Step up fight against hunger: U.N.

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

UNITED NATIONS, APRIL 19. Saying that there has been very little progress in fighting hunger since 1996, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation is urging the international community to step up the fight against hunger and chronic malnourishment. The FAO will be releasing a set of documents to coincide with the next session of the Committee on World Food Security to be held in Rome in May.

``A stronger political commitment and time-bound action are needed to improve the livelihood of around 800 million people in developing countries, many of them children, who cannot live a full life for lack of access to adequate food,'' the FAO has said. It is being pointed out that the goal set by the 1996 World Food Security Summit of halving the number of under-nourished people to 400 million by the year 2015 ``will not be achieved unless approached with renewed determination.''

In calling for a new political commitment, the FAO argues that it is well within the current technical, institutional and financial capacities to win the battle against hunger. What is being stressed is that ``priority action'' is taken to reduce hunger and develop agriculture and the rural areas. ``Two thirds of the poor people in developing countries are living in rural areas. Small farmers' families are usually amongst the poorest and least nourished,'' the FAO says. The FAO has joined issue with both the developing and the developed world for being ``unwilling... to set aside sufficient resources to eradicate hunger... Relatively modest investments, combined with simple technology changes can raise small farmer productivity, improve food security and reduce poverty.'' But there have been exceptions as well and the FAO points to Thailand whose success, among other things, was based on human capital and improved coverage of minimum services for rural communities.

What has also been pointed out is that international summits of the Group of 8 and the G-77 have rarely addressed the problem of hunger; and that international institutions have not included hunger reduction as a central element in their development objectives. The FAO has called on developed countries to open their markets, especially for agricultural exports of developing countries, to reduce dumping and to share technology.

``The World Food Summit: Five Years Later'' will take place within the biennial FAO Conference where leaders will be invited to put forth measures through which the goal can be reached besides making proposals on accelerating progress.

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