FOOD_RIGHTS & DISCRIMINATION

Report TOWARDS FOOD SOVEREIGNTY FOOD RIGHTS AND DISCRIMINATIONS IN ASIA Dr. Ramanath Nayak Submitted to Programme for Campaigns & Advocacy ACTIONAID ASIA New Delhi TOWARDS FOOD SOVEREIGNTY FOOD RIGHTS AND DISCRIMINATIONS 1. UNDERSTANDING DISCRIMINATION/EXCLUSION VIS-À-VIS FOOD RIGHTS Discrimination knows no boundary. Whites discriminate with Blacks, Upper Castes with the Lowers and Dalits, men with women and both discriminate with the children, particularly with the girl children. Societies have been upholding, practicing and supporting this since time immemorial and have resisted those who opposed this. It is practiced differently in different cultures and could be based on gender, insideroutsider, able-disable, anything else. rich-poor, settled-migrant, weak-strong, or Some of the bases of discrimination normally we talk about are race, ethnicity, region, colour, sex, language, caste, creed, political opinion, occupation and place of birth. But it is essentially based on the principle of one being superior to other and hence this feeling of superiority or the authority motivates, encourages, and supports discrimination. It is essentially exclusivist in nature prohibiting the discriminated from enjoying equal rights, equal dignity and equal opportunity of fuller growth of human personality. Discrimination is not practiced within the confines of family or few communities or cultures, but it is pervading in Asia, Africa, Australia, Americas, Europe, and may be in Antarctica, too. Existence of discrimination is a threat to the advancement of human civilization and have potential of leaving a large number of people suffering from poverty, and malnutrition unattended and hence putting their physical, financial and food security unrealized. Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, caste, creed, work, descent, colour, sex, and place of birth are visible at home, work place, in the socio-economic and political access of wages, wealth, rights and 1 obligations. Certain sections of the people world over like the Dalits in South Asia, Burakumins of Japan, Bedouins of West Asia, Akhdams of Yemen, Aborigines of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, Blacks or people of African origin in Americas and world over and many more people in other parts of the world are discriminated by birth or no fault of theirs. Haris, Dalits, Musalmeens in Pakistan, Kamayyas in Nepal, Bandhua mazdoors (bonded labourers) in India, Quiloblolas in Latin America, Soin-khoons in Africa are few more to add this list of discriminated people of the world. These discriminated people suffer from a number of disabilities, which have historic roots, which world community has tried to address through a scores of international treaties, covenants, and commitments. Every country has taken steps to overcome institutionalised discrimination through scores of legislation, strategies and action-programmes. But it so encompassing and complex that unless every aspect socio-economic rights is addressed keeping this in view, it is unlikely that all human beings, particularly the discriminated, would enjoy them fully. Food security and right to food would be futile for discriminated people unless their socio-economic and political abilities-inabilities are not central to these commitments. Today there are more than 852 million people in the world without access to sufficient food (Sanchez, et al. 2005:19). They are chronically or acutely malnourished. Asia happened to be the home of largest number of such people. One cannot deny the fact that out of the total poor people majority are the minorities, indigenous, migrants, displaced, etc. The poor and hungry people are often facing the social and political exclusion. They are not in a position to demand their minimum rights to lead a humanly life. They are also the people who are unable to access education, health services and drinking water equally. 2 The right to food has been recognized as a valid and fundamental right of the individual, without which the political and economic rights and freedoms are meaningless. The hunger and malnutrition are painful realities today and Global food supplies have for many years been more than adequate to feed the world's population (Pinstrup-Andersen et al.). The problem is not at the levels of production and conservation of food but at the distribution end. The nation-states have miserably failed to serve their populations. Neither they respect, protect, and fulfill the right to food nor they are making any effort to meet minimum obligations ‘to the maximum of available resources’. In such a gloomy situation the non-state actors have huge responsibilities. Internationally, states and international organizations have been making efforts to cooperate in ‘joint and separate action’ to achieve the full realization of the right to food. They are putting enormous pressure on the governments to make them more accountable and sensitive towards the well being of the poorer sections. It is a general perception that the situation of the world would be different if food right were made a legal right of every individual, which have been the struggle of the international community for decades. “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms without distinction of any kind “such as race ... national or social origin, property, birth or other status” (article 1&2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). Like other forms of discrimination any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on work and descent which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impeding the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by all persons, on an equal footing, of all rights and freedoms contravenes the spirit and letter of international human rights law. 3 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognizes that all persons are entitled to the equal protection of the law “without any discrimination” (art. 26). The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination specifically prohibits discrimination based on “descent” which the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has interpreted to mean not solely race but tribal or caste distinctions as well (Goonesekere, 2001:3). The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes the right of everyone “to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or accepts” (article 6, para. 1). Discrimination based on work and descent is a long-standing practice in many societies throughout the world and affects a large portion of the world’s population. Discrimination based on descent manifests itself most notably in caste- (or tribe-) based distinctions. These distinctions, determined by birth, result in serious violations across the full spectrum of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. Likewise, the nature of a person’s work or occupation is often the reason for, or a result of, discrimination against the person. Persons who perform the least desirable jobs in a society are often victims of double discrimination, suffering first from the nature of the work they must perform and suffering again by the denial of their rights because they perform work that is unacceptable. In most cases, a person’s descent determines or is intimately connected with the type of work they are afforded in the society. Victims of discrimination based on descent are singled out, not because of a difference in physical appearance or race, but rather by their membership in an endogamous social group that has been isolated socially and occupationally from other groups in the society (Goonesekere, 2001:4). 4 1.1 Current Discourse on Discrimination and Food SecurityReview of Literature The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations (in its Article 25) recognizes that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food … and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control" (Pinstrup-Andersen et al.: 1). The Ontario Public Health Association defines Community food security (CFS) as a strategy for ensuring secure access to adequate amounts of safe, nutritious, culturally appropriate food for everyone, produced in an environmentally sustainable way, and provided in a manner that promotes human dignity (A position paper adopted by OPHA, November 2002:9). A basic principle of food security is defined as every individual’s right to food to support life and the need for optimal nutrition to prevent disease. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights further formalized the right to food as a basic human right. Article 11 of the covenant affirms “the State Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food"(Pinstrup-Andersen et al.: 1). The State Parties to the Covenant are needed a) To improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making full use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the principles of nutrition and by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources. 