Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

My apologies for arriving late to this discussion topic. These two footnotes from my Thesis on Crisis Management, Counterterrorism and Sustainable Development, written in 1992-1993, seem relevant to the discussion. They are rather densely-written (my apologies, the thesis was getting long enough without multiple digressions for worthy sub-topics necessary for defense of the overall thesis), but, I hope, pertinent. It seems factors affecting the balance of food security and the need for policy interventions have not altered significantly, and perhaps this short presentation might be of some interest here.  

(Footnote One)

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was created at the G-7 Economic Summit in June, 1989. Participants at the Summit decided that the international drug trade and money laundering had become a threat to overt global financial systems, and that an effective enforcement/deterrent approach would be to pursue, seize, and obtain the forfeiture of the profits of illicit (trafficking) activities. At the 1990 Summit, the FATF issued 40 recommendations for member countries to implement as counter-money laundering measures (reference also the 1988 UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances – which 72 states/nations have ratified or acceded to at this writing). The most significant actions were the criminalization of money laundering, the creation of asset forfeiture programs, the establishment of know-your-customer policies, and the encouragement of mutual legal assistance and other cooperation among law enforcement/regulatory/ and other agencies. FATF membership currently includes most of Europe, Japan, Canada, the United States, and a number of other Asian/Pacific nations as well.

 More than 100 governments have adopted or are now considering adopting provisions which would criminalize money laundering, regulate the flow of currency and monetary instruments, mandate records of currency and other monetary instrument transactions, require declarations of beneficial or nominee owners of accounts and holdings, and compel disclosure of suspicious transactions. Provisions in many governments include the listing of terrorism among their laws against organized crime and drug trafficking – statutes allowing enforcement efforts against the financial infrastructures supporting terrorism might, similarly to the FATF recommendations and resultant legal provisions, be promulgated and instituted to successfully offset the burgeoning profits of violence and terrorism on a national and international scale.

For those stakeholders in legitimate state and economic infrastructures whose responsibilities, as members of consensual civil society, include the protection and respect (and necessary education, access, and accountability of members, citizens, and dependents) of rights, liberties and safety-security-sustainability on human and environmental scales, and the reinforcing and evolution of those concepts of rights and responsibilities, codification, a “breadcrumb trail” of the ethical, legal, and practical bases for such decisions is irreplaceable, and necessary for evaluation of present, and future progress.

For those (currently unrecognized) disenfranchised, excluded, or merely co-existing in an informal setting/sector, whose investment in the legal and social infrastructures is circumstantial, “stakeholder” benefits become increasingly irrelevant. The interests of shared values, shared needs for social and environmental protection, shared aspirations for selves/dependents, and perhaps NOT-SHARED, but concomitant needs simply, to reach a place of security where the concept of social-benefits, social-protections, environmental and social diversity, and the possibility (however remote from circumstance) of a “better life” might someday replace the desperate, nothing-to-lose pursuit of any life at all, lessens, or reduces to irrelevant, “civil society” concepts of inter- and intra- dependence. Standing on the shoulders of out-caste/outcast classes, of generations of marginalized peoples to whom the balance of power and brokers of power have “traditionally” been the loudest, strongest, most affluent (and most insulated by possession, education, “droit de seigneur” and myriad other codes of exclusion), and best-armed (whether with weapons, wealth, legal systems, scholars, and, now, media and communications), logically, the most efficient form of “rebellion,” the most effective refutation, the most economical (when one has little but human capital to spend) form of restitution has been violence. Without legal recourse, without sufficient education, without access to media, communications, politics, wealth, or power, “terrorism” has become a “solution of choice,” a universal “leveler” in the off-grid wars for power among the least-served, and least-recognized of communities, states, nations, and the larger collateral of humanity.

