforming small-farm agriculture. African leaders must implement their commitment to the Maputo Declaration to allocate at least 10 percent of their budgets to agriculture as soon as possible in order to achieve much-needed agricultural growth to meet poverty and hunger reduction targets. The needed