5 (b) Taking into account the problems of both food-importing and food-exporting countries, to ensure an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need. By the end of 1989, eighty-five states became the signatories of the covenant. A large number of international agencies have intervened through research on the causes of hunger and corresponding action to eradicate hunger and malnutrition. In 1974, the World Food Conference held by the United Nations in Rome produced a Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition that offered a vision of eliminating hunger within a decade. The governments at the conference described the causes of hunger as social inequalities, conflict, neocolonialism, and racial discrimination. They declared "that within a decade no child will go to bed hungry, that no family will fear for its next day's bread, and that no human being's future and capacities will be stunted by malnutrition” (ibid: 1). According to Katarina Tomasevski of the University of Utrecht, since 1920 more than 120 international declarations, conventions, and resolutions have addressed various issues related to the right to food. The 36 member states of the World Food Council met in Cairo in 1989 to review global hunger 15 years after the World Food Conference, assess effectiveness of current policies, and propose specific action in a Programme of Cooperative Action. The same year 24 advocates, planners, and scientists from 14 countries met in Bellagio (Italy) to set nutritional goals that included halving world hunger by the year 2000. The United Nations set similar goals at the World Summit for Children of 1990. The UN International Conference on Nutrition in 1992 also set forth a World Declaration and Plan of Action for Nutrition (ibid: 2). And in 2000, heads of 190 countries became the signatory of the much-acclaimed UN 6 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) declarations, which aims at halving the poverty by 2015. Besides poverty and hunger the MDGs addresses the issues like malnutrition, universal education, gender equality, maternal health and child mortality, diseases like HIV/AIDS, environment, etc. Besides the food summits, 1992 Earth Summit set targets for poverty reduction, health improvement, and improvement in child nutrition, and the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 named high child mortality, lack of health and sanitation, and inadequate mother's health and nutrition as essential components in a sustainable future. Declaring the discrimination based on work and descent as a form of discrimination prohibited by international human rights law, the SubCommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights entrusted Mr. Rajendra Kalidas Wimala Goonesekere with the task of preparing a working paper on the topic of discrimination based on work and descent, in order: a. To identify communities in which discrimination based on work and descent continues to be experienced in practice; b. To examine existing constitutional, legislative and administrative measures for the abolition of such discrimination; and c. To make any further concrete recommendations and proposals for the effective elimination of such discrimination as may be appropriate in the light of such examination. The working paper submitted by Mr. Goonesekere noted that: “The focus of this paper has been countries in Asia. At the time the resolution was discussed in the Sub-Commission it was mentioned that the problem was not limited to Asia alone and that it existed in some parts of Africa and perhaps in South America. The author has not been able to include in this paper 7 the situation in these other areas because of constraints of time and lack of access to relevant material” (Commission on Human Rights, 2004). For a critical understanding of Global hunger, both in theory and practice, academically as well as in policy-making, one has to understand the social facts of it. Amartya Sen’s proposition has prominently made the case against a Malthusian etiology of population growth and scarcity of food supply (Sen, 1981). The findings of his empirical study of famines propose that the problem of hunger is not one of food availability but a matter of unequal distribution (Thomas, 2001:575). The dismal reality that 36 million people die annually from malnutrition while there is enough food to nourish every human being has sparked a series of inquiries into the social, political and economic structures that generate hunger at the domestic as well as global level (<http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/hunger/2004/0330trade.htm>, [14 Dec. 2004]). In the field of peace and conflict studies, the famous concept of “structural violence” has been applied to describe a global economic system in which “people are starving while this is objectively avoidable” (Galtung, 1969:171). Within the study of international political economy, dependency theories have turned to underdevelopment as a product of world capitalism and a root cause of hunger, and in international relations theory, world-system scholars have brought these conditions into a relationship where, broadly speaking, “the relative prosperity of the few is dependent on the destitution of the many” (Germann: 4). The above interpretations are a challenge to the conventional interpretations of hunger as a naturally occurring and isolated phenomenon and theorize what they perceive as a morally unbearable human condition. Julian Germann turns to a human rights approach to 8 hunger, which emerged recently as a framework for policy-making, is fundamentally based on the realization of the human right to food as it is recognized under international law (<http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/3d02758c707031d58025 677f003b73b9?Opendocument>). The problem of hunger has to be defined in terms of a violation of a universal right, a human rights perspective. The ‘right to food’ discourse initiated by the 1996 World Food Summit can be understood best as a process of norm development that is centered on the definition and allocation of obligations. On the basis of this conceptualization, Germann seeks to analyze the different interpretations given by social actors of the ‘right to food’ norm and to provide an interpretation of the ideational structures underlying these conflicting positions. According to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) was the first time “Governments have come together to debate fully the meanings and content of the right to food” (UN Doc. A/59/385 (2004), Para. 32). The right to food has been codified in international law, most significantly in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which entered into force in 1976. These documents, together with a number of declarations, statements and programmes of action on international food policy, form the backbone of the human right approach to food, and are continuously referred to in the contemporary ‘right to food’ discourse. Despite their legally binding character, however, the right to food was not further elaborated on in the human rights system until the end of the 1970s and was only picked up by academic writers in the mid-1980s (Germann: 10). In this sense, the right to food 9 shares the position frequently attributed to other supposedly secondary economic, social and cultural rights in being insufficiently operationalized. FAO Council adopted the Voluntary Guidelines on 23 November 2004 when right to food became a policy issue. 1.2 Placing the Discriminated in the Centre of Discourse While explaining the basic causes of poverty, sociologists have increasingly focussed their attention on society as a whole and particularly on the stratification system, rather than studying the poor in isolation. “The description, analysis and explanation of poverty in any country must proceed within the context of general theory of stratification”, Peter Townsend stated. From this perspective the poor must be seen in terms of the stratification system as a whole. Questions about the nature and functioning of stratification systems are directly related to questions about poverty. Theories of stratification should provide theories of poverty since the poor are part of stratification systems-- the lower rung people (Haralambos & Heald, 1980:60-61). The Dalits of South Asia not only suffer from the oppression of economic exploitation but are also victims of social discrimination. These resourceless people generally depend on agricultural labour, unclean and unhygienic and other lowly paid professions. They continue to pursue traditional occupation and are generally unable to avail themselves of the new employment opportunities generated through various economic development programmes. They are caught up in a vicious circle in which they are dependent upon their exploiters for their sustenance and are largely denied opportunities to develop the capability of attaining an independent livelihood. The situation of other Socially Discriminated communities like the Burakumins in Japan, Blacks of America and Africa, Aboriginals, Bedouins of West Asia, Indigenous, Migrants, 10 Displaced, HIV/AIDS affected, and occupied are no way better than the Dalits of South Asia so far their occupation and food security is concerned. There is a linkage between the food rights and discrimination. In South Asia the socially vulnerable groups are economically vulnerable too. These sections of people lack regular employment and income. They mostly depend on the agriculture and agricultural labour. Due to the globalization and WTO policy on Agriculture, these sections are again discriminated. As they cannot secure regular employment for the entire year they lack purchasing power. Among them a substantial number of people are engaged in unclean and menial jobs. There is a relationship between the unclean profession and food security. Food insecurity compels them to opt for such profession. In this process they are not been able to come out from the vicious circle for generations. 