Thus, logically, laws and codes, statutes, memos-of-understanding, charters, treaties, trade agreements, and the other infrastructures of “civil society” may serve to define legal standing, allowable behaviors and choices, and criminal abrogation of the same. But unless pro-active measures to redress insufficiencies of equality (equality of talent which should be gender-blind, age-blind, caste/culture-blind; and equality of “rights” which must include all), access, and expression, to ensure safe, stable, secure, and sustainable infrastructures, human and biodiverse societies are instituted, such laws will remain tacitly moot, ineffective in the long term of including the least-invested, the ‘non-stakeholders’ of so many local, state, national, regional, and our global human societies. And ethical exercises which promulgate superficial approvals of the historic achievements of societies which have thus far failed to provide for the differently-abled, differently-accessed, and remotely-located, under- or non- included, and under- or non-served segments of humanity remain merely exercises.

Obviously, humans are capable of vastly diverse strata of comprehension, ability, and accomplishment. Not every person can attain levels of expertise in the myriad sectors of involvement to which our race/species has thus far climbed. As obviously, concepts of inter- and intra- dependence dictate that our relative position, role, and responsibilities upon the globe we inhabit would logically dictate that we do no irreparable harm to our habitats, our environmental spheres (air, land, oceans, species-generative) as we evolve and continue to develop our infrastructures and social codes.

History demonstrates that, in times of conflict, unrest, grave natural disasters or other socially-disruptive events, when males have been conscripted, imprisoned, or have died in conflicts, wars, or civil struggles, women and children have undertaken the jobs (farming, unskilled and skilled labor, depending upon the epoch) left vacant. “Sworn men” were left, generally unthreatened, to cross gender barriers into occupations and situations which had been “exclusively” male. Absent parents or other adults or infrastructures to support them, children learned trades, but also experienced ownership (whereas child labor is generally viewed, in stable modern society, as bondage, human trafficking, and other illegal forms). Without the intervention of politics, of border-dependent infrastructures, people tend to rediscover an equilibrium of sorts. Children will play in the rubble of destroyed homes or villages. Animals will graze in fields strewn with trash and even the evidence of destruction. People will work to find food, water, shelter—or they will collect what they can, and leave for a place of safety where they can find food, water, shelter. Food, and water, before all else, become the primary concerns, and the most significant indications of security after conflict or disaster. Even among the homeless, the displaced persons not of conflict but of impoverishment, food and water security are vital—and can spell the difference between survival and desperation, between a hope for a better future and a descent into an inherently disastrous intersection of unmet needs, unequal access, “black markets” or crisis-induced “counter-social movements,” and the potential for crime, violence, and greater conflict.

[Quick, stop-gap measures, like mono-culture food-for-drug, or plant-for-guns substitutions can lead to disastrous results, as well. Lack of appropriate soil and water resources can lead to dependence on black-market seed providers for seeds, fertilizers, access to markets, even for subsistence-level nutritional security. Re-purposing poppy fields in Northern Thailand; re-planting war-torn fields in Sierra Leone; re-claiming salt-saturated mineral depleted lands left from unsustainable inland shrimp or fish farms, salt-evaporation fields or strip-mines along shore-line or rift-zones around the globe become rallying-cries laced with promise and potential for environmental and economic recovery. But such efforts all too often fall short of expected goals.

Ancient crops, like the saline-tolerant cover-grain barley, the wide range of resilient palms, the drought- and poor-soil cassava (manioc, yuca, leaf-canopy plant with edible starchy root-tubers), the sand- and poor-soil tolerant evergreen shrub yucca (green, spear-like leaves providing cloth fibers and needles; edible asparagus-like stalk, subsequent flowers and fruit; edible tuber-root; pith and wood-fibers for fuel and other purposes) across the planet for thousands of years.

Cassava has become increasingly popular as a mono-culture (beyond tapioca) despite the labor-intensive (the harvested root is heavy to carry , and highly perishable) nature of plant-to-food production (while the crop can grow “in stasis” for harvesting any time between about 6 months and two years, increasing starch (carbohydrate) content, vitamin C, riboflavin, niacin, and thiamin, the roots must be processed extensively to make them safe to eat. Unprocessed, raw cassava contains high levels of cyanogenic glococides, and requires extensive processing to release cyanide gas. Insufficient access to time for sun-drying or to water for cooking and/or fermentation leads to partial paralysis and brain injury). Cassava (manioc) is easily cultivated by replanting stems (though insect infestations may be transmitted through lack of plant rotation); leaves and stems can feed animals, provide fire-wood, compost, and be used for growing mushrooms. It also produces industrial-grade starches.

