WFP-FAO co-led Post 2015 Global Thematic Consultation on Hunger, Food Security and Nutrition
The discussion is now closed.
See below the contributions received or download the proceedings.
Summary of key themes emerged from the discussion is available here
This is YOUR OPPORTUNITY to contribute to this global debate.
As the target date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approaches, a number of processes have been put in place to seek inputs from country, regional and global levels, into the “Post-2015 Development Agenda and Framework”. For more background information click here.
This is your opportunity to help identify the actions, goals, targets and indicators needed to achieve food and nutrition security, and the eradication of hunger, in a post-2015 world. Many food security and nutrition policies, strategies and action plans have been written over the past number of years. Challenges and opportunities towards achieving food and nutrition security in a sustainable way have been identified, and many countries are making good progress. Nevertheless, close to 870 million people around the world remain undernourished and do not have access to a healthy diet. It is time for everyone to take urgent action – in a concerted manner – and to elaborate a new development agenda around lasting concerns of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.
The outcome of this e-consultation, together with the proposed CFS consultation, will feed into the high level experts consultation to be hosted by the Government of Spain in March 2013.
Ultimately, your contributions will feed into the UN General Assembly discussions beginning September 2013 for the elaboration of an agreed post 2015 global development agenda.
E-Consultation: next four weeks
Over the next four weeks, FAO and WFP will facilitate this e-consultation in drawing on the widest possible group of stakeholders and interested parties on how best to address hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition at all levels, and to seek your inputs on the elaboration of a new agenda for action beyond the current MDG framework.
We also invite you to submit papers, findings, or on-going work on the topic of hunger, food and nutrition security.
We seek your inputs on the following three themes:
Theme 1
(i) What do you see as the key lessons learned during the current Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Framework (1990-2015), in particular in relation to the MDGs of relevance to hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition?
(ii) What do you consider the main challenges and opportunities towards achieving food and nutrition security in the coming years?
Theme 2
What works best? Drawing on existing knowledge, please tell us how we should go about addressing the hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition challenges head on. Provide us with your own experiences and insights. For example, how important are questions of improved governance, rights-based approaches, accountability and political commitment in achieving food and nutrition security?
Furthermore, how could we best draw upon current initiatives, including the Zero Hunger Challenge, launched by the UN Secretary General at the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (www.zerohungerchallenge.org), and the Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition elaborated by the CFS?
Theme 3
For the Post-2015 Global Development Framework to be complete, global (and regional or national) objectives, targets and indicators will be identified towards tackling hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. A set of objectives has been put forward by the UN Secretary-General under Zero Hunger Challenge (ZHC):
- 100% access to adequate food all year round
- Zero stunted children less than 2 years old
- All food systems are sustainable
- 100% increase in smallholder productivity and income
- Zero loss or waste of food.
Please provide us with your feedback on the above list of objectives – or provide your own proposals. Should some objectives be country-specific, or regional, rather than global? Should the objectives be time-bound?
Contribution received:
Sponsor
This thematic discussion was led by FAO and WFP in collaboration with “The World We Want”.
The consultation was facilitated by the Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)
Please consider specifically highlighting breastfeeding as currently recommended by WHO and UNICEF as being one of the most important factors in achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In particular, funding currently over-supplied to providing thousands of babies and young children annually on emergency supplies of Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods would be better spent on teaching their mothers about the value of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding with normal household weaning foods for at least 2 years. Such a strategy would enable mothers, and indeed countries to use their own sustainable resources rather than relying on hand-outs given as "aid". Lastly, please consider as a matter of urgency disseminating the current recommendations for breastfeeding and antiretroviral therapy for HIV-positive mothers - please see WABA’s International Policy on HIV and Breastfeeding: a Comprehensive Resource, released 3 December 2012, see http://www.waba.org.my/whatwedo/hcp/ihiv.htm#kit
Please find attached the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) position paper, "A World Free from Hunger and Malnutrition: Food and Nutrition Security in the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda." The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a global foundation which currently assists nearly 670m people facing malnutrition in over 30 countries. This short note sets out why and how we believe better nutrition should be integrated into global development priorities post 2015. Our major call is for Zero Stunting – eliminating the factors which blight the physical and mental development of children for ever - to be a new benchmark for global development success.
