FAO holds event on “social protection and agriculture” in Maputo
This year's report focuses on the direct role of social protection in the fight against poverty and hunger
15 October 2015, Maputo – Within the scope of the commemorations of World Food Day, which this year marks the 70th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Organization on Thursday (15/10) launched the report on “The State of Food and Agriculture 2015” (SOFA 2015) at an event that also comprised a technical workshop.
This year's report focuses on the direct role of social protection in the fight against poverty and hunger as well as on its indirect contribution through the promotion of agricultural and rural development. According to Maya Takagi, former FAO Senior Social Protection Officer and now Deputy Leader of the Strategic Programme on the Strategic Objective 3 – Reduction of Rural Poverty at FAO, the main message of the document is linked to the fact that poverty and hunger have fallen considerably, “but progress has been uneven and numbers remain high”. According to SOFA 2015, around 800 million people are still suffering from chronic hunger today, while almost a billion people live in extreme poverty.
“In Mozambique” – one of the 72 countries that achieved the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1c target of halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger – the Mozambican National Director of Agrarian Extension, Fernando Mavie, said “the government has been implementing policies, strategies and programmes, in order to contribute to the fight against poverty, as well as to reach food security and sustainable development in the country”.
“Much has already been done in Mozambique”, the FAO Representative in the country, Castro Camarada, added, “but the remaining challenges are big, especially regarding chronic undernutrition”. Today, after the recent launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will replace the MDGs, “we face the challenge of eradicating hunger [SDG2] and see that the need to develop sustainable agriculture systems is (is central to the new Sustainable Development Agenda”.
“The State of Food and Agriculture” shows that social protection is not only an imperative to help poor people cover their basic needs – especially when they are for whatever reason unable to work – but is also a foundation for the gradual improvement of livelihoods of the poorest people. SOFA has been launched annually by FAO since 1947. This year the launch is marked for the first time in Mozambique.
Workshop on “Social Protection and Agriculture in Mozambique”
The event served to hold a workshop on “Social Protection and Agriculture in Mozambique”, which met this year's theme of World Food Day – “Social Protection and Agriculture: Breaking the Cycle of Rural Poverty”. Representatives of the public and private sectors, as well as from academia, cooperation partners and United Nations agencies gathered at the meeting.
Following Maya Takagi’s point that there is not one definition of social protection, Rita Neves, from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said that social protection has “one central objective, namely the reduction of vulnerability (to risks) and the provision of social guarantees, but it has diverse functions including, among others, compensation, poverty reduction, redistribution, promotion of autonomy and resilience as well as development of human capital”.
A reason for focusing social protection on agriculture and rural development, Maya Takagi explained in her presentation, is the higher share of extreme poor living in rural areas.
This is one of the justifications for the choice of the theme of this year's World Food Day. According to FAO, the battle to end hunger and poverty must be fought mainly in rural areas, since almost 80 percent of the poor people worldwide live in the countryside and mainly depend on agriculture for their income and food.Economic growth, especially in agriculture, has been essential to driving down rates of hunger and poverty. However, economic growth does not benefit everyone. Developing countries are realizing more and more that social protection measures are needed to urgently address hunger and poverty. Studies show that in 2013, social protection measures brought approximately 150 million people out of extreme poverty.
In relation to Mozambique, Ruben Alves, from the International Labour Organization, said, “in 2014, 341.000 households (permanently unable to work) were covered by direct social action in the country”.
World Food Day 2015 – “Social Protection and Agriculture: Breaking the Cycle of Rural Poverty”
World Food Day, which marks FAO's foundation and has been celebrated on October 16 since 1981 in over 150 countries, including Mozambique, aims to raise worldwide awareness of food and nutrition security issues and the need to eradicate hunger in our lifetimes. This year's theme has been chosen to raise awareness on the important role social protection plays in the fight against inequality and vulnerability as well as hunger and poverty eradication, particularly when included as a priority in development agendas.
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