Grown in combination with staple grains, lentils, or other food products, the cassava can be an inexpensive, resilient, and essential food crop for small holder farmers, and its leaf-canopy (when sufficient water exists to support leaf growth) can provide shade and diminish evaporation which might damage less-hardy crops. The processed, dried root is (as fermented flour, tapioca or other products) quite versatile, and does not hold the difficulties of transport, nor the danger of eating insufficiently processed roots, and is a reliable food source for many segments of the global population, not only as a food staple, but as a dessert item.

Anecdotal writings in Africa (West African Folk Tales, W.H. Barker and C. Sinclair, Harrap Press, 1917, and the Mongo Proverbs and Fables, E.A. Ruskin, Congo Balola Mission Press, 1921) tell of competitions between the manioc (cassava) and the plantain (banana), for food security and provision of fibers for cloth and baskets, as well as the oil palm and the raffia palm—used to produce oil, palm sauce, wine, salt, clothing, trap, broom and basket fibers, leaf shelters, et cetera. Generally, in the African tales, the cassava “won” because the plantain died after two or three cuttings, whereas the cassava can grow season after season. The raffia palm also “won,” although on shakier grounds, because (paraphrased) One may walk hungry in front of people, but not naked…

This raises another issue—in modern times, even viewing large segments of displaced populations, clothing does not seem an issue of grave concern except in cases of weather-related exposure. Everyone always seems to find something to wear (although, arguably, once at least one outfit is procured, clothing may be worn constantly, until it wears to threads and holes, while thirst and hunger return repeatedly)—even if lack of appropriate costume, foot wear (and hygiene) may be further cause for social exclusion. In this sense, food and water security tend to remain the most pressing of issues among impoverished, landless, refugee, and other underserved / at-risk populations, and, among these, women and children have been the least-served, least-capable of competing for limited resources, and most-dependent upon safe access (in many cases, women and children still cannot boast ownership) to land, or land alternatives (mobile garden carts, pots or hanging cloth-and-plastic bags of soil-and-compost) as well as sources of seeds or clippings and sources of water for growing subsistence- or higher- levels of food / plant crops for nutritional security, and, if extra exists, for sale (economic security).]

And any amelioration of existing conflicts, of local/global uncertainties-crises (climate change, weather-disaster, earthquake, etc.), of cross-border grievances and conflicts affecting trade, sanctions, and access/exchange of goods and services must include consideration of safe, sustainable food and water sourcing, energy sourcing, health and well-being. Especially as media become more immediate and available, people of all genders and ages can see how others live, how others are treated. A lack of commensurate amenities may breed resentment—but a poverty of circumstance, dearth of food, water, shelter, can breed desperation, and increase the potential for social divisions, civil unrest, violent conflict, or terrorism.

Any definition of terrorism imposed on an uninformed, or non-participative population or segment thereof is “top-down”  infrastructuring which would be discounted, or viewed as a desirable target for opposition, for blaming the “they” and “them” and “those” who are viewed as the oppressors, the privileged, the few/many who conveniently, namelessly, hold most possessions, power, and access. Dehumanization, dissociation, and subjugation of targets of best-effect, targets of opportunity, and nameless opponents work both ways—and collateral losses are as acceptable, if not more so, to terrorists/outcasts-seeking-power-and-recognition, as to any political or military power seeking to repress them.

