DURING the World Food Summit held in Rome ten years ago, representatives of 185 nations and the European community set a goal of cutting the number of hungry people by half by the year 2015. Although some countries have reduced hunger since then, the latest report from the Food and Agricultural Organization shows a setback in the overall war against hunger.
A new coalition against hunger will have the primary role of being a pathway of nonfood factors like livelihood opportunities, which should be at the base of each nation’s economic and trade policies. There is also an urgent proposal to generate more on farm and non-farm livelihood in the rural areas, with emphasis on a transition from unskilled to skilled jobs. A unique feature of the Alliance for Nutritional Security is its approach to the problems of hunger and malnutrition, which sees the availability of food as a function of production; in turn access to food is a function of purchasing power, and the quality of drinking water, environmental hygiene, health care, and education as influencing the absorption of food in the body. The sustainability of the food production process depends on such factors as soil health, ground water management, and crop rotation. Ultimately, however, the vulnerability to transient hunger caused by natural calamities cannot be avoided. Each country has its strengths and weaknesses in the matter of working towards freedom from hunger. The challenge lies in maximizing the strengths and removing the weaknesses on the basis of a food security balance sheet on the national level.
The success of eliminating endemic and transient hunger will depend upon a nation’s success in ending both unsustainable lifestyles and unacceptable poverty. With the help of the guidance of government, civil society organizations, and other social movements which have always been the last strongholds to ease the gnawing pangs of nutritional insecurity, the commitment, capacity, and legitimacy of the United Nations supported Alliance for Nutritional Security will allow the world to realize its vision of a hunger-free world.
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