The key building block for child survival, growth and healthy development is provided exclusive breastfeeding for six months, with continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond with the addition of safe and nutritionally adequate complementary foods. These optimal infant feeding practices, as defined in the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, provide the foundations for the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goal. Scientific research has shown that breastfeeding is good for mothers, babies and societies. In conditions of poverty and in emergency situations, breastfeeding is a real lifeline and artificial feeding is a huge risk to infant survival. Implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent relevant WHA Resolutions Independent monitoring clearly shows that companies continue to systematically and aggressively market foods for infants and young children using techniques that mislead parents about the risks of artificial feeding and undermine breastfeeding. Such marketing is acknowledged to have a direct, negative impact on the realization of rights of children and women, in particular on the right to health and to adequate food. Correct and unbiased information There is a poor understanding of the fact that breastfeeding should be regarded as a norm and artificial feeding as a substitute that can never be equal to the norm , and how much support a mother needs to succeed in practicing exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and to continue for 2 years or beyond. The need for supportive health care systems Commercial pressures lead to inadequate support provided to women by the health care system. Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), the backbone of which is formed by the ‘Ten steps for successful breastfeeding’, is a key initiative to ensure breastfeeding support within the health care system.
Please specifically include breastfeeding in the new Millennium Development Goals.
Breastfeeding is free, it requires no sterilisation of equipment which can be a problem in areas which lack access to clean water, it is better for babies and reduces infant mortality rates and better for mothers.
The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitues should be fully implemented.
We are currently facing a triple burden of malnutrition: under-nutrition, micronutrient deficiency, and overnutrition/overconsumption, often within the same countries, communities and households.
The triple burden of malnutrition is symptomatic of underlying problems: poverty, inequalities and dysfunctional food systems.
A single focus on undernutrition is insufficient to address either the range of nutritional problems affecting every country in the world, or the oncoming tsunami of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancers, asthma and other NCDS linked to overweight/obesity.
The challenges we face towards achieving food and nutritional security are substantial, if not daunting. We are putting our whole agricultural system at risk through a series of converging factors that have become global in nature (climate change, increased soil degradation and water stress, decrease in soil fertility, industrial and agricultural pollution, rapid demographic growth we can ill afford and commodity speculation forcing food prices upwards).
One cannot get away from the triangle: population-C02-natural resources. Right now the combination population-technology is widening the gap between humanty's footprint and the available biocapacity. The biotehcnological solutions proposed to date are also either inadequate, problematic or still experimental and so not capable of redressing the situation within the temporal limits we now have to work in, in which we are confronted with having to try and feed an 2 extra billion or more by 2050! Therefore unless we bring our population levels down and restore soil fertility we are unlikely to succeed. This means promoting agro-ecological alternatives over agricultural intensification.
It is in these two areas that we need to focus all our efforts, as well as on making sure temperatures to do not rise above 2 C. I attach a paper on why another Green Revolution in Africa (or elsewhere for that matter) is unadvisable, as the points are relevant to both themes I and II. Respectfully submitted by Dr. A. Marcar.
Current global discussions on food security and nutrition neglect the needs of infants and young children. Optimal breastfeeding (initiation within an hour after birth, exclusive breastfeeding for six months, and continued breastfeeding for up to two years and beyond) is under pressure in both low-income and high-income countries. The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes is not fully implemented, and there are several issues that are not covered by that Code. The infant formula manufacturers are planning large-scale increases in infant formula use throughout the world, and no agencies are prepared to assess the likely impacts. On the basis of extensive scientific research that has already been done on formula feeding in comparison with breastfeeding, the new wave of formula feeding is likely to result in considerable harm to the health of both infants and mothers.
As suggested in my recent book on Regulating Infant Formula, many of the issues could be addressed at the global level through a new Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The new Optional Protocol could present a set of widely agreed principles regarding the nutrition of children.
