Last week, two significant days passed with not much notice on the local scene: World Food Day on October 16 and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17, marking their 75th and 27th respective annual observances. Current world conditions meant that any commemoration would have needed to be virtual or socially distanced and some countries did just that. Of course, of greater recognition is the fact that efforts towards alleviating the twin ills hunger and poverty are of even more importance today.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee ensured that the significance of this was noted by presenting the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) with the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month, for its efforts to combat hunger around the world. The WFP says it provides a valuable lifeline to some 87 million vulnerable people across the world each year, but one in nine people worldwide still do not have enough to eat. This is not likely to change anytime soon.
In fact, it is now being acknowledged that Goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – Zero Hunger – will not be attained by the 2030 deadline. The numbers are rising. There had been a decrease in the world’s hungry up to 2014, but UN estimates show a rise of 60 million in the last five years, bringing the total to some 690 million. And if recent trends continue, this figure could surpass 840 million by 2030.
Goal 1 – No Poverty – is on the same trajectory; the number of the world’s poor is steadily rising. The UN has also admitted that even under the most optimistic scenario attaining that SDG target by 2030 is highly unlikely. Moreover, it is estimated that by the end of this year 100 million more people could slip into poverty. And while these rising numbers are also partly the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the truth is that, as borne out by the annual increase in the earth’s hungry, not enough work was being done prior to the world being hit by the novel coronavirus.
All of this is daunting of course, but it does not mean that throwing up one’s hands and giving up is an option. On the contrary, it provides the impetus for more dedicated and harder work and perhaps a change in the way we do things. This is even more relevant given the adjustments that have become necessary this year.
Just based on the numbers, nearly 700 million people face varying levels of hunger and food insecurity. The WFP reaches close to 100 million people with the funding and resources it receives from governments and institutions. Its priorities include those in conflict zones or facing climate change challenges. It is one of those essential services that never stop working whether in time of war or pandemics. Despite what its name connotes, however, the WFP does not now and will never have the capacity to reach every hungry person. It was never meant to. Its coming into being in 1961 was as a means of providing food aid to bolster emergency and development aid and it has done this with great success.
Food security, defined as “existing when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”, is the purview of governments. Unfortunately, there are very few countries in the world where this exists or where there is the kind of infrastructure necessary to create and maintain resilience in the agriculture industry. Sadly, Guyana, touted as ‘the breadbasket of the Caribbean’, is among those that are lacking.
It must now be clear to all that talk accomplishes nothing. In fact, too much hot air can be bad for agriculture. And that is not all we have to worry about as in over 50 years of independence we are still to derive a way to actually get the bread into the basket, so to speak. The investments that should support not just how food is grown, but how it is processed, packaged, stored, and delivered to the consumer are few and far between.
Besides having to worry about the elements or pests, which are often beyond their control, farmers are still at the mercy of inadequate drainage and irrigation, impassable roads, and irregular pricing. In addition, market gluts and poor supply chains generate colossal food waste that can only be described as sinful when stacked against the numbers that go hungry.
The World Food Day theme this year, ‘Grow, Nourish, Sustain. Together. Our actions are our future’, should not just be seen as a group of words selected because they sound good, but as a warning that to take any other course would have enormous repercussions. Government should stop and consider, as it burns more money in the sugar industry, how it could use those same funds to further promote sustainable and diversified agriculture and support small farmers.