And until the structures and capacities of human governance and involvement truly enable “know your customer” or “know your constituent” practices, FATF, counter-terrorism, and other laws, treaties, and guidelines remain merely superficial dressings, codes enabling criminal prosecutions for digression, but still, guidelines—requiring neither the best inclusion, efforts, and responsibilities of those governing and enforcing them, or those whom the codes and laws would govern. And any cause-and-effect approaches would better empower all possible constituents, stakeholders (whether participative or not) and active (participative) contributor to the webbing of information, capacities (from skills to global infrastructures of power, food, water, transit, communications, information, education, and arts, etc.), bio-diverse ecosystems, and cultures and traditions which help define, differentiate, and develop our human interactions in this global setting. Our cultures, traditions, languages, local mores, habits and tastes are the costuming and consumer-appropriate segments of our concepts of self, society, and sustainability. But our ethics, our position as one (human) earth species among many millions of earthlings (if thus far the most capable of advancement, improvement, or destruction of a majority of self- and other- species-members), our responsibility to tolerate, respect, protect are what raise us, as humans, above the daily win-lose struggles of survival which confront most other species on this planet. We are capable of recording history, of learning from it, of postulating new theories, new social codes, new sciences, which can become shining realities—and, yet, in the short term, we are at a cross-roads, where economic, environmental, and human terrorism, war, and other civil dissociation, dysfunction, and dissolution can destroy us all.

While the amelioration and redress of “vulnerabilities” to disaster, forces natural and catastrophic, remains on the periphery of these considerations, attention must also be given to at-risk populations living in risk-prone areas. When weak, insufficient and/or non-existent modern infrastructures are daily realities to impoverished, marginalized and/or refugee segments of populations, where no policies, programs and/or projects exist (or where they are only sporadically applied—or where they exist due to ephemeral “popular” attention, media coverage and sensationalism, and can dwindle again to insufficiency once the public eye has moved on to more trending/engaging causes), disasters, or even merely hazards, can decimate individual and social capacities to withstand them.

When disruptive, hazardous, and/or catastrophic events intersect with poorly-established, barely-balanced environmental, energy, economic and subsistence-existence conditions of impoverished, marginalized, or unserved populations, impacts are immediate, and sometimes, when combined with inadequacies of education, health-care (routine, endemic, epidemic, and disaster-related events), water and food security, and social/demographic-disparities engendering a lack of options (for survival, let alone livelihood or concepts of self-worth), the intersection of disaster with fragile populations can have irreversible effects (the “lost generations” of child-soldiers, of abused or trafficked children, of populations stopped at border-crossings, unable to reach food, water, urgently-needed health-intervention, etc., are only some examples).

Un-planned/poorly-constructed urban or rural expansion (destroying soil/surface environments and underlying stability, and increasing vulnerability to: erosion; heat-inversions; trash/pollution proliferation; microbial, pest and parasite infestations, etc.), and pirated power-grids, surface-water sourcing, poor sanitation for food supply, and of waste, compound risks to climatic, geological, and other “natural” disasters.

While social, political, technological, supply- and transportation- and infrastructure- modernizations can ameliorate the effects of disasters for the “enfranchised” populations, crisis management and risk reduction efforts seem to stop at the borders of shanty-towns, remote villages or isolated dwellings, slums, refugee-camps, and other marginalized or non-included areas. Political, social, civil, ethical will must exist to improve these inadequacies, to mitigate these insufficiencies, or the risks of having crisis-vulnerable populations will move beyond the capacities of “good-will” actors to intervene. Risk-vulnerable populations will turn to whatever means they find available to eke out a living, and when social infrastructures do not address the disparities they see and endure on a daily basis, the fabric of that society, claiming to have “authority” or “care” for those populations, will be torn.

At-risk populations can become recruitment grounds for crime, violence, terrorism; an uncertain life-span enriched by inclusion in illegal enterprises is, for many, more preferable than an uncertain life-span spent unrecognized, unrecompensed, unwanted, and un-wept by a society with eyes blinded to the unsustainable conditions under which these populations subsist.

Systems of sustainable development, sustainable infrastructures, sustainable governance, must include the safe, secure, and stable existence of all segments of their provenance (human, here, but eco-systemic as well). No system can be sustainable without inclusion of those most challenged, most vulnerable, most affected by risks, disasters, or the mere exigencies of a dis-advantaged, dis-abled, dis-enfranchised life.

Seemingly regardless of race, origin, or culture, legitimate and illegitimate activities, crime and sometimes terrorism, political and public life, media and popular culture can create super-classes of wealthy scions, who can use their wealth as insulation, to purchase legal protections, and distance from the daily deterioration, and crisis-accelerated disintegration of impoverished lives.

