1. Do you have any general comments on the draft political declaration and its vision (paragraphs 1-3 of the zero draft)?
The draft political declaration is strategically strong, in all 3 areas, however data about declining or increasing number of population is very general while in reality, women and children are highly affected by malnutrition. Despite this fact being recognized here and there, gender disaggregation of data needs to be addressed in order to provide a true picture of the malnutrition status.
Loss of local food value: One basic reason of increasing malnutrition among the indigenous communities has been recognized as impacts of modern markets supplying junk food which discourage the indigenous food intake. The low recognition of nutritious value of indigenous food items by the food experts is a factor leading to marginalization of such locally available nutritious food.
2. Do you have any comments on the background and analysis provided in the political declaration (paragraphs 4-20 of the zero draft)?
The analysis seem to be based on older experiences and reports, whereas currently developing countries have been spending a large portion of national budget in security forces affecting investment in agriculture (example: Nepal invested 30% of budget in security forces in the last 10 years due to Maoist political conflict). Despite having priority set for agricultural investment, the countries investment in agricultural production need to be assessed and analyzed from food security angle. Moreover, mentioning about collaborative approach is not clear about ensuring rights of the small landholders' claims for land allocation, irrigation and credit, including single women who make a major group of farmers in the South Asia region as well as in Africa. Thus specific points of analysis of their needs, voice need to be reflected in these paragraphs.
3. Do you have any comments on the commitments proposed in the political declaration? In this connection, do you have any suggestions to contribute to a more technical elaboration to guide action and implementation on these commitments (paragraphs 21-23 of the zero draft)?
Technical collaboration with issue based organizations is very important, e.g., farmers organizations, women's agencies, youth and IPs, besides private companies.
The role of market that ensures quality food needs to be stressed more ina strategic manner
Kanchan Lama