2. DISCRIMINATIONS AND FOOD RIGHTS 2.1 The Discrimination and Food Rights: Concepts and Definitions Food security mainly relates with the production, distribution and pricing of food grains and thus brings agriculture, Public Distribution System (PDS) and the subsidy structure into focus. The right to food as a legal right at the international or country level is still not available, although it has since been asserted in many international documents. The quest for food security the avoidance of hunger and famine is as old as civil society itself. Adequate nutrition and food security are important outcomes of development: conversely, they are vital contributors to the development process. However, food security as a concept was initially seen in the 1970s mainly as a `food problem', particularly that of (a) ensuring production of adequate food supplies, and (b) maximizing 11 stability in their flow (Overseas Development Institute, 1997:2). That view led to a focus on international measures to reduce price variability and finance additional costs of exceptional imports, and to self-sufficiency strategies at a national level. In 1983, FAO expanded its concept to include a third prong, securing access by vulnerable people to available supplies, drawing a balance between the demand and supply side of the food security equation. The world food problem is not synonymous with the world hunger and food insecurity problem. Achieving longer-term food security is inextricably linked to overcoming other world crises of population, unemployment, debt, energy, environment and political security all problems with a significant national and local component that breed negatively on each other. The broader concept of food security is reflected in the World Food Summit definition: ‘food security, at the individual, household, national, regional and global levels [is achieved] when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life'. It recognized that poverty is ‘a major cause of food insecurity and [that] sustainable progress in poverty eradication is critical to improving access to food', but noted that ‘conflict, terrorism, corruption and environmental degradation also contribute significantly to food insecurity.' From the relatively straightforward concept of ‘food self-sufficiency’, a counter-intuitive view of development has thus emerged, based on the premise that those who are short of food will only be able to obtain it in the longer run if they can pay for it, leading to the concept of ‘food self-reliance’. This view has highlighted the importance of employment and markets; it also underscores the need for safety nets and market protection for the unemployed and other vulnerable groups. However, some forms of protection such as general consumer subsidies have sometimes disrupted the functioning of markets and undermined comparative 12 advantage, leading to the call for market liberalization. The complex chain of causality goes on, leading back to food insecurity. 2.2 What Is the Right to Food? A secure food system is to come from a stable, technology-enhanced food industry, lowering of farm risks, high production levels, support for value-added food products, open markets, and increased global free trade with strong trade rules and global cooperation. Low food prices and food banks make most citizens food secure. The international declarations asserting the right to food do not imply that states shall be responsible for directly fulfilling individuals' need for and right to food. Rather, the state is obligated to facilitate individual efforts to meet food needs by creating an economic, political, and social environment that will allow its entire people to achieve food security. Hunger and malnutrition are caused not just by a lack of economic activity, but also by poverty, income disparities, and lack of access to health care, education, clean water, and sanitary living conditions. It is the obligation of the state to redress these problems. Only when individuals do not have the capacity to meet their food needs for reasons beyond their control, such as age, handicap, economic downturn, famine, disaster, or discrimination, does the right to food imply that the state must physically provide food (Pinstrup-Andersen et al.: 1). Since the first declarations, the world has made significant progress in reducing the incidence of malnutrition and increasing global food security. Energy, protein, and micronutrient deficiencies have declined significantly. Early warning systems and well-managed humanitarian assistance have averted deaths from famine due to natural disaster. East Asia cut its number of food-insecure people by 50 percent in two decades. The factors that contribute to food security are today much 13 better understood, and it is now possible to define concrete goals along the way to achieving nutritional security or freedom from hunger at the country level. Freeing the world from hunger, however, is still very much an unrealised dream (ibid: 1). 2.3 Determinants of Poverty/Hunger2.3.1 HOW DISCRIMINATION AGGRAVATES FOOD INSECURITY? Hunger is one piece of a complex of interrelated social ills. It is linked intricately to global economic, political, and social power structures; modes of development and consumption; population dynamics, and social biases based on race, ethnicity, gender, and age. The major factors of poverty/hunger are as follows (Cohen and Reeves, 1995:4): (1) Poverty and Powerlessness- One of the main causes of hunger is poverty--lack of purchasing power and access to resources. Worldwide, 1.3 billion people live on less than US$1 per day. Nearly one-third of the people in developing countries are poor; the figure rises to 70 to 80 percent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa. Poverty is linked not only with poor national economic performance but also with an unequal distribution of income and a political structure that renders poor people powerless, whether in a democracy or a dictatorship. (2) Population, Consumption, and the Environment- The world's population is growing very fast, which is expected to about 8 billion by 2020 from its current 5.5 billion. More than 93 percent of this increase will occur in lower-income countries. Debate is ongoing over whether the earth can support its growing population without severe ecological damage. Even if the world's population stabilizes by the mid-21st century, food production will have to double. Pessimists see this requirement as beyond the planet's "carrying capacity." But optimists 14 expect continued innovations, such as the recent breakthrough in rice breeding, to meet this demand. Globally, incomes and consumption differ starkly. Twenty percent of the world's population--mostly in industrial countries--receives 85 percent of the world's income and accounts for 80 percent of consumption, producing two-thirds of all greenhouse gases and 90 percent of ozonedepleting chlorofluorocarbons. This level of consumption is not sustainable at the global level. If the current global population lived as the richest 20 percent do, consumption of energy would increase 10 times and minerals 200 times. Fresh water, land, forests, and fisheries are today being used at or beyond capacity. In the competition for resources, poor and hungry people, lacking economic and political clout, become even more marginalized. Especially in countries where landholdings are inequitable, poor families are forced to move onto fragile land and often to overcrowded cities. (3) Violence and Militarism- New and continuing civil strife are the source of severe human disasters in Afghanistan, Burma, Mozambique, Nagorno-Karabakh, Rwanda, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, and elsewhere. Most victims of these conflicts are innocent civilians, not combatants. A study by Frances Stewart found that in 14 of 16 developing countries at war since 1970, per capita food consumption dropped, by more than 15 percent in 6 of them. War slows or stops food production and marketing. Food supplies are plundered and used as instruments of war, crop cycles are interrupted, seeds and breeding livestock are consumed in desperation, and children suffer permanent damage as a result of insufficient food. 15 Even if fighting never occurs, heavy military spending drains resources away from food production, education, and health care. Global military spending declined from its peak of $1 trillion in 1987 to an estimated $767 billion (still more than the total income of the poorest 45 percent of the world's population) in 1994. Some of the savings have shifted to national social programs, but none have gone to international development assistance. Developing countries spend $125 billion per year on military forces. One-quarter of this would provide primary health care for all their citizens, reduce adult literacy by half, and provide family planning to all willing couples. (4) Caste, Racism and Ethnocentrism- Racial discrimination and competition between ethnic groups have caused hunger, malnutrition, and resource deprivation for black populations in South Africa and the Americas, Indians in Latin America, Dalits in India, Kurds in Iraq, and Tamils in Sri Lanka, to name just a few. In Sudan, discrimination against the black Christian and animist south by the predominantly Arab Muslim north has locked the country in civil war for decades. Both sides use food as a weapon, and malnutrition rates are the highest ever documented--80 percent in some areas. In recent years, 1.3 million people have died from famine and disease. In 1994, the United Nations estimated that 2.5 million Sudanese required food aid. Between 1980 and 1991, per capita food production in the south declined by 29 percent. While the problems are immense and complicated, some countries have triumphed over racial differences. Zimbabwe has achieved social integration without substantial racial strife, offering a model for achieving multiracial democracy and reduced hunger in nearby South Africa. 