Improving food security in the Asia Pacific
May 2009: Any recovery from the current economic crisis will be incomplete if the related food crisis is not addressed, a new UN study has concluded.
Any recovery from the current economic crisis will be incomplete if the related food crisis is not addressed, a new UN study has concluded.
The report – Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Asia and the Pacific, published by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) – says the financial crisis has become a food crisis for 583 million people across the region.
While food prices have fallen from last year’s spike, they remain high. Rising unemployment and falling incomes are putting additional pressure on the poor and vulnerable. More worrying is that, once the global economy recovers, the pressures that drove up food prices last year will return.
“Efforts at stimulating economies also provide us a window of opportunity to address the systemic issues related to food insecurity,” said Dr Noeleen Heyzer, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP.
“This report reminds us that, while the world’s attention is very much on the economic crisis, food insecurity remains a real threat.”
Despite the Asia-Pacific region’s rapid economic growth, the region is home to the largest number of hungry people – 62 per cent of the world’s undernourished.
Hot spots
The study identifies 25 countries as hotspots of food insecurity, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor Leste.
Even in countries which are seemingly doing well, national averages may mask disparities between different population groups.
“In East Asia and the Pacific, for example, rural children are twice as likely to be underweight as their peers in the cities,” says Dr. Heyzer.
“In fact, the report states that the number of children under five dying of malnutrition in our region is equivalent to 10 jumbo jets filled with children crashing every day and killing everyone on board.”
Cause
The study re-affirms that poverty is the leading cause of food insecurity. In addition, the lack of access to land prevents many poor people from growing their own food. Other causes for food insecurity range from low farm revenues to volatile fuel prices and speculation.
Protectionist trade policies drive up food prices in the region as most countries in Asia and the Pacific meet national needs through imports, the report says.
It also the identified the destructive impact of poor agricultural practices, which had resulted in degraded farming land and contaminated waterways.
Climate change, which threatens to significantly alter global weather patterns, will also have lasting detrimental impacts on agricultural output.
Recommendations
The study includes short-, medium- and long-term recommendations to address food insecurity in the region.
Most immediately, people’s ability to buy or access food needs to be improved through the development of social protection schemes such as minimum wage, unemployment benefits, “food-for-work” programmes, basic health care and agricultural insurance.
Availability of food at the national level can be promoted through trade, says the report.
Over the medium term, investments in sustainable agriculture and small scale farmers will be extremely important.
Long-term measures require nations to develop and implement concrete strategies to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Role of NHRIs
A number of national human rights institutions in the Asia Pacific region, including the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC), are working with government and civil society organisations to put in place programs to monitor food availability and counter malnutrition and starvation.
According the Indian NHRC, which has recommended the establishment of ‘Watch Committees’, it is imperative that these issues be addressed using a ‘rights-based’ approach rather than from a ‘welfare’ perspective.
The Asia Pacific Forum has funded a respected Indian research institute, the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, to undertake a research project in West Bengal in relation to food entitlement and food availability.
The project will assess government policies and programs, as well as
explore the role of the NHRC and West Bengal's State Human Rights
Commission in ensuring the right to food.
It is expected the report will be published shortly.
