This opinion article written by Juan Carlos García y Cebolla, FAO Right to Food Team Leader, was published in El Pais on 10^th December 2021. The following text is a translation of the original text in Spanish.

In recent decades, we have advanced in our understanding that the fight against poverty is fundamental to the realization of human rights. However, we still have a long way to go in fully understanding the importance of reducing inequalities to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, child labour, illiteracy and other scourges affecting the human rights of billions of people.

Ending poverty is not enough. Inequality prevents people from fully enjoying their economic and social human rights, even in wealthy societies.  For example, inequality causes the gender gap in terms of income in OECD countries.

There are still misconceptions about inequality. It is often seen as an unavoidable side effect: as a mere difference in income levels, a consequence of individual decisions or the result of external constraints such as environmental factors. However, the truth is that inequality is above all due to power asymmetries, the dynamics of discrimination, segregation and under valuing.

Inequality can be manifested in different ways. For example, not being able to access food in a regular and stable way to avoid being hungry, a precarious situation that 928 million people faced in 2020 (148 million more than the previous year). If we raise the bar to something as reasonable as access to a healthy diet, we will find that 3 billion people cannot afford it. Lack of access to adequate food, along with other factors, contributes to increased malnutrition and associated non-communicable diseases. In Spain, the prevalence of obesity in children between the ages of 4 and 14 is three times higher in the lowest-income families than in the highest-income groups. This trend is not different in Europe and America, and increasingly in other parts of the world, where the prevalence of obesity is higher in the most socio-economically vulnerable groups, both in children and adults.

Inequality also means having a shorter lifespan and more diseases. In many countries, food safety systems are applied only to the formal sector of the agrifood economy, leaving much of the informal sector at risk of foodborne hazards that can impact nutrition, health and incomes. In many countries, food safety systems are concerned only with the needs of the formal sector of the economy, while the rest may suffer from infections affecting their nutrition and income. Sometimes, as is the case in large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, this duality does not prevent society as a whole from being regularly exposed to toxic substances such as aflatoxins, which in the long term weaken the immune system and can cause diverse types of cancer, in particular of the liver.

Inequalities in income, adequate food, access to water and education, among others, end up being reflected in life expectancy. The difference between the 10 countries and territories with the highest and lowest life expectancy is 30%, 83 and 59 years respectively. By way of reference, the average worldwide is 73 years. The same is true within countries between different socioeconomic groups. In the United States of America, the difference in life expectancy for 40-year-old males in the 1% highest income bracket and the lowest income bracket was estimated at 15 years for the period 2001-2014, and at 10 years in the case of women.

Not only are economic, social and cultural rights affected, but also the ability of the most vulnerable to exercise their political and civil rights and use them as a lever to enjoy all their rights. In some cases, due to explicit and recurrent discrimination based on gender, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or other personal or community characteristics. In a broader sense, as a result of the reduction in agency due to precariousness, less access to education and information, greater accumulation of risks and decreased resilience.

So we see, inequality not only means being able to exercise fewer options, but also a shorter lifespan with probabilities of more diseases and hardships. It also makes it harder to take advantage of mechanisms for social mobility and thus means poverty is perpetuated for future generations.

Against a backdrop like this, we could be tempted to become demoralized and give up all efforts, especially if we add the challenges of climate change and the setbacks triggered by the COVID-19 crisis.

Unless we break with the dynamics that perpetuate and even exacerbate inequality, we will not succeed in tackling some of humanity's greatest challenges, including food systems transformation, climate change adaptation and mitigation, or the full incorporation of young people, who currently do not find sufficient opportunities or mechanisms giving them a voice in decision-making, into society.

Fortunately, we have the tools that can help us get ahead.

Information technologies and the bioeconomy have huge potential. However, they will not by themselves be able to produce the change we need, but rather they must act in service to society. Otherwise, inequality and risks will increase.

The set of transformations before us requires a profound review and strengthening of governance, both at the global level and in countries. It is about achieving broad and lasting consensus of which current governance mechanisms are not providing enough.

A redistribution of the roles of many of our institutions and responsibilities at the international, national and local levels is also required, in view of the interdependence and complexity that characterizes today's world.

The collective action needed to make agrifood systems sustainable and inclusive, and tackle climate change, can only work if each of us changes our behaviour. These mass behavioural changes will only be possible if there are incentives and trust in how the costs are shared, and if they are feasible for each person, household and community.

The challenges we face are interlinked: we will not be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals if we do not improve governance and reduce inequality. Human rights provide the framework to strengthen governance and reduce inequality for the sake of a prosperous and equitable humanity on a shared planet.