The paper reviews: a) recent developments in global and national political relations, thinking, and related institutional changes, b) the effect of such developments on the incidence of hunger, c) the ability and willingness of governments to eradicate hunger, and d) the efforts to foster greater political will for food security.These four points are central to the argument presented here and appear across the subsequent sub-sections. They are intertwined and only offer a complete picture in combination. The paper starts with a short statement to set the context for a national perspective on political will. It then reviews and appraises examples where political will has either frustrated attempts to address food insecurity and examples where political will has been formulated into a cohesive set of policies and programs to address food insecurity. These case studies then set the foundation for articulating the key constructs to focus political will in a way conducive to reducing food and nutrition insecurity.
Poverty and health
The Status Report for 2006 is produced in accordance with the MKUKUTA Monitoring Master Plan which calls for a short report on the status of growth and poverty in Tanzania in those years in which a full Poverty and Human Development Report (PHDR) is not produced. It provides an overview of the most recent data on indicators of progress towards the goals and targets of MKUKUTA’s three major clusters of desired outcomes for poverty reduction: growth and reduction of income poverty; improvement of quality of life and social well-being; and governance and accountability.
Hunger makes the international news during times of famine, yet chronic food shortages are a feature of everyday life for millions of people in Africa and Asia. What can be done to change this and what role can journalists play? This paper looks at the issues around food security and factors involved in making it worse, such as ill-advised and inadequate policy decisions, conflict and HIV/AIDS. Suggestions are given on ways in which food security can be improved. The article finishes by discussing the role the media could play in highlighting the food security issue by spotting trends and alerting both farmers and governments to potential problems. It also suggests questions journalists can ask with regard to the related issues.
Adequate rainfall in the last three months of 2006 improved food security in the parts of Kenya affected by the severe drought that hit the Horn of Africa last year, a famine warning agency reported. However, in some areas, outbreaks of diseases related to floods, as well as high HIV/AIDS prevalence, reversed the gains of a good harvest and pasture regeneration.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between childhood undernutrition and poverty in urban and rural areas.
Several major initiatives in the past few years have brought renewed attention and commitment to economic development and food and nutrition security in Africa. The recent economic recovery and the new commitment to change among African leaders and development partners indicate for the first time after decades that Africa is poised to achieve real progress toward food and nutrition security. Sustaining and accelerating growth to reach the poverty reduction and nutrition Millennium Development Goals will require clear strategies to guide future policy and investment decisions. Furthermore, these goals seek to only halve the number of poor and malnourished in the next 10 years, something a number of African countries will fail to do. Progress toward food and nutrition security in Africa, therefore, calls for more than growth and requires a greater focus on human welfare improvement supported by adequate investments in health and nutrition safety nets to protect vulnerable segments of the population.
Madagascar has called for international aid to help stem a nutritional emergency that has left thousands of children malnourished in the vulnerable south. "Madagascar has sent a message, through the president [recently re-elected Marc Ravalomanana], and called on the international community to help us," Anbinintsoa Raveloharison, Director of the National Nutrition Office (ONN) of the Ministry of Health and Family Planning, told IRIN.
Last month saw the publication of the World Bank’s latest annual Global Economic Prospects report, setting out the Bank’s vision of the global economy until 2030, including its latest projections for poverty. The breathless excitement with which the Bank presents this flight of fancy is quite extraordinary. This document provides an assessment of the latest much-hyped poverty projections from the World Bank.
Several households falling into poverty as a result of HIV/AIDS desperately need support systems. African communities have modified existing safety net mechanisms and pioneered new responses such as home based care programmes, support groups and orphans and vulnerable children initiatives. Safety nets protect people from the worst effects of poverty. They prevent poor households from making hasty decisions to sell productive assets and increase their chances of escaping destitution. But how long can self-resourced initiatives continue to function?
Two developments have led to this report. The first is the growing international awareness that many MDGs will not be reached unless malnutrition is tackled, and that this continued failure of the development community to tackle malnutrition may derail other international efforts in health and in poverty reduction. The second development is the now unequivocal evidence that there are workable solutions to the malnutrition problem and that they are excellent economic investments. The May 2004 Copenhagen Consensus of eminent economists (including several Nobel laureates) concluded that the returns of investing in micronutrient programs are second only to the returns of fighting HIV/AIDS among a lengthy list of ways to meet the world’s development challenges.