The three-day World Summit on Food Security ended in Rome with dim prospects for the one billion people who wrestle chronic hunger daily. Poor attendance from world leaders and a disappointing final declaration stand as testament that little has been done in the war against hunger.
The food summit, which ran from November 16 – 18, closed with United Nations officials playing down the fact that the declaration neither made a firm commitment to eradicating malnutrition by 2025, nor did it address divisive issues such as how to counter market speculation, reduce food price volatility and regulate land purchases abroad by rich, food-importing nations. Instead, the summit declaration only pledged to eliminate hunger "at the earliest possible date."
UN officials instead say they at least garnered support for long-term agricultural development -- rather than emergency aid -- to help poor countries feed themselves.
Regrettably, the summit has been dubbed a talk shop, where less than a third of the 192 heads of states and governments invited by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) showed up, and many participants reportedly left on the first day. The food summit is seen to be eclipsed by a G8 pledge in July to spend $20 billion in farm aid in the next three years.
But what of the poor?
In South Africa, approximately 14 million people (out of a total population of close to 50 million) are food insecure, despite the country’s national status as being food secure. It is estimated that this group spends more than 60% of their income on food. Approximately 70% of the SA’s poorest households are in rural areas.
The FoodBank in South Africa says 25 000 people die every day around the world from malnutrition. Executive Director for the FoodBank in SA, Jeff Penny, says there should have been more commitment from world leaders to stamp out hunger.
“There are too many delays in the process… these things need urgent attention. We've got people who don't know where their next meal is coming from. So we will have a share of those deaths as well,” says Penny.
Land of contrasts
Nowhere in the world is one of the markers of the 21st century more glaring than in South Africa. SA has overtaken Brazil to the No.1 spot of the country with the biggest gap between the rich and the poor.
“Unfortunately, we have poverty in a land of plenty. South Africa has the highest economic inequality in the world. We have the largest gap between the food secure and food insecure. The situation is really not good at all,” says Professor John Taylor, an expert in the field of cereal science.
With 70% of South Africa’s poorest living in rural areas, the access to resources, business and trade centres becomes the obvious culprit in the limited ability of these population groups to feed themselves.
“In the rural areas, people will say they don’t have enough to eat because they don’t have land. But it’s not quite as simple as that. They also don’t have farming skills and financing to buy seeds and fertilizers. They also don’t know about the markets either. People think that if you grow a few milies, then you’ll be food secure. In actual fact, food security is about having a livelihood,” says Taylor.
Taylor says the real gain in agriculture is turning raw products into finished products that fetch a high retail value. “You take maize, for example, and turn it into breakfast cereal. That sells for much higher than the initial product you began with.”
Curbing hunger
About 13 million people are receiving social grants in South Africa -- a figure which climbs steadily year-on-year. This is a sure sign that government resources alone cannot provide a solution to the conundrum.
“Government can’t do it alone. What we need is a ‘team South Africa’ approach to this. In the US, they have the Land-Grant University System, where academics not only teach and do research, but they… train people in farming and food processing,” says Taylor.
What remains lucid is that part of the answer lies in skilling the population. After all, if you give a man fish for a day, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Forums like the World Summit on Food Security will come and go. Beyond their confines, the message is crystal clear: a strengthening of political will is required from the developed and developing world to turn the situation around in order to prevent the neediest from sinking further into the hunger abyss. – compiled and edited by Matona Fatman
*Sources: Reuters; NewsNet