16 (5) Gender Discrimination- Because women bear and nourish children, they have special nutritional needs. Yet women of every age have disproportionately higher rates of malnutrition than men and are over represented among poor, illiterate, and displaced people. Malnutrition among mothers also has a negative effect on the growth of children. Almost universally women work longer hours than men and carry primary responsibility for household chores even when working outside the home. Women's wage rates are nearly universally lower than those for men (on average, 30 to 40 percent lower), even for equivalent work. Women's needs and rights are receiving greater weight in development efforts, but there is still a long way to go before women and men around the world have equal economic, social, and political opportunities. (6) Vulnerability of Children and Elderly People - The effects of childhood malnutrition last a lifetime, and even into succeeding generations. Malnutrition is a factor in one-third of the 13 million annual deaths of children under five years old. The number of malnourished children under five in the developing world rose from 168 million in 1975 to 184 million in 1990, but fell as a share of all developing-country children from 42 to 34 percent. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies are less easily noticed, but they can severely retard the growth and mental development of children. The 1990 World Summit for Children pledged to halve malnutrition among children under five by the year 2000. Progress is uneven, but generally encouraging. Elderly people are disproportionately vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition in both industrial and developing countries. Elderly populations are growing everywhere as people live longer, and with changing lifestyles and family structures, the elderly in many countries are receiving less care from the family. Strategies to care for the increasing number of aged over the next 25 years need to be developed. 17 2.3.2 Socio-Economic & Political Discrimination and Food Security Various socio-economic factors and the functioning of markets determine access to food and nutrition. It is believed that the biggest challenge throughout the developing world is to reduce the differences in access to food across geographical areas and social strata. If the poor find it difficult to produce or purchase enough food, the lack of functioning markets makes it doubly difficult. Access to food is also limited by inefficient markets that are unable to supply sufficient quantities of seasonal food in response to demand throughout the year. These market failures exacerbate fluctuations in the price of food and affordability of food for the poor (Sanchez, 2005:23). Socio-political conditions affect malnutrition through inequality and exclusionary practices that dis-empower groups such as women, children (particularly girls), and ethnic minorities in many countries. Social exclusion results in deprivation not just in food but also in a wide range of basic services, including education and health. Box below presents the classic case of Inequality and Hunger in Guatemala (Box 1.1). Various factors, as mentioned in Guatemala, have led to a vicious circle of poverty, deforestation, land degradation, and malnutrition. Rural families have had to develop coping strategies, which in many cases have allowed them to overcome food insecurity. But environmental, economic, and other forces are undermining these strategies, particularly in areas susceptible to drought, foods, and, recently, armed conflict. In South Asian countries the slum-dwellers and the socially low people are the victims of the caste and communal riots, which again push them to economic vulnerability. 18 Box 1.1 INEQUALITY AND HUNGER IN GUATEMALA Guatemala has one of the highest rates of under-nourishment and underweight children in Latin America. The high level of inequality found within the country is directly related to food insecurity. Conditions affecting Guatemala include:  Of Guatemala’s population, 20 percent is rich and 80 percent is poor.  Less than 3 percent of the population owns 65 percent of the land.  The indigenous population accounts for about 60 percent of the total.  The rural population represents 60 percent of the total.  The agricultural sector accounts for 25 percent of GDP.  International commodity price fluctuations and the shift in commodities produced have mainly affected poor peasants employed as day laborers.  Mechanized techniques used in sugarcane harvesting have reduced the need for workers.  Nearly all the land redistributed under land tenure reform has been returned to its former owners, the large landholders.  • Small-scale farmers tend to grow crops that deplete the natural resource base with few resources to fertilize the land.  The diet of the rural population lacks variety and micronutrients, and consists mainly of staple grains.  Women in the high plateau regions expend 700 calories each day, or a third of their total calorie intake, fetching water and performing other household chores. Source: Gallardo 2001, quoted in ibid: 24. At the intra-household level, data from South Asia demonstrates that when there is discrimination in food intake between boys and girls, it is largely in favour of boys. The inequalities in food intake for infants in South Asia reflect cultural values and the different wages commanded by male and female adults in the labour market. This type of gender-specific exclusion from food consumption does not occur as frequently in SubSaharan Africa, in part because women are household heads in a larger proportion of households. But different forms of social and political exclusion in the region can have similarly negative impacts on food security and nutritional status (Haddad et al., 1996). 19 There is a close relationship between malnutrition and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Good nutrition is seen as an essential complement to the use of antiretroviral drugs to slow the progression of HIV into full-blown AIDS (Kadiyala and Gillespie 2003). Undernourished people infected with HIV/AIDS develop the full symptoms of the disease more quickly than people who are well fed. People suffering from the disease need good nutrition to fight it off. Yet one of the earliest effects of AIDS is reduced consumption of food in affected households (Drimie and Mullins, 2005). HIV/AIDS has an especially devastating effect on smallholder agriculture, which remains the engine of economic development for the poor in many developing countries. A study in Zambia found that 67 percent of extension workers interviewed had lost at least one coworker to AIDS over a three-year period (Alleyne, Kapungwe, and Kamona 2001). HIV/AIDS interacts with famines in a catastrophic fashion. In the past, mortality from famines tended to be highest among the elderly, the very young, the sick, and the weak. AIDS-related famines increasingly affect young adults and more able-bodied members of society. This trend is directly affecting to those left behindthe children and the elderly. The full impact of such social disasters is still to be felt, but some societies are already showing signs of collapse and inability to cope. The political, social and economic instabilities cause major food insecurity among the poorest among the poor. Since the lower rung people are not even able to ensure the next meal in the normal situation, they are the vulnerable groups in case of such instabilities. The other causes of the major food insecurities are the natural calamities and disasters. It was found that whenever any kind of calamity takes place the poor and the marginal sections are the worst victims. And the treatment shown to the Tsunami affected Dalits in South India was the 20 true picturisation of the so-called Secular India. The report of The Indian Express (New Delhi, dated 7th January 2005) exposed the act of relief work carried out by the voluntary agencies and government. Despite the direct involvement of government, civil societies and international bodies like UNICEF in the relief work the Dalits are denied the facilities. Dalits are thrown out of relief camps, denied food, water and toilet facilities and the government/public institutions were also closed for them to take shelter. Even after more than five decades of India’s independence and about fifty years of declaration of Universal Human Rights, certain sections of the society are not treated as human beings. And the government and other human rights groups have always hidden the fact of caste/tribe discrimination in the country. In the light of media reports about incidents of denial of relief to Dalits in the wake of the tsunami disaster, it is realized that they have been doubly hit by the disaster. Such caste-/community-based discrimination in disbursing the relief materials during the Super Cyclone, Orissa and Earth-quake of Gujarat exposed the authorities involved in this act. 2.3.3 The Social and Economic Costs of Hunger- Malnutrition and Poor Nutrition The children are the first and the worst victims of acute malnutrition caused by extreme shocks such as natural calamities, communal riots, famines and war. Acute malnutrition affects roughly 1 in 10 of the hungry worldwide. Generally, most of the hungry suffer from chronic malnutrition. It is estimated that chronic malnutritionranging from severe, through moderate, to mildis linked to 54 percent of child deaths worldwide, while acute malnutrition on its own accounts for roughly 10 percent (Pelletier and others 1995; UN SCN 2004). Most child deaths 21 linked to malnutrition are thus associated with its less visually dramatic manifestations. Malnutrition and hunger are the number one risk factor for illness worldwide (WHO 2003b). For both children and adults, malnutrition reduces the bodys natural defenses against most diseases. It is thus a critical factor predisposing people to infection and disease progression. Inadequate food consumption and malnutrition account for 7 of the 13 leading risk factors associated with the global burden of disease (WHO 2003b). Nutrition thus provides a broad platform for launching efforts to reduce infection and chronic disease throughout the world. Undernourishment in childhood is also associated with poor cognitive development in children (Grantham-McGregor, Fernald, and Sethuraman 