Systems of good governance, planning, programs and projects to empower populations previously peripheral to the polity, previously swept beneath the “social floors” of public perception, will strengthen the capacities of social systems, and build sustainable, mutually-reliant, and resilient populations, with an appreciation of those infrastructures which enable that sustainability.

Without the good-will of the populations being governed, any system of laws, any protocol of crisis-management, any redress of catastrophe will be flawed, and, ultimately, as vulnerable to dissolution, totalitarianism, and ongoing criminal enterprises, as any unregulated nation-state, emergent social force, military insurrection, or isolated community.

While the vastness of the challenges confronting any architecture of a ‘global peace’ or a solution of sustainability are staggering, there must be a commonality of approach, a harnessing of dynamics, a sharing of best-practices, a taking of first-steps. Though the clamor of war, the competition of industry, the conflict of nations seem more pressing, and garner more media coverage… though the next earthquake or cyclone or hurricane, the floods, the fires, the mudslides burn images indelible on the public eye, there must be a cognizance that underlying our sense of shock and vulnerability at confronting these events is a real, glaring inadequacy in our individual and global social fabric.

When some use and deplete the resources shared globally, when some live without food enough or water to survive even one more day, an unsustainable imbalance threatens the globe increasingly diminished by an ever-expanding, still-violent, still-destructive, human population. Stepping from the shaded insulation of isolated safe-havens, or from the precipices of destruction, is difficult. However, we must arrive at global, inter-national, national, community, and individual-level recognitions of needs, agreements of capabilities, involvement in problem-solving, interest in and commitment to responsibility, and investment in a shared, intra-dependent future, in order to begin to implement any solution(s).

While it seems prosaic and miniscule in the context of global sustainability, one tangible and definable intervention can include a guideline of money-laundering laws, such as those promulgated through the participative efforts of the FATF, a guideline of definitions and laws to mitigate, ameliorate, and possibly eliminate terrorism and insurrection and war (and potentially, eventually, the need for them) are glaring necessities of our common human infrastructures and societies at present.

The laws and definitions of responsibilities, reciprocities, and consequences for choices and actions at present are not a panacea for the ills of humankind, nor can they be a shining beacon of light for the peaceful advancement of human and all other earth-species and environments.

But codification common grounds, of common interests, of universal “rights” and responsibilities, and the codification of crimes against humans, against this code of universally-recognized human- and environmental- and eco-systemic rights, and codification of a means to redress them, is a good place to start.

(Footnote Two)

Additionally, when drug cultivation, production, packaging, and/or transshipping cross porous contiguous borders (whether the governments on either side of those borders have “closed” them or not), the transit routes of smugglers are often dangerous to any local, or official business or activities in the area. Since smugglers are not exclusively limited to transshipping drugs, however, many other products, goods and services can exist in “black” or “shadow” economies which can rival and surpass “open market goods” in quality, quantity and price, until legitimate marketplaces fail, and only the “black market” goods remain available—at which point, predictably, market monopolization enables the holders of the goods/services (the beneficial owners, not necessarily the trans-shippers or marketers) to raise the prices exorbitantly.

A cascading effect of seeking essential goods/services/drugs and prohibitively high prices leads to increases in other crimes to amass cash-for-purchase; tax-bases of locations collapse due to lack of legitimate/reported income; social services and base-line protection levels collapse, as do sanitary, police, judicial/civil, and educational services; area populations become inured to violence and crime, seek inclusion and power from the “black market” power base at the cost of further erosion of social services, education, and legitimate financial institutions… In weak systems of governance, officials can retain positions and gain rank and power by themselves entering the corrupted system, and the course of justice itself becomes corrupted and vulnerable to purchased influence, or paid protection.

Although modern technologies are enabling increasing levels of report-ability and transparency due to accessibility of information, standardized methods and levels of disclosure, expectations of social protection, legal protection, liberties, and ethical responsibilities, the “shadow” economies and “shadow” crim-ocracies, controlling vast amounts of illicit profits, can purchase levels of control and seeming stability sufficient to insulate themselves from anything less than a protracted, major eradication effort—a “drug war,” and the like.

