This worldwide initiative, executed by FAO and WAGGGS,1 aims to disseminate information and raise awareness among children and young people of the issues of the right to food and food security, with the purpose of encouraging them to take action against hunger in the world. Designed as an educational project, it entails the development of an illustrated panel publication (comic-book style) and companion teaching guide on the right to food using language that presents the issues in a simple, understandable way in an attractive style that will capture the attention of young people. Through these materials, young people will be helped to understand that each individual has the right to adequate food and that government, consumer organizations, the private sector, communities and families have an obligation to help protect, promote and support that right.
The book will consist of an introductory section providing an overview of the main issues, and eight individual chapters, each one of which will be devoted to illustrating the food security situation and right to food issues in eight selected countries: Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jordan, Sierra Leone and Uganda. The content of the materials, based on the basic concepts of General Comment No. 12 on the Right to Adequate Food (Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, May 1999) and the Voluntary guidelines on the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security (see Highlight on page 54), will be developed collaboratively by in-country experts and designated technical experts and education specialists from the executing agencies and project staff, with input from the UN Office of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food in Geneva. Comments and contributions will also be sought from international non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and selected youth organizations. Field testing of the materials will be carried out both in-country and through the four WAGGGS World Centres (India, Mexico, Switzerland and the United Kingdom).
A unique feature of the publication is the development of the illustrations by young artists and art students in each of the eight countries. The comic-book style drawings, created by young people themselves, will convey country differences in culture, lifestyles, food habits, environments and living conditions. In each of the selected countries, a national contest is being organized among art schools or institutes for illustration of the chapter of the publication set in that country. Each of these chapters will then become part of the final publication which will be translated into seven languages and distributed in over 150 countries.
The major project outputs – the main publication, the activity guide and the CD-ROM – will be completed by December 2005, with translations, printing and distribution taking place in 2006, as funds become available. The wide dissemination and use of the materials will be carried out through a number of channels, including the WAGGGS national member organizations in 144 countries, FAO country offices, national right to food or human rights offices, National Alliances Against Hunger, and the Feeding Minds, Fighting Hunger global education initiative.
1 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.