1999:53-99). It has been shown that reduced cognitive development, especially in the first two years of life, results in lower productivity and lifetime earnings potential (FAO 2003). Hunger carries both direct and indirect economic costs. Its negative impact is dramatic in forgone GDP per capita. For labor productivity alone, the annual losses are at least 6– 10 percent. Gains in productivity of this magnitude would be headline news in any country—but they would be especially good news in developing countries seeking to compete in the global economy. Iron deficiency alone accounts for between 2 percent and 7 percent of forgone GDP in the 10 developing countries with good estimates (Horton and Ross, 2003:51-75). The impacts of hunger on an individual’s labor productivity are determined early in life. Malnourished infants tend to enter primary school later and to drop out earlier. When in school, they tend to be less able to learn than better-nourished 22 children. The Copenhagen Consensus, a project of the Danish Institute of Environmental Assessment, identified investment in supplying micronutrients as the second most cost-effective of all the potential development interventions included in its study, behind only a successful effort to tackle HIV/AIDS (Copenhagen Consensus 2004). Addressing child malnutrition also came in the top 10 “winners” in cost-benefit ratios. In the first “challenge paper” to emerge from the work of the Copenhagen Consensus, the preliminary results show that the economic benefits of reducing hunger consistently outweigh the costs. In a study for the FAO, Arcand (2001) demonstrated that, if developing countries had raised nutritional standards to adequate levels in the last half of the twentieth century, they would have improved human welfare and raised the rate of economic growth. They suggest that it may be possible, especially in low-income countries, to induce increases in GDP growth rates by giving priority to investments reducing hunger (Sanchez, 2005:31-2). Economic growth is usually necessary for sustained reductions in hunger; it is not enough to eliminate hunger. Some developing countries, such as India, have achieved high economic growth rates without commensurate reductions in the incidence of hunger. Others have cut hunger even when their growth has been sluggish, such as Cuba. A study by Anand and Ravallion (1993)—cited by Smith and Haddad (2000)—concluded that average income matters, but only insofar as it reduces poverty and finances key social services (ibid: 32). 3. MAPPING OUT THE AREAS OF DISCRIMINATION AND GEOGRAPHY OF HUNGER 3.1 Who are the Hungry? 23 The incidence of poverty in Asia, especially South Asian countries, is high and apparently growing in relative, as well as absolute, terms. These are the countries where the discrimination based on caste and ethnicity is also rampant. So there is a close relationship between the areas of discrimination and geography of hunger. The 2001 Human Development Report ranked Nepal as 13th from the bottom of a list of 90 developing countries, and almost 38% of the population falls below the ‘dollar a day‘ poverty threshold (UNDP 2001). Participatory poverty assessments among rural communities across the developing world tend to identify poverty as the most basic cause of food insecurity. In a relatively large-scale study in Nepal, the three most-cited indicators of food security were access to land (taking land quality into account), livestock ownership and having skilled labour (Adhikari and Bohle 1999; quoted by Gill. References are available at http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/working_papers/wp231/wp231_refe rences.pdf). Government’s assessment is that the principal groups of poor people are subsistence farmers, those of ‘occupational’ (i.e. the lowest) castes, Dalits (oppressed groups), tribal communities and femaleheaded households (Gill: 7). The WFP has established that the following variables ‘explain’ the poverty and food security status of households: (i) literacy of the household head, (ii) proportion of household members who are able-bodied, (iii) land ownership, (iv) access to irrigation, (v) tenancy status, (vi) ownership of draught animals, (vii) ownership of other animals, (viii) bonded labour households, and (ix) access to improved drinking water. The same study established the caste differentiation among communities; members of occupational and disadvantaged castes were commonly included among the most food insecure. When remote areas were compared with accessible ones, the former were regarded as the more food insecure (Gill: pp.3-4). 24 Those who are susceptible to nutritional insecurity are the women, particularly pregnant and lactating women. The women who look after the kitchen are very commonly food-insecure, because they eat at the end and sometimes the leftovers. They do not receive enough food to cover their additional nutritional needs. The situation is critical during the lean or hungry seasons. Iron Deficiency Anaemia (IDA) is by far the most common nutritional problem in developing countries and the women and girls are particularly susceptible to it. In 1998, the overall prevalence of anaemia in Nepal among women of reproductive age was 68%, and the rates among pregnant women even higher (UNICEF 2003). Gender inequality is one of main areas and sources of discrimination. Women of all age groups have disproportionately higher rates of malnutrition than men and are over represented among poor, illiterate, and displaced people. Malnutrition among mothers has a direct negative effect on the growth of children. Though women work longer hours than men and carry primary responsibility for household chores, the wage they get are 30 to 40 percent lower than those for men. Children and elderly people are the most vulnerable groups affected by poverty, hunger and malnutrition. The number of malnourished children under five in the developing world rose from 168 million in 1975 to 184 million in 1990. Elderly people are disproportionately vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition in both industrial and developing countries. Elderly populations are growing everywhere as the life expectancy of people have gone high, and with changing lifestyles and family structures, the elderly in many countries are receiving less care from the family. HIV/AIDS is posing a major threat to the developing countries. They are discriminated everywhere. HIV/AIDS 25 infection severely limits the capacity of people to work, with long-lasting damage to rural societies. When the infection is passed from mother to child, it can leave a new generation weak and without parental care. When children are orphaned, the normal flow of practical farming knowledge from one generation to another is inhibited. The labour available for agriculture and other means of earning a living is dramatically reduced, leading to a decline in production. Women, who often assume the major burden of care for the sick and perform agricultural and other tasks, are severely affected and disadvantaged. Women who have lost their husbands due to AIDS may be unable to inherit land and other assets. Casteism, Racism and Ethnocentrism have caused hunger, malnutrition, and resource deprivation for the discriminated populations in worldwide. In many countries, discrimination against one section by another has locked the countries in civil war for decades. Both sides use food as a weapon, and malnutrition rates are the highest ever documented in some areas. In recent years million people have died from famine and disease. In 1994, the United Nations estimated that 2.5 million Sudanese required food aid. 3.2 The Geography of Hunger Asia, particularly the South Asian countries, is the hub of discrimination. Poverty and hunger too is synonymous with these regions. Caste and ethnic problem supposed to be one of the major reasons of underdevelopment and food insecurity. Nepal afflicted by the caste issue and political turmoil, faces acute food insecurity, where the children are major victims of it. More than a third of Nepalese children are born with low birth-weight, i.e. below 2.5 kg, primarily a result of the mother’s poor health and nutritional status, with most pregnant women being malnourished and anaemic. Half of all young children in Nepal are 26 chronically malnourished, suffering from both low food intake and lack of essential micronutrients in the diet. The number of undernourished people in developing countries fell from 942 million in 1970 to 786 million in 1990 and from 36 percent to 20 percent of the population (Figure 1). The disproportionately poorest in and Africa. most The food-insecure largest number of people are chronically undernourished people lives in the Asia-Pacific region, although the number dropped from 762 million in 1970 to 540 million in 1990 (from 40 to 20 percent of the population). However, hunger remains especially severe in South Asia. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of hungry people rose from 94 million in 1970 to 175 million in 1990. Growing poverty, debt, economic decline, poor terms of trade, rapid population growth, unfavorable weather, war, unequal distribution and governmental collapse have all contributed to the continent's food problems. In the United States, there is relatively high prevalence of hunger and food insecurity in certain states, where the Black population is high. But hunger in wealthy nations is neither as severe nor as widespread as in developing countries (Cohen and Reeves, 1995: 4). In India there is a close relationship between the caste and class. The lower caste people belong to lower class. They are very much discriminated in terms of accessing the power and position. These discriminated groups geographically isolated. are not only isolated socially but also About 79 percent of the total poor people in India are from 5 states- Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The Dalits or the SCs and the STs constitute majority in these states. Though there are no studies to substantiate the fact that the poor people are the discriminated or lower caste. But it is a fact. The Planning Commission has constituted a special cell for the KalahandiBalangir-Koraput (KBK) districts of Orissa, where the Dalits constitute more than 50 percent. 27 The persistence of hunger in a world of plenty is the most profound moral contradiction of our age. Nearly 800 million people in the developing world (20 percent of the total population) are chronically undernourished. At least 2 billion suffer from vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Yet since the mid-1970s the world has produced enough food to provide everyone with a minimally adequate diet. Serious hunger persists in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where the prevalence of human malnutrition remains high: 34 percent in Africa and 23 percent in South Asia. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the total number of hungry people climbs each year. Improved global governance is not an efficient answer to the distinctive problems of these two regions, in part because of their relatively weak connections to the international markets 28 and private investment flows that define modern globalization. Food markets within South Asia are significantly disconnected from global food markets, often as a matter of national policy. In pursuit of “selfsufficiency” the South Asian nations have restricted trade so much that imports now satisfy only about 2 percent of their total grain consumption. Flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) into South Asia have traditionally been restricted as well, so in 1998 they were still only 5 percent as large as FDI flows into Latin America and the Caribbean. The modern forces of globalization remain surprisingly weak. Stronger international governance of global markets and investments is therefore unlikely to have a great impact on hunger in these regions. Global governance in the area of international agricultural research is also quite well developed, through the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The research centers of the CGIAR have been operating for several decades now to generate scientific and technical innovations usable by poor farmers in developing countries. At the international level, this system has a strong record of performance; unfortunately, the national agricultural research systems (NARS) of many poor countries have not been supported or funded adequately by their own governments to function as capable partners of the CGIAR centres (Paarlberg, 2002:1). 4. COMMITMENTS AND INTERVENTIONS 4.1 Role of State, Civil Societies and International Bodies to Deal with Discrimination and Food Insecurity The Intergovernmental Working Group IGWG, composed of UN and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) member states and other stakeholders including non-governmental and civil society organizations, 29 as a subsidiary body of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) was entrusted with the task to “elaborate a set of voluntary guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security” (<http://www.fao.org/news room/en/news/2004/51653/index.html>, [8 December 2004]) However, even after three sessions (ended on 10 July 2004) it could not reach to a consensus on the Voluntary Guidelines. The Voluntary Guidelines were adopted by the FAO Council on 23 November 2004 (<http://www.fian.org/fian/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=82 >, [4 December 2004]), the deliberations have been commented by the participating NGO/CSOs as “no masterpiece of political will” (<http://www.foodgrainsbank.ca/downloads/no_materpiece_of_political_ will.pdf>, [8 December 2004]) and met with disappointment by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food in his recent report to the General Assembly (UN Doc. A/59/385 (2004), para 27). From the beginning the Voluntary Guidelines was fraught with controversy over “responsibilities related to international trade and assistance” (UN Doc. A/59/385 (2004), para 29). A final agreement could only be reached through the inclusion of a section on the “international dimension of the right to food” (<http://www.ichrdd.ca/english/commdoc/publications/globalization/Fo od/foodRightReportOct2003. html#oblig>, [4 December 2004]). In this regard USA issued a statement, which states that, in its view, “the attainment of any ‘right to adequate food’ or ‘fundamental freedom to be free from hunger’ is a goal or aspiration […] that does not give rise to any international obligations […]” (“Statement by the United States”, 23 September 2004, FAO Doc. CL 127/10-Sup.1, annex 2). 30 4.2 A Partnership Role for NGOs When national governments—or donors—fail to provide basic public goods, is it possible for NGOs to step in to do the job? In the area of rural poverty reduction and food security, NGOs work best when they are partnering with governments, rather than trying to replace them. If governments are willing to invest in rural infrastructure, can NGOs provide essential help mobilizing local participation in both the planning and construction phases of rural road, water, or power projects? Local participation is, usually, key to ensuring affordable maintenance and successful management of public goods, through a greater sense of local ownership. NGO participation can also help governments target their public investments more effectively toward the poor. But in most cases both the financial resources and the authority to act will have to come from the public sector. NGOs are good at many things, but they have not yet demonstrated an ability to keep or restore peace in divided societies, and they have not been able, on their own, to establish the rule of law or make significant investments in infrastructure and research. It was national governments and donors, not NGOs that provided most of the essential public goods that are now making rapid hunger reduction possible in East Asia (Paarlber, 2002:2). All the rights and freedom of individual become meaningless if the right to food is not recognized as a fundamental right. It is a fact that the hunger and malnutrition are painful realities today. But Global food supplies have for many years been more than adequate to feed the world's population. The problem can be sorted out if distribution of food is given equal importance like the production and conservation of food. The Governments of the countries world over failed to serve their citizens. The right to food are unprotected and unfulfilled and there is no effort to meet minimum obligations ‘to the maximum of available resources’. The 31 non-state actors can very well fill the vacuum. International organizations are required to put constant pressure on the governments to make them more accountable and sensitive towards the well being of the poorer sections. Efforts should be made to make the food right a legal right for every individual. The international community has for decades struggled over creating a right to food for the individual, and over defining it in legally enforceable terms. More than hundred international declarations, conventions, and resolutions since the beginning of the early twentieth century have been addressing various issues relating to right to food. The World Food Council met at Cairo in 1989 to assess effectiveness of current policies, and propose specific action in a Programme of Cooperative Action, besides reviewing global hunger after the World Food Conference of 1974. The experts from various background met in Bellagio (Italy) to set nutritional goals that included halving world hunger by the year 2000. The United Nations set similar goals at the World Summit for Children of 1990. The UN International Conference on Nutrition in 1992 also set forth a World Declaration and Plan of Action for Nutrition. And the current international commitment is to achieve the 8 goals, popularly known as UN Millennium Development Goals, by the year 2015. Most major global conventions, even when not directly addressing food and nutrition, have touched on this right. The 1992 Earth Summit set targets for poverty reduction, health improvement, and improvement in child nutrition as essential components in a sustainable future. The International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 named high child mortality, lack of health and sanitation, and inadequate mother's health and nutrition as major problems in the population debate. 32 The food insecurity has direct link with the employment and occupation. The International Labour Organization Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) calls on States to “eliminate discrimination based on race ... national extraction or social origin”, in the matter of employment or occupation. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Convention against Discrimination in Education of 1960 asserts the principle of nondiscrimination in education based on “race … national or social origin, economic condition or birth”. World society is striving to reduce the incidence of malnutrition and increasing global food insecurity. Development of advanced communication system and well-managed humanitarian assistance has averted deaths due to natural disasters. The food security is better understood today. It is no more a hard task to achieve nutritional security or freedom from hunger at the country level. Freeing the world from hunger, however, is still very much an unrealised dream. Of late, the international community has set more modest, specific targets on nutrition. These targets focus on (1) reducing vitamin and mineral deficiencies, (2) reducing malnutrition among women and children, (3) diminishing hunger in the poorest households, and (4) eliminating deaths from famine. These new goals, such as halving world hunger by the year 2000, are still unlikely to be attained. And each convention or declaration is extending the year of achieving the target, by the time the underlying determinants are also getting powerful. The world’s political leaders have repeatedly committed to ending hunger, but so far have fallen short of achieving this goal. As a quantitative, time-bound goal—first adopted by the World Food Summit (1996), reiterated at the Millennium Summit (2000), and reaffirmed at the World Food Summit five years later (2002) and the World Summit on 33 Sustainable Development (2002)—the hunger Goal enjoys unprecedented global political endorsement. The World Food Summit of 1996 outlined a comprehensive Plan of Action to halve hunger by 2015 and established a system for monitoring progress by the FAO Committee on World Food Security. In addition, the Monterrey Consensus of 2002 promised increased. Financing for development by both donor countries and developing country governments. In 2003 the FAO’s Anti-Hunger Programme identified priority actions to reach the hunger Goal through investments in agriculture and rural development to enhance direct and immediate access to food for the most seriously undernourished (FAO 2002a). Focusing on small farmers, the Anti-Hunger Programme aims to create more opportunities for rural people, representing 70 percent of the poor, to improve their livelihoods on a sustainable basis. This was followed by the 2003 Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa, which recommitted participants to increase their investments in agriculture and rural development and called for expanded official development assistance and debt relief (African Union Assembly 2003). 4.3 International Trade in Food and Agriculture and Food Security Though there are efforts from the international agencies to make the world a hunger free world. But they are succumbing to the pressure of the developed countries and the international trade organizations like WTO. The poor and helpless are given the hope in one hand and snatched in another hand. The fate of the poor and developing countries are in the hands of the developed countries. In the name of global society/village the powerful few rule world market and take the decision in their own interests. And the majorities even do not have their right to 34 shape their own future. WTO is dictating the developing countries to scrap the subsidy in the agriculture and social sector. At the 5th Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Cancun the G-20 and -33 countries succeeded in impacting the negotiating process by taking strong positions against the EU and the US. The post Cancun developments, particularly the emergence of the Five Interested Parties (FIPs) and the so-called consensus text of the July Framework have been a huge setback. The presence of the Brazil and India in a closed group like the FIPs that took decisions for the rest of the world was unacceptable. But the very fact that G-20 has continued to exist despite external pressures from the trade majors, on the one hand, and internal diverging tendencies, on the other, was a positive development. The G-20 and G-33 groups Meeting in March 2005 in New Delhi was an important milestone in the run-up to the 6th Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Hong Kong (December 13-18,2005). Decisions taken at this Ministerial meeting of key developing countries have the potential to impact billions of people in the third world who depend on agriculture for their livelihood. The process of integrating the third world agriculture with the world agriculture market is proving disastrous for poor and vulnerable peasantry. Thousands of farmers, many of them among the world’s poorest people, have lost their livelihoods as a result .The WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is biased in favour of temperate-zone, large-scale, capital-intensive, exportoriented, agribusiness-centered, peasant-insensitive and mass- livelihood-threatening agriculture. The working of the AoA over the last few years has demonstrated this amply. The G-20 required to take a clear position questioning this paradigm of AoA. Unless this is done, the negotiating process will only result in minor and sectional gains at the cost of the very survival of the overwhelming peasantry of the third 35 world. It is therefore crucial that negotiating positions must be fully geared to the protection of the livelihoods of the masses of peasantry and safeguarding peoples’ food sovereignty. The Ministerial meeting of the G-20 and G-33 in New Delhi offers an important opportunity for representatives of the agrarian communities, social movements and other civil society groups in India to deliberate and explore the possibility of putting forward a set of concrete proposals to the G-20 and G-33 in the context of the process leading to the Hong Kong Ministerial meeting. Despite impressive gains in food production in recent decades, India is the home of a large number of chronically undernourished children, women, and men. A recent analysis of the reasons for food insecurity in rural and urban India identified inadequate purchasing power as the primary cause of under and malnutrition. This can be attributed to inadequate employment and livelihood opportunities arising from high population pressures on land and the slow growth rates of nonfarm employment opportunities. Despite the social support programs like Employment Guarantee Scheme, the incidence of both endemic and hidden hunger remains high. To meet the national goal of significantly reducing hunger by August 15, 2007, a National Food Security Summit, held in New Delhi in February 2004, proposed the following seven-point action plan (Swaminathan, 2004): • Develop integrated life-cycle nutrition programs and increase programs targeting adolescent girls, pregnant women, and children from ages 0–2. • Expand the use of community grain banks based on local grains (millets, pulses, and so on) to improve food security at the local level. 36 • Establish a food guarantee program combining the principles of employment guarantee and food-for-work programs. Engender the foodfor-work program to expand women’s employment opportunities. • Sustain, strengthen, and spread self-help groups by ensuring backward linkages with technology and credit and forward linkages with markets. • Enhance the productivity of cropping and farming systems through packages of technology, services, and public policies. • Promote a food-based approach to nutrition security through widespread cultivation and consumption of vegetables, fruits, millets, legumes, and tubers and by strengthening integrated production systems of crops, livestock, and fish. • Ensure access to clean drinking water, environmental hygiene, primary health care, and elementary education. 5. TOWARDS FOOD SOVEREIGNTY The world community has adequate knowledge and resources to eliminate hunger. Putting these tools to work requires us to ground our choices- small and large, individual and collective, political and economic- in ethical values, including empowerment and justice, stewardship of common resources for the common good, and affirmation of diversity. The world community has made significant progress in reducing the incidence of malnutrition and increasing global food security. Energy, protein, and micronutrient deficiencies have declined significantly. Early warning systems and well-managed humanitarian assistance have averted deaths from famine due to natural disaster. East Asia cut its number of food-insecure people by 50 percent in two decades. The factors that contribute to food security are today much better understood, and it is now possible to define concrete goals along the way 37 to achieving nutritional security or freedom from hunger at the country level. Freeing the world from hunger, however, is still very much an unrealised dream. The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), such as halving world hunger by the year 2015, are still unlikely to be attained if the discrimination on the ground of social strata, gender, ethnicity, race, etc. is not taken into account in the distribution of food. There is the need of strong political will to make policies that fight hunger and favour a more equitable distribution of income a top government priority. Popular movements and government policies in Brazil, Zimbabwe, and Kerala (India) was successful to end hunger to certain extent. In South Korea the government enacted public policies that fostered economic growth accompanied by decreasing income inequality. To achieve the food security its social or environmental factors should be taken into account and food should not be perceived only as a commodity, or a source of nutrients for the body, or only a means of alleviating hunger. A more localized food system is more environmentally sustainable, helps build communities and enhances the local economy. Thinking globally and acting locally has its limits in case of food security. Despite globalization, most hunger today is still highly localized and locally generated. Local problems such as poor rural infrastructure, little access to health services or education, gender or ethnic or caste discrimination, landlessness, governmental weakness or corruption, and violent internal conflict, are problems difficult to address at the global level. Most of these local problems must be corrected through improved governmental performance at the national level, one state at a time. So for the purpose of improving food security today, our first governance motto should be “think locally, then act nationally.” 38 Despite the commitment of the world’s political leaders to ending hunger, the hunger Goal enjoys unprecedented global political endorsement. The challenge now is to translate widespread political support into concrete action in the policy, institutional, and budgetary arenas. To bridge the gap between commitment and results, the global community must translate its promises into greater resource mobilization, heightened public awareness, more participation in planning by the poor and hungry, and greater policy coherence in areas that affect food security and development. The Task Force on Hunger puts forward the following positive interventions to move from political commitment to action: 1. Advocate political action to meet intergovernmental agreements to end hunger. 2. Strengthen the contribution of donor countries and national governments to activities that combat hunger. 3. Improve global public awareness of hunger issues and strengthen advocacy organizations. 4. Strengthen developing-country advocacy organizations that deal with poverty reduction and hunger alleviation. 5. Strengthen data gathering and monitoring and evaluation. To back up their commitments, countries at all stages of economic development must address the structural issues (political, economic, and social) that hamper progress toward eliminating hunger. Moving from political commitment to long-term global action is critical to achieving the hunger Goal. The world has made some progress in reducing hunger. But achieving the hunger Goal will require a significant acceleration and expansion of hunger reduction efforts, coupled with vigorous processes of policy and institutional reform. Some developing countries—notably India, China, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone—have already begun to 39 back up their commitments by refocusing their efforts to overcome hunger. Stronger political action to end hunger will require bold leadership, energetic and well organized political advocacy, and clearly articulated public demand. A combination of these elements is essential to mobilize systematic planning, assure the long-term commitment of adequate financial resources, improve institutions and policies, and develop innovative programming. The spread of democracy, the growing recognition of food as a human right, and the increasing support for antihunger advocacy groups and political leaders are helping to build the momentum to achieve the hunger Goal. For example, hunger-affected communities and local groups are doing more in hunger reduction campaigns and calling for political action to raise the profile of hunger and malnutrition on the political agenda. 40 6. REFERENCES: Cohen, Marc J. and Don Reeves, "A 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment”, 2020 Vision Brief 19, May 1995. Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Fifty-Sixth Session, Item 5 of the Provisional Agenda, 5 July 2004. Drimie, Scott, and Dan Mullins, “Mainstreaming HIV and AIDS into Livelihoods and Food Security Programmes: An Analysis of CARE Malawi Programmes”, February 2005. FAO Council, “Establishment of an Intergovernmental Working Group for the Elaboration of a Set of Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security”, FAO Doc. CL 123/22 (2002), at <http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/005/y7576e.htm>, [4 December 2004]. FAO Doc., “Statement by the United States”, 23 September 2004, CL 127/10-Sup.1, annexes 2. Food First International Action Network, “Break-through for the Right to Food at the FAO”, 23 November 2004, at <http://www.fian.org/fian/index.php?option=content&task=view& id=82>, [4 December 2004]. FAO Council, “Right to Food Guidelines”, 24 November 2004, at <http://www.fao.org/news room/en/news/2004/51653/index.html>, [8 December 2004]. “Establishment of an Intergovernmental Working Group”, FAO Doc. CL 123/22 (2002), at <http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/005/y7576e.htm>, [4 December 2004]. Galtung, J., “Violence, Peace, and Peace Research”, Journal of Peace Research, 6, no. 3 (1969). Germann, Julian, International Norm Development and the ‘Right to Food’ Discourse. Gill, Gerard J., www.odi.org.uk/publications/working_papers/wp231/wp231_refe rences.pdf Goonesekere, Rajendra Kalidas Wimala, Working paper on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Indigenous People and minorities, UN Economic and Social Council, 14 June 2001. Haddad, L., M. D. Westbrook, D. Driscoll, E. Payongayong, J. Rozen, and M. Weeks. 1995. Strengthening Policy Analysis: Econometric Tests Using Microcomputer Software. Microcomputers in Policy Research 2. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute. Haddad, Lawrence, Christine Peña, Chizuru Nishida, Agnes Quisumbing, and Alison Slack, Food Security and Nutrition Implications of 41 Intrahousehold Bias: A Review of Literature Food Consumption and Nutrition Division International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C., 1996. www.odi.org.uk/publications/working_papers/wp231/wp231_references .pdf IGWG NGO Caucus, “Final Evaluation: No Masterpiece of Political Will”, 10 July 2004, available at <http://www.foodgrainsbank.ca/downloads/no_materpiece_of_poli tical_will.pdf> Paarlberg, Robert, Governance and Food Security in an Age of Globalization, 2020 Brief 72 A 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment FEBRUARY 2002, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C., WEB: www.ifpri.org. Sen, A., Poverty and Famines, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981. Swaminathan, M.S., Swaminathan, M.S. 2004. Personal communication with UNESCO Chair of Ecotechnology and President of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, 2004. The Ontario Public Health Association (OPHA), a position paper, November 2002. Thomas, A., “Poverty, Development, and Hunger”, in J. Baylis and S. Smith (eds), The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 575. UN Doc. A/59/385 (2004), para 27. UN Doc., Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, “General Comment 12: The Right to Adequate Food”, E/C.12/1999/5 (1999), para. 1, available at <http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/3d02758c707031d5 8025677f003b73b9?Opendocument>, [13 December 2004]. UN News Service, “Progress on Reducing Hunger Has Stopped, UN Expert on Right to Food Says”, 30 March 2004, available at <http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/hunger/2004/0330trade.h tm>, [14 December 2004]. World Resources Institute “Population, Health and Human Well-being: Nutrition: Calorie Supply Per Capita”, at http://earthtrends.wri.org/searchable_db/index.cfm?action=select _variable&theme=4 [14December 2004]. xxxxxx 42 Annexure- I (Consultancy) Contractual Agreement of Consultancy Services This Agreement is made in duplication on 25 June 2005 Between ActionAid Asia and Dr. Ramanath Nayak Background and Objective: Food Rights is one of the key programmes of the ActionAid Asia. The Food Rights have to be seen from the perspectives of poor and marginal, especially from the perspective of discriminated, dalits and other excluded sections of our society. The Asia region is trying to articulate the voices of discriminated and excluded on the issues of food rights in the run up to the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial. Thhe AAI in Asia is planning to have a regional consultation on this issue. The Consultant will work on a perspective paper on ‘Discriminated, Dalits and Food Security in Asia’ Task Duration: From 1 July 2005 to 31 July 2005. Task Implementation Plan: The Consultant will first prepare a synopsis on this issue. The consultant will prepare the first draft of the prespective paper and after getting the comments, will finalise the paper. Expected outcomes: 15-page perspective paper (footnotes, tables and references excluding). This paper will be the basis for the regional consultation on this issue in October 2005 Fees: Rs 22,000. All fees related to this consultancy services will be transferred to the following account: Account Title: Ramanath Nayak Account Number: 01190055997 Name Of the Bank: STATE BANK OF INDIA, J.N.U. BRANCH, NEW DELHI- 110067 SWIFT Code Number: SBININBB548 The fees will be paid to the consultant in the following manner: a) Rs 10,000 as advance on 1st July b) Rs 12,000 after the submission of the paper on 7th July 43 Reporting: The consultant will report to Mukul Sharma, Asia Campaigns & Advocacy Coordinator. Copyrights Authority: ActionAid Asia will have the copyrights of any document, publication, study and research. Revision/Amendment: Any changes, revision, amendment to this agreement including implementation plan, deliverables and time frame will have to be agreed by both parties in writing (in the form of a letter) before making such changes/revision/amendments. Travelling expenses: If consultant is required to travel outside of the duty station specifically for the purpose of this task in that case ActionAid will bear the travelling expenses of modest mode of transportation and also provide per diem to the consultant as per ActionAid policies and procedures. Tax: Settlement of any tax liability arising from this agreement will remain the responsibility of the consultant. Discontinuation of the Agreement: In the following cases ActionAid Asia will have the right to discontinue this agreement:   Failure to implement the task (and in the absence of reasonable justification of such failure) as agreed under this agreement. Failure to deliver the agreed deliverables and failure to meet the timeframe as agreed under this agreement If such discontinuation happens, ActionAid Asia will have the right to stop paying further fees. This agreement has been read, understood and signed by: Mukul Sharma Name of the Regional Coordinator Regional Coordinator-Campaigns & Advocacy ActionAid Asia Copy: Regional Finance Coordinator, ActionAid Asia 44 Dr. Ramanath Nayak Name of the Consultant