In such circumstances, “East-West” or “North-South” distinctions cease to be relevant. The brokers of power control the production of commodities, limit or control access to and release of information, limit or control autonomy of workforce and dependents. The “included” abide by these controls, or cease to be included—or cease to be. The “other” becomes anyone not included, but not directly confronting or combating the existing rule—collateral bystanders, non-purchasers, non-prosecutors. The “enemy” becomes anyone challenging the status quo, confronting the existing system, searching for and combating the source of the pseudo-social network, the crim-ocracy of the moment—be it founded on drug consumption, fuel consumption, knowledge/information control, monetary/value-based power control, or, in a less friendly future on an increasingly crowded, inter-dependent planet, health- , food-, or water-, or air- consumption/control.

And such a “shadow” system, reliant on pressure-points and choke-holds of power and control, cannot emerge to the clarity/transparency/accountability of “open” systems of governance without establishing alternate social supports. That is, again, without safe, secure, stable and sustainable systems of economy, education, energy, environment, existence (food/water/air/health security), and ethical foundations responsive to, and accountable to, the population(s) a social system serves, there can be no non-coercive construct of governance. Without the willing participation of generations of citizens, a social system must either survive in a negative-valent/force status, or evolve to become a responsive/inclusive/responsible and sustainable society, and sustainable existence on this multi-species (humans are one among millions of species of earthlings) on this planet.

Thank you to all those people who have participated in our online discussion "Food Security, Gender and Peace-Building", your contributions are all extremely valuable to us, and will feed into the wider study we are conducting, that addresses the complex interactions between food security, gender equality and peace-building.

It is encouraging to see how much work is already happening, and we look forward to reading more about it over the coming weeks.

About the Question 1, FreshPlaza Italy recently dedicated some articles to the following projects:

1. "Vital Voices" (http://www.freshplaza.it/article/68645/Vital-Voices-investe-sul-business...), a program of scholarships by VV GROW + ExxonMobil. It identifies women with high potential and helps in their education, even if they belong to poor families.

2. "Feed the Future" USA government campaign (first article here: http://www.freshplaza.it/article/72890/Feed-the-Future-lo-studio-sul-gra... / second article here: http://www.freshplaza.it/article/72892/Piu-potere-alle-donne-per-far-cre...). The study was supported by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Department for poverty and human development of Oxford. It collects the first and most comprehensive data pertaining to women and their level of development and integration in the agricultural sector. The results are collected under a development index called WEAI (Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index).

3. Susan Carlson, a facilitator for the Women Committee of OMA, recently underlined: "Women are not only simple agricultural producers, they are responsible for the nutrition and food security of the entire planet" (http://www.freshplaza.it/article/75496/Le-donne-lavorano-156-ore-in-piu-...)

4. In my country - Italy - a third of the agricultural firms are directed by women (215.329 in total - http://www.freshplaza.it/article/75875/Coldiretti-215.329-imprese-agrico...). Data have been provided by the agricultural organisation Coldiretti during EXPO Milan 2015.

Last but not least, I would like to let you know about this photographic project called "FarmHer" in which the image itself of the women working in the agricultural sector is fully revisited: http://www.freshplaza.it/article/67248/Progetto-FarmHer-documentare-le-…

Rossella Gigli - Chief Editor FreshPlaza Italy (www.freshplaza.it)

Hi guys, I think there is much we shouldn't leave out on this, because its one of the most important and striking part of the Sustainable Development which require a lot of attention.

Gender inequality is a major cause and effect of hunger and poverty: it is estimated that 60 percent of the world’s chronically hungry people are women and girls; 20 percent are children under 5. Achieving gender equality remains crucial to reach the poverty and hunger goals of the Millennium Declaration (2009 WFP Gender Policy).