Working under the auspices of the United Nations General Assembly, the nations of the world could negotiate a draft OPCN. Drafts could be prepared by national governments working together with nongovernmental organizations. The drafters could draw from the many documents that already propose sound principles relating to children’s nutrition such as the World Health Organization’s Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding and the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. There are many other documents, now scattered, whose core ideas could be pulled together.
After the draft OPCN was adopted by the UN General Assembly, it would be open to ratification by the nations of the world. Ratification would indicate the nation’s acceptance of the OPCN and its commitment to conform its national laws to it.
The OPCN would not replace international bodies such as the United Nations Children’s Fund or the Codex Alimentarius Commission, nor would it replace national regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The OPCN would help to harmonize the work of all participating countries at the national level. It would be the apex document, setting out important principles relating to the nutrition of infants and young children.
The drafters of the OPCN would have to accommodate diversity and recognize the important differences in cultural approaches to raising children in different places. As a global document, it would focus mainly on widely accepted principles, and leave the details of implementation to be worked out in different countries according to their particular circumstances.
One of the basic principles of the OPCN would be that children have a right to foods that are both safe and nutritionally adequate. The concepts would be defined at the global level, but implemented concretely at the national level. This approach would place children’s nutrition decisively into the human rights framework. Like other forms of international law, it would not result in immediate compliance, but it would establish clear and widely agreed standards, and it would support the preparation of strong law at the national level. A new Optional Protocol on Children’s Nutrition, linked to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, would help to establish coherent regulations for ensuring that infants and young children everywhere are well nourished.
Aloha, George Kent
Below are several key learnings from our Conservation Agriculture projects in Malawi and Zambia that related to the post-2015 discussion:
Furthermore, governments and agencies should collaborate to create district-level agricultural marketing plans to help connect rural producers directly to local, urban, and peri-urban markets.
Saludos cordiales desde el Foro Rural Mundial, asociación responsable de la coordinación de la Sociedad Civil para la preparación y promoción del Año Internacional de la Agricultura Familiar, AIAF- 2014.
La Agricultura Familiar representa un sector de valor estratégico debido a su función económica, social, cultural, ambiental y territorial. Los hombres y mujeres dedicados a la Agricultura Familiar producen el 70% de los alimentos del mundo, en un contexto de falta de apoyo generalizado.
La Agricultura Familiar es la base de la producción sostenible de alimentos destinados a la seguridad alimentaria y a la soberanía alimentaria, de la gestión ambiental de la tierra y su biodiversidad y de la preservación de la importante herencia sociocultural de las comunidades rurales y las naciones.
La Agricultura Familiar, campesina, pastores, pesca artesanal, comunidades indígenas, representa el modelo más sostenible en la lucha contre el Hambre y la Malnutrición. Incluso el Banco Mundial, Informe sobre la Agricultura 2008, considera que los alimentos deben ser producidos cerca de los consumidores, de los que pasan hambre. El 75% de éstos son mujeres y hombres pequeños campesinos, jornaleros sin tierra.
Nuestras reivindicaciones a nivel general
Para mejorar las condiciones de los hombres y mujeres dedicados a la Agricultura Familiar y liberar todo su potencial como agentes principales en la lucha para acabar con la pobreza y el hambre en el mundo, tenemos que fortalecer su voz, transformar las instituciones y abogar por políticas que respondan a sus necesidades.
En este sentido 200 hombres y mujeres líderes de organizaciones campesinas nacionales, regionales e internacionales, de grupos de la sociedad civil y movimientos sociales y de las principales instituciones académicas y de investigación de cuatro continentes del mundo reunidos en Bilbao, España, en Octubre 2011,con motivo de la Conferencia Mundial de Agricultura Familiar bajo el lema "Alimentar al mundo, Cuidar el Planeta" acordaron una Declaración Final en la que establecieron los principales retos a superar a fin de dar sentido a la reivindicación general presentada en este punto.
