World Food Summit
Meaningful Action Needed

By Kamalesh Adhikari

THE world witnessed severe food crisis in the 1990s. In 1995, some 800 million people worldwide did not have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for an active and healthy life. The imperative to correct this led the global community to convene, through Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Food Summit, in November 1996. The main outcome was the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action (WFS POA). The WFS 1996 set itself a target to reduce the number of world’s undernourished people from 800 million to half that level no later than 2015, and eventually to achieve food security for all.

New Strength

The POA brought a new strength in the thoughts of the signatory governments of the 186 countries. It indeed broke a new ground. That is, it adopted the participatory approach at all levels – right down to the local community and across all sectors of civil society. It made the governments move forward in a more focussed way, directing their actions and resources more precisely and effectively to the places where the need is of utmost importance.

Now five years have elasped. The question is: Is the target made is on progress? Are the governments getting "on track" for reducing hunger by 50 per cent by the year 2015? And the answer is unfortunately "no".

No one can deny that progress towards the eradication of hunger is too slow. FAO reports also reveal that the progress is uneven. Despite efforts made at different local, regional, national and international levels by the global community and the world leaders, latest estimates indicate that 826 million people still remain undernourished: Some 192 million people in the developing world and 34 million in the developed world.

The severity of the problem, especially in the developing world, is in its extreme form. The Human Development Report (2001) has warned, "Even if the proportion is halved by 2015, there will still be 900 million people living in extreme poverty in the developing world."

FAO itself has estimated that the number of undernourished people in the developing world is expected to fall to around 580 million by 2015 – an improvement, but still far from the target made at the 1996 WFS. Projections indicate that the target to reduce the number of hunger to 400 million will not be met until 2030 with the present pace. Why? The reasons are many but the major one is multifaceted complexity of the nature of hunger.

In a FAO report, Jacques Diouf, Director General at FAO, said, "…The World Food Summit goal is reachable, just as other seemingly impossible aims have been met, such as the eradication of polio or putting a person on the moon." This is quite a positive note, which shows an assurance that target can be met. In fact, there is no doubt that if we make concerted, determined and truly effective actions, we can have success, as examples are many. However, the problem of hunger is quite complex. It is not merely a disease like polio or a scientific achievement as to put the person on the moon. Eradicating hunger encompasses not merely eradication of diseases like polio or the improvement in the technology and science; it is much more than that and encompasses the triumph over everything that exists in the world as a problem. Meaningful action to end hunger requires knowledge of not just the number of hungry bellies around the world but also, to some extent, the depth of their "pains" of hunger and the ways to "take the edge off" them.

Correction

The global community is again convening the World Food Summit in Rome, presently. This time the idea is to review and update the progress made so far in alleviating the state of food insecurity and more importantly, to correct the mistakes being made in the ongoing efforts. This time, the global community is keen towards this Summit with the hope that it will help the governments re-formulate the policies related to food and lead the world to a state of "food for all". Let’s us hope things will go better.

Other Stories

• Business Services Help Women
• Don’t Drink And Drive