Women and girls worldwide face many inequities and constraints, often embedded in norms and practices and encoded in legal provisions. Some laws, such as those governing access to land, include inequitable and exclusionary provisions, thus institutionalizing discrimination. Where such legislative measures are not in place, customary rules and practices often have restrictive consequences for women limiting their access to key resources such as land and credit, and affecting household food security and nutrition. Not only are women and girls affected directly, but members of their households and communities are also affected inter- and intra-generationally. To proceed, Women individually and collectively contribute to peace-building in many ways. Yet, their contributions are often overlooked because they take unconventional forms, occur outside formal peace processes, or are considered extensions of women’s existing gender roles. Conflict and its aftermath affect women’s lives and men’s lives in different ways. However, the women and men together play and inevitable role in food availability and consequently affordability through contributions at all levels like; the production level (agriculture), transportation and delivery level (commercialization of farm products) and at the preparation level to make raw food ready for immediate consumption.

In a working visit, the Center for Communication and Sustainable Development for All (CECOSDA) visited a women agricultural group (Group Agric-Revolution) which executes projects in the domain of agriculture and serves as a strong pillar combating food security in Cameroon (pictures below).

At the end, food security is a very important aspect in the realization of peace building in any Nation, be it developed, developing or underdeveloped. This can be seen in the 2008 world food crisis which greatly affected Cameroon; World food prices increased dramatically in 2007 and the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2008 creating a global crisis and causing political and economic instability and social unrest in both poor and developed nations. In Cameroon the rioting started on February 27 reportedly “paralyzed” the Cameroon capital of Yaounde, following four days of rioting in several western towns and in the wake of a taxi drivers’ strike from February 25-28 (Reuters, 2008).

view attachement for details,

Hi Guys !!

I think I am late and the latest, probably. Please find the attached, a pdf document, which has been entirely prepared by myself, a conceptual framework regarding the programmes, could be implemented by FAO under "Food Security, Gender Equality & Peace-Building".

The conceptual phenomena in my document, could only be compatible for conflict or post-conflict scenarios. However with few modifications, which could aslo be used in general.

From my own perspective, the reason for most of conflicts across the globe, is social-conservatism and its' consequences such as social-inequality, gender-inequality, ethnic-racial conflicts, religious conservatism...etc. Furthermore, conflicts often happen in poor countries.

Social conservatism could be reduced by be education, gender-equality, social security along with increased income of every household.

If you would need further explanation on my document, please let me know and do not hesitate to provide a critique on my document.

I am reminded of a female upgraded entrepreneur that I interviewed in the Southern Philippines. She sources coffee beans from tribal communities in Mindanao as well communities that are in conflict-affected areas. These traditional coffee beans are the communities' means of acquiring income and securing food for the household, because she offers a fair price for them and markets the beans herself (locally and abroad). Her engagement has improved the lives of women (as they are mostly involved in harvesing and pre-processing of beans) and their families through improved incomes. She uses her enterprise to also advocate for peace, because coffee ceremonies are used as platform for negotiations between warring tribes, as well as between government and muslim groups. I have written about her enterprise and advocacy in my publication. Her business  model is a win-win situation for all involved, and has impacted women, incomes, agriculture and peace in southern Philippines (see Hampel-Milagrosa, 2014 Micro and small enterprise upgrading in the Philippines, DIE Studies 86).

Dear Moderator,

I have received an email from the gender network of IFAD about the online discussion on "Food Security, Gender and Peace-Building". I have worked as a consultant in a project supported by FAO for "Strengthening the Role of Women in Agriculture for Improved Household Food Security and Nutrition".

A brief note on the project including some of the key issues and questions that have been identified which might be relevant to the discussions, is attached. Please do not hesitate to contact me in case further clarifications are required.

Regards,

Ms. Sharmistha DasBarwa

Gender equality is indeed highly required for suastainable land use and food security. Though women do 60-70 percent of agricultural works and contribute immensely to food and nutritional security of the nation, however, they still have limited access to land and rarely involved in decission making process on land. They are less aware of laws or policy provisions and mostly governed by informal customary arrangements which in most cases found discriminatory. Much of this is because of their position in the society. The road to food security of women is always critical for both women producers and consumers. All they need is fair and equitable access. ownership and control over land, equal  participatin in household's decissions  and fair access to information about laws and policies meant for their welfare.

The efforts or initiatives of several Indian states around secure and equitable land tenure is being appreciated everywhere. Odisha is one of them which has gone a mile ahead by making provisions for joint titling of land in land grant schemes such as Vasundhara, GKP and dafayati patta. It is also one of the leading Indian states in terms of providing highest number of Individual Forest Rights to tribals under Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. Under Forest Right Act, 2006 joint titling of land is mandatory. Here two issues need to be discussed. Firstly, the provision of joint titling or individual titles to single women (deserted, widow, unmarried and physically handicapped) in case of homestaed lands, can help in reducing their vulnerability to social threats and encourage particiaption in decission making on land as a title holder. This can ensure better food security among women and choldren at the household level. On the other side, women's owneship over agricultural and forest lands can encourage better food production as well social security of women.

Further, Odisha State Policy for Girls and Women, 2014 has made provisions for prioving cultivable lands on lease to SHG women members on a very nominal rate to increase food production. Simillar oer even better progarmmes are in practice in some other Indian states like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal.

http://wcdodisha.gov.in/sites/default/files/pdf/Odisha%20State%20Policy%...

As climate change is adversely affecting agriculture, there is urgent need to address the conerns of gender inequaliy though policy and institutional reforms. Further, women's improved access and ownership over land can significantly contribute in reducing conflicts and vulnerability.

WOMEN - FOOD SECURITY - GENDER EQUALITY - PEACE-BUILDING

Food is a basic human right, guaranteed  by international law instruments.  States reaffirm the obligations they have assumed in the International Humanitarian Law, as parties to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and/or the Additional Protocols, thereof with respect to the humanitarian needs of the civilian population, including their access to food in situations of armed conflict and occupation.

Though this complex and volatile world has daily news on conflict and war, on destruction, on refugees, displaced persons, trauma and tragedies, there has NOT been significant attention to the more covert and yet exceedingly serious dimensions of women and girls and food security in those unpleasant situations.

How does it feel to realize that militants are near, to grab your children and run, leaving your home, your land, your life treasures, and run, not knowing where you will go, if you and your children will be safe, and how you will have enough food to survive.  You may have been a food producer yourself, but you run, desperately, with only those near and dear to you.  Yet, who gets left behind- the elderly, the sick, the disabled, and how will they be fed?

And, for those girls, those children who have to escape conflict alone – for every hungry child in a conflict situation, there is a hungry mother, hopefully alive, in deep despair that she cannot provide adequate food for her children in these fearful times.  And, for herself, maybe she is nursing a young baby and her milk dries up and her baby is starving.

These are the stories every-day  that are real as women around the world struggle and survive from crises of war and conflict.

Another dimension to contend with  is the lack of adequate food that is the reason for conflict.  The Executive Director of the World Food Programme stated on international media that most of the wars in recent history have originated over issues of food and water.

There is a high number of conflict displaced women and children,  undocumented and invisible, that do not benefit  from protection and food security/aid.

There are challenging gaps in provision, distribution and protection of food before, during and after conflict and war

The right to food is elusive in conflict, when it may well be exceedingly difficult to find food, and realizing the extreme poverty situation that may prevent the possibility to purchase, much more to obtain food.  In some conflict locations, there may be vandalism and even safety damage to usual food supplies.

Some women escaping conflict may reach refugee camps and get registered and have basic aid and food supplies provided.  Others, remain displaced, not recorded, not able to reach safety with family or friends.  These women may become desperate, and compromise values  to even barter sex for food  or marry off a young daughter so she will have enough to eat.

The dynamics of Women – Food Security – Food Sovereignty – Gender Equality & Peace-Building are exceedingly important in today’s world.

MAMA, I'M HUNGRY

Mama, I'm hungry

My tummy hurts, also at night,

My hair and skin are now so dry.

I am only 8 years old.

My baby brother cries.

He is hungry, too.

You say your milk has stopped. 

You need food and safe water.

Daddy died some months ago.

He was killed in this strange war.

He tried to defend our home,

He tried to buy food for us.

You say I can't go to school.

Because of this conflict, war.

I want to be a teacher.

I am so tired, so very hungry.

Mama, I'm cold at night alot.

I want food to keep me warm.

To cover me, you give me paper.

The hunger pangs won't let me sleep.

WUNRN