1. Asegurar que las instituciones públicas sean responsables ante el conjunto de las familias de agricultores, aplicando mejores políticas agrarias que proporcionen servicios específicos de calidad (infraestructura, extensión, investigación e innovación tecnológica, información, difusión pública, educación, respuestas de emergencia, etc.).
2. Fortalecer las organizaciones y los movimientos de agricultores familiares para aumentar su influencia sobre las políticas, las instituciones y los mercados.
3. Definir las inversiones y el desarrollo de políticas, en consulta con las organizaciones de agricultores familiares que se dedican específicamente a atender las necesidades de la Agricultura Familiar.
Ver documento completo de la declaración en defensa de la Agricultura Familiar tras la Conferencia Mundial de Agricultura Familiar bajo el lema "Alimentar al mundo, Cuidar el Planeta". Octubre 2011, Bilbao, España.
Mujer agricultora
Por otra parte, una cuarta parte de la población mundial está compuesta de mujeres agricultoras, a menudo cabezas de familia, que representan unos 1.600 millones de personas. (FUENTE: Fundación Cumbre Mundial de Mujeres, Ginebra).
El cierre de la brecha de género en la agricultura generaría beneficios considerables para el sector agrícola y la sociedad. Si las mujeres tuvieran el mismo acceso a los recursos productivos que los hombres podrían aumentar el rendimiento de sus explotaciones agrícolas de un 20% a un 30 %. La mejora en los rendimientos permitiría superar la subsistencia y destinar parte de la producción a los mercados locales. De esta manera, se logran impactos positivos a varios niveles. Por un lado las mujeres obtendrían mejores y mayores beneficios, el territorio se mantendría productivo y la población tendría un mejor acceso a alimentos.
Los posibles beneficios variarían según la región en función de cuántas mujeres se dedican actualmente a la agricultura, cuánta producción o tierras controlan, y la amplitud de la brecha de género a la que se enfrentan. (SOFA 2011)
Las áreas prioritarias para la reforma son las siguientes:
- Eliminar la discriminación de la mujer en el acceso a los recursos agrícolas, la educación, los servicios de extensión y financieros así como los mercados de trabajo;
- Invertir en tecnologías e infraestructura que permitan ahorrar trabajo y mejorar la productividad de modo que las mujeres dispongan de más tiempo libre para dedicarse a actividades más productivas;
- Facilitar la participación de la mujer en mercados de trabajo rural que sean flexibles, eficientes y justos. (FAO. 2011. El estado mundial de la agricultura y la alimentación 2010-11: Las mujeres en la Agricultura).
Los próximos Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenibles deben considerar estas realidades marcando metas muy concretas para mejorar situación de la Agricultura Familiar en general y de la Mujer Agricultora en particular. En la definición de estos objetivos concretos deben participar activamente los principales protagonistas del proceso: los y las agricultores familiares.
En este sentido, el FRM anticipa que va a presentar una propuesta formal, a desarrollar en profundidad durante el año 2013, para solicitar a Naciones Unidas la inclusión del apoyo a la Agricultura Familiar Sostenible como un Objetivo de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODM) en la lista de objetivos a formalizar a partir del año 2015. La propuesta va a ser fruto de un intenso trabajo entre responsables de Organizaciones Agrarias y de Desarrollo, en colaboración con centros de investigación y organizaciones multilaterales. Todas las organizaciones involucradas en este trabajo reconocen el papel crucial de la Agricultura Familiar para erradicar el hambre y la pobreza en el mundo de forma sostenible, de forma que su apoyo se convierta en un indicador esencial de Desarrollo.
Muchas gracias por su atención.http://www.ruralforum.net/ffwconference/declaracion.asp?id=es
Miren Larrea y Conchi Quintana
Area de Contenidos del Foro Rural Mundial
www.ruralforum.net
www.familyfarmingcampaign.net
What should we do to overcome the Hunger, Food &Nutrition Insecurity with reference of Pakistan?
Current situation in Pakistan :
Source: Pakistan National Nutrition Survey, 2011
Taken from Dawn News paper 9th May, 2012.
Steps to help eradicate Hunger from Pakistan: