UN urged to intervene to stop hunger deaths

The UN could drastically reduce the 24,000 deaths occurring daily around the world from hunger-related causes, provided countries agree that it coordinates all the different initiatives to fight hunger.

International agency Oxfam, in a new report "Bridging the Divide", says that the World Food Summit beginning Monday (16th) in Rome could fix the fragmented global effort that is currently failing to curb human hunger. Children make up 70 per cent of hunger-related deaths.

"Reforming food governance would be a huge win for this Summit," said report author Chris Leather. "The UN Committee for World Food Security (CFS) must be empowered to coordinate efforts to fight hunger. Without it, all the different initiatives do not add up to a single effective, coherent and accountable whole."

However, two big obstacles exist. In what Oxfam says is "a dereliction of duty", no G8 leaders apart from the host are attending the Summit. "Their disregard is a great concern when more than a billion people are now undernourished and millions more exposed to harmful climate change and volatile global food prices. Developing countries should not be left at this Summit to go it alone," Leather said.

The other problem is that some key countries – including the US and Spain, which are markedly increasing agricultural aid spending after a decline over 30 years – seem more inclined to look to the World Bank to manage part of the money pledged at the G8 Summit, rather than the UN.

In the past, the World Bank has conditioned its lending upon developing countries liberalising their economic policies, forcing privatisation and market-opening. Oxfam fears this fund could be run similarly. Furthermore, developing countries and civil society are not included in the decision-making body proposed for the World Bank fund – but they would in a reformed CFS.

Money alone will not solve the problem. Oxfam says that developing countries must be allowed to pursue the policies they need to target poor farmers, and to accept accountability for their actions.

"The outcome from this Summit matters a great deal," says Leather. "Leaders should agree that money must go to support the right policies and programs, and that developing countries and civil society be involved in deciding how it is used. A reformed CFS should oversee a move away from a system which has been primarily serving the interests of rich countries and that has failed to reduce world hunger."

The world cannot wait for US to play catch-up: Oxfam

Photo: WikimediaRich countries must step out from US shadow and do the right thing for world's poor.

Oxfam has warned that EU countries must cut themselves loose from the US or risk losing a groundbreaking climate deal that has been two years in the making. The aid agency says a fair and safe deal can be struck in Copenhagen this year, but world leaders cannot wait whilst the US plays catch-up.

"At the moment the US shadow is looming large over the climate talks. Rich countries are clearly using the US as an excuse to put their national interests above alleviating the suffering of those millions of people killed, bereaved, hungry or made homeless by climate change," said Antonio Hill, Climate Advisor for Oxfam.

"It is disappointing that a bloc such as the EU, who has previously led the world in the fight against climate change and invested blood, sweat and tears in paving the way for an unprecedented global agreement, has now been hijacked by the domestic policies of the US," he added.

Oxfam’s comments come at the end of the Barcelona climate talks, the last official negotiations before the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December. At the talks, rich countries failed to agree targets for cutting carbon emissions or table firm commitments on climate finance. There was no improvement on the issue of 'aid raiding' and Oxfam’s concerns have grown that money for climate change will be taken from schools or health centres in poor countries.

At one point during the negotiations African nations blocked talks until there was serious discussion on the critical issue of reducing rich country carbon emissions. A move which clearly demonstrated that they would not accept a weak deal that means nothing to people living on the front line of climate change.

"This is a political struggle between rich countries' short term commercial interests and the survival of hundreds of millions of people. From children who swim to school, women forced to give birth knee-deep in flood water, farmers facing crop failure year after year, it’s people that must be prioritised," said Mukta Ziaul Hoque, who coordinates Oxfam’s work in Bangladesh.

"Why would poor nations sign up to a climate deal that is all empty promises and no substance and how are we going to get a global deal without them?" he added.

Despite obvious set-backs, technical negotiations did advance in some areas including: the option of raising new money from controls on emissions from international aviation and shipping to help poor countries cope with climate change; government pledges to reduce deforestation; and better recognition of the need for poor countries to decide what can help their own people adapt to climate change.

"President Obama has recognised time and again that the poorest are being hit hardest by climate change. If ever there was time for audacity and hope, it’s now," said David Waskow, Climate Change Program Director for Oxfam America.

Maize research reduces poverty in West and Central Africa

Photo: Andrew Butko/WikimediaAn analysis of three and half decades of maize research in African farming communities finds big benefits. A multi-country study, in Agricultural Economics, reports the significant role international maize research plays in reducing poverty. It finds that since the mid-1990s, more than one million people per year have escaped poverty through the adoption of new maize varieties.

Key economic benefits from maize research are primarily the result of the productivity gains farmers experience after adopting modern varieties. While notably scant prior to the 1980s, the percentage of MVs found in a maize area grew from 5 per cent in the 1970s to 60 per cent in 2005. The study results suggest that without research to maintain or increase maize yields, poverty in the region would be substantially worse.

An analysis of three and half decades of maize research in African farming communities finds big benefits. A multi-country study, in Agricultural Economics, reports the significant role international maize research plays in reducing poverty. It finds that since the mid-1990s, more than one million people per year have escaped poverty through the adoption of new maize varieties.

Key economic benefits from maize research are primarily the result of the productivity gains farmers experience after adopting modern varieties. While notably scant prior to the 1980s, the percentage of MVs found in a maize area grew from 5 per cent in the 1970s to 60 per cent in 2005. The study results suggest that without research to maintain or increase maize yields, poverty in the region would be substantially worse.

For example, for every USD1 million invested in this type of research at The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), at least 35,000 people were lifted out of poverty, reports author Arega Alene of IITA (“The Economic and Poverty Impacts of Maize Research in West and Central Africa").

Alene examines the relationship between variety performance and adoption patterns to estimate the benefits of maize research in West and Central Africa during the past three and half decades. Results are drawn from multiple surveys of research conducted between 1981 and 2005 by IITA, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), and the national agricultural research systems (NARS). Social rates of return on public investments in maize research in the region were also considerable.

The countries surveyed account for about 85 per cent of maize production in the region. Questionnaire surveys were conducted with managers, breeders, economists, and representatives of maize research institutes and seed production agencies.

Alene concludes that more must be done to enhance the impact of maize research. Affordability and accessibility for farmers to various complementary inputs, such as improved seed and fertiliser, are critical factors for sustainable poverty reduction.

Global platform for food security revitalised

Countries have agreed on a new vision and role for CFS. Photo: UN
Member countries agree to reform Committee on World Food Security

Faced with rising world hunger and unacceptable poverty and in response to calls for greater coherence and coordination, members of the FAO Committee on World Food Security (CFS) have agreed on a wide-ranging reform, FAO has announced.

The reform aims to make CFS the foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform dealing with food security and nutrition and to be a central component in the evolving Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition.

The CFS reforms are designed to focus the Committee's vision and role on the global coordination of efforts to eliminate hunger and ensure food security for all. This includes supporting national anti-hunger plans and initiatives; ensuring that all relevant voices are heard in the policy debate on food and agriculture; strengthening linkages at regional, national and local levels; and basing decisions on scientific evidence and state of the art knowledge.

Inclusive

The new CFS will be inclusive. In addition to member countries, participation in the Committee will be made up of a wider range of organisations working with food security and nutrition from UN agencies like the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis and other UN bodies.

The CFS will also include civil society and non-governmental organisations, particularly organisations representing smallholder family farmers, fisherfolk, herders, landless, urban poor, agricultural and food workers, women, youth, consumers and indigenous people.

Participation will also include international agricultural research institutions, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, regional development banks and the World Trade Organisation. The Committee shall also be open to representatives of private sector associations and philanthropic foundations.

Advice from the experts

Another important part of the new Committee is that it will receive advice from a high level panel of experts on the subject of food security and nutrition. This will ensure that effective solutions to ending hunger are based on scientific and knowledge-based analysis.

The Committee will provide a platform for discussion and coordination. It will promote greater policy convergence including through the development of international strategies and voluntary guidelines on food security and nutrition based on best practices and lessons learned from countries who have managed to make progress in reducing hunger. The CFS will help countries and regions to address how hunger and malnutrition can be reduced more quickly and effectively.

"The CFS reform shows that the international community is committed to pay more attention to the elimination of hunger and poverty," said Hafez Ghanem, Assistant Director-General of FAO. "Creating this important global platform means that we are building a better home for global food security including governments, international institutions, researchers civil society and the private sector."

The World Summit on Food Security, 16-18 November 2009, will focus the attention of leaders on making sure everyone in the world has enough food, including how to support the implementation of the reform of CFS.

Economic crisis adds to the woes of the world's hungry

Street children in India. Photo: Thomas Schoch1.02 billion hungry people in 2009, says FAO hunger report

The sharp spike in hunger triggered by the global economic crisis has hit the poorest people in developing countries hardest, revealing a fragile world food system in urgent need of reform, according to a report released today by FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP).

The combination of food and economic crises has pushed the number of hungry people worldwide to historic levels, more than one billion people are undernourished, according to FAO estimates.

Nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries. In Asia and the Pacific, an estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic hunger; in Sub-Saharan Africa 265 million; in Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million; in the Near East and North Africa 42 million; and in developed countries 15 million, according FAO's annual hunger report, The State of Food Insecurity, produced this year in collaboration with WFP. The report was published before World Food Day, to be celebrated on 16 October 2009.

Decade-long trend

Even before the recent crises, the number of undernourished people in the world had been increasing slowly but steadily for the past decade, the report says.

Good progress had been made in the 1980s and early 1990s in reducing chronic hunger, largely due to increased investment in agriculture following the global food crisis of the early 1970s.

But between 1995-97 and 2004-06, as official development assistance (ODA) devoted to agriculture declined substantially, the number of hungry people increased in all regions except Latin America and the Caribbean. Gains in hunger reduction were later reversed in this region as well, as a result of the food and economic crises

The rise in the number of hungry people during both periods of low prices and economic prosperity and the very sharp rises in periods of price spikes and economic downturns shows the weakness of the global food security governance system, FAO said.

"World leaders have reacted forcefully to the financial and economic crisis and succeeded in mobilising billions of dollars in a short time period. The same strong action is needed now to combat hunger and poverty," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf.

"The rising number of hungry people is intolerable. We have the economic and technical means to make hunger disappear, what is missing is a stronger political will to eradicate hunger forever. Investing in agriculture in developing countries is key as a healthy agricultural sector is essential not only to overcome hunger and poverty but also to ensure overall economic growth and peace and stability in the world," he said.

"We applaud the new commitment to tackle food security, but we must act quickly. It is unacceptable in the 21st century that almost one in six of the world's population is now going hungry," added Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of WFP.

"At a time when there are more hungry people in the world than ever before, there is less food aid than we have seen in living memory. We know what is needed to meet urgent hunger needs, we just need the resources and the international commitment to do the job."

Another blow for poor households

Several factors have conspired to make the current crisis particularly devastating for poor households in developing countries.

First, the crisis is affecting large parts of the world simultaneously, reducing the scope for traditional coping mechanisms such as currency devaluation, borrowing or increased use of official development assistance or migrant remittances.

Second, the economic crisis comes on top of a food crisis that has already strained the coping strategies of the poor, hitting those most vulnerable to food insecurity when they are down. Faced with high domestic food prices, reduced incomes and employment and having already sold off assets, reduced food consumption and cut spending on essential items such as health care and education, these families risk falling deeper into destitution and the hunger-poverty trap.

In for a penny, in for a pounding

The third factor that differentiates this crisis from those of the past is that developing countries have become more integrated, both financially and commercially, into the world economy than they were 20 years ago, making them more vulnerable to changes in international markets.

Many countries have experienced across-the-board drops in their trade and financial inflows, and have seen their export earnings, foreign investment, development aid and remittances falling. This not only reduces employment opportunities, but also reduces the money available to governments for programmes promoting growth and supporting those in need.

The 17 largest Latin American economies, for example, received USD184 billion in financial inflows in 2007, which was roughly halved in 2008 to USD89 billion and is expected to be halved again to USD43 billion in 2009, the report said. This means that consumption must be reduced, and for some low-income food-deficit countries, adjusting consumption may mean reducing badly needed food imports and other imported items such as health-care equipment and medicines.

The report includes case studies compiled by WFP in five countries - Armenia, Bangladesh, Ghana, Nicaragua and Zambia - showing how households are affected by the fall in remittances and other impacts of the economic downturn and how governments are responding to the crisis by investing in agriculture and infrastructure and expanding safety nets.

These interventions will help to save lives and families, the report says, but given the severity of the crisis, much more needs to be done.

FAO and WFP continue to advocate a twin-track approach to address both the short-term acute hunger spurred by sudden food shortages and the longer-term chronic hunger that is symptomatic of extreme poverty as a way for durable solutions.

"Small-scale farmers need access to high-quality seeds, fertilisers, feed and technologies to be able to boost productivity and production," Diouf said. "And their governments need economic and policy tools to ensure that their countries' agriculture sectors are both more productive and more resilient in the face of crises."

Singer sounds the alarm on hunger

Loulou Ghelichkhani, multilingual vocalist with Thievery Corporation. Photo: Jennifer Mizgata/WFPIranian-born singer Loulou Ghelichkhani, vocalist with Washington DC band Thievery Corporation, believes musicians have a unique opportunity to raise awareness about hunger. She says Thievery’s partnership with WFP is one of the reasons she’s in the band.

Asked how music can help defeat hunger, Loulou says it’s all about creating more awareness and building an ever wider community of people who want to get the problem solved.

It’s something she relishes doing through Thievery Corporation’s music and live performances, where fans are often shown videos about WFP’s work in Nepal and encouraged to take part in fund-raising initiatives such as the Fill the Cup campaign.

“When you have an audience that is receptive to everything you have to offer, it’s nice to give them something more than music’s good vibrations, something that makes sense in this day and age,” she says, noting that hunger and poverty are a recurring theme in the band’s lyrics.

Cool vocals

Loulou has been with Thievery Corporation for ten years, contributing her cool, multilingual vocals to music which mixes elements of dub, acid jazz, reggae, Indian classical, Middle Eastern, and Brazilian with what aficionados call a ‘lounge aesthetic’.

She says the band’s involvement with WFP has impacted her life in many ways. Her eight-year-old daughter is so on board that she and some friends have produced 12 paintings that they aim to sell to raise funds for WFP.

Thievery’s partnership with WFP started in early 2005, when the group’s founders Rob Garza and Eric Hilton threw a fundraiser for WFP’s tsunami operations at Washington’s popular 9:30 Club. They have since recorded video and audio public service announcements for WFP, and done other fund-raising events.

"Transcends boundaries"

“Hunger is something basic, really elemental, that transcends boundaries around the world,” says Garza, who has visited WFP operational sites in Sudan, Kenya and Nepal. “Conquering it is essential if we are going to make meaningful human progress in health, education and economic development.”

“I think compassion for the hungry is universal … and yet the kind of hunger and poverty I’ve seen on my trips with WFP remains invisible to most people living in the developed world,” he adds.

23 million drought-hit East Africans face severe hunger

Cattle in SomaliaMore than 23 million people are being pushed towards severe hunger and destitution across East Africa, warns Oxfam.

A severe and persistent five-year drought, deepened by climate change, is now stretching across seven countries in the region and exacting a heavy human toll, made worse by high food prices and violent conflict. The worst affected countries are Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda. Other countries hit are Sudan, Djibouti and Tanzania. Malnutrition is now above emergency levels in some areas and hundreds of thousands of cattle, people’s key source of income, are dying.

This is the worst drought that Kenya has experienced for a decade, and the worst humanitarian situation Somalia has experienced since 1991.

The high numbers of people affected, more than double the number caught up in similar food crisis in 2006, when 11 million were at risk, underline the gravity of the situation and the urgent need for funding to prevent the crisis getting worse.

Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam’s East Africa Director said: “This is the worst humanitarian crisis Oxfam has seen in East Africa for over ten years. Failed and unpredictable rains are ever more regular across East Africa as raining seasons shorten due to the growing influence of climate change. Droughts have increased from once a decade to every two or three years. In Wajir, northern Kenya, almost 200 dead animals were recently found around one dried-up water source. People are surviving on 2 liters of water a day in some places, less water than a toilet flush. The conditions have never been so harsh or so inhospitable, and people desperately need our help to survive.”

In Kenya , 3.8 million, a tenth of the population, are in need of emergency aid. Food prices have spiraled to 180 per cent above average. Areas such as Rift Valley, which have never previously experienced a drought of this intensity are now affected.

A Somalian farmerConflict over rapidly diminishing resources such as water and pasture for cattle is increasing. Desperate herders are taking their cattle further to look for water and food, sparking tensions with other groups competing for the same resources. Sixty-five people have been killed in Turkana, northern Kenya since June 2009.

One in six children are acutely malnourished in Somalia, and people are trekking for days to find water in the northern regions of the country. Conflict means that people are less able to grow the food, and drought is creating hardship in areas where people have fled. Half of the population – over 3.8 million people - are affected.

In Ethiopia, 13.7 million people are at risk of severe hunger and need assistance. Many are selling their cattle to buy food. In northern Uganda farmers have lost half of their crops and more than 2 million people across the country desperately need aid.

Some 160,000 people mainly around the wild life tourist area of Ngorongoro in north-eastern Tanzania are also at risk. In Djibouti there are worrying levels of increased malnutrition and in South Sudan conflict has put 88,000 people at particular risk.

Oxfam has launched an emergency appeal to raise USD15 million. The aid agency says
the aid response to the crisis needs to rapidly expand, but it is desperately short of funds. The World Food Programme is facing a USD977 million donor shortfall for its work in the Horn of Africa over the next six months. The government of Uganda appealed for donor money to tackle the food crisis, but has so far received only 50 per cent of the funding it needs.

Rains are due in October but are likely to bring scant relief or worse still, deluges that could dramatically worsen the situation. There are genuine fears that the region could be hit by floods as a result of the El Nino phenomenon, which could destroy crops and houses, and increase the spread of water-borne diseases. Even with normal rain, the harvest will not arrive until early 2010. People will still need aid to get them through a long hunger season.

Oxfam staff are on the ground helping those at risk but the organisation is appealing for help from the public to help scale up its efforts. The agency is expanding its aid effort to reach more than 750,000 people but is in desperate need for funds to do this work. Oxfam is supplying emergency clean water and access to food, and also carrying out long-term projects to strengthen people’s ability to cope with future shocks.

WFP, Millennium Villages to fight against hunger, malnutrition

World Food Programme and Millennium Villages project today announced plans to expand joint action to cut hunger and malnutrition across Africa.

At a time when one in six people worldwide don't have enough to eat, the partners will work to establish “undernourishment-free zones” in Millennium Villages and ensure the poorest have access to sufficient, nutritious food. Currently, there are 80 Millennium villages in 10 countries.

"Hunger stands at the core of extreme poverty," said Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General.

"Without enough food, people suffer, die of disease, and too often descend into violence and conflict. Without enough food, a farmer cannot feed her family, much less earn an income and look after the children in the household.”

Sachs said. “The Millennium Villages will carry out the exciting interventions pioneered by WFP, and demonstrate that hunger and under-nutrition can be cut decisively through proven measures in agriculture, school meals, nutritional supplementation, food-for-work programmes to build infrastructure, and other powerful WFP tools."

Global recession and continued high commodity prices across much of the developing world increasingly have put food beyond the reach of the poorest and most vulnerable. Climate change and weather-related disasters threaten to further spread misery and deprivation.

“The G8’s historic USD20 billion commitment to hunger and food security must be followed by concrete actions necessary to ensure the world produces enough food and all people have enough to eat,” said WFP’s executive director Josette Sheeran.

“The hungry and malnourished cannot wait,” Sheeran added. “We must act now to build the partnerships and take the comprehensive steps necessary to win this fight. No one organisation can do it alone, and we will leverage a growing collaboration with the Millennium Villages project to deliver powerful solutions to malnutrition.”

Hunger is the underlying cause of death for 3.5 million children worldwide every year. Africa remains the only region where undernourishment and child mortality rates have increased. Working closely with governments, civil society, the UN and the private sector, the partnership will apply coordinated, science-based, emerging best-practices in nutrition and food security.

Partnership objectives include ensuring universal school meal coverage for children in primary schools within Millennium Village clusters, finding the best way of meeting the nutritional needs of children affected by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other pandemics, and working with smallholder farmers to boost productivity and incomes.

100 people every minute pushed into poverty by economic crisis

The G20 should take urgent action to protect poor countries from economic crisis that is forcing 100 people-a-minute into poverty, Oxfam has said.

Developing countries across the globe are struggling to respond to the global recession that continues to slash incomes, destroy jobs and has helped push the total number of hungry people in the world above 1 billion. The economic crisis arrived as poor countries were already struggling to cope high food prices and floods, droughts and food shortages linked to climate change.

Oxfam analysis of economic data has discovered that governments in Sub-Saharan Africa will be USD70bn worse off this year as a result of the global slump and unlike rich countries they cannot borrow their way out of trouble. Without outside help governments will find it increasingly difficult to respond to the climate, food and economic crises and to avoid cutting spending on schools, clinics and other anti-poverty programmes.

Max Lawson, Oxfam senior policy adviser, said: “Green shoots of economic recovery have not reached the poorest countries which are now suffering severely in the global downturn. In the time it takes G20 leaders to tuck into dinner tonight thousands more people will be pushed into poverty and forced to survive on less than USD1.25-a-day. But despite feeding their own economies a much-needed stimulus, the G20 has not yet provided even half the USD50bn bailout it promised poor countries in April.”

Oxfam has called for a USD290bn package of measures to ease the burden on developing countries without hitting ordinary taxpayers. The package includes a ‘Tobin tax’ on currency transactions, a debt moratorium and a crackdown on tax havens.

Lawson said: “Existing aid levels are not enough to protect the status quo let never mind reduce poverty in the face of the economic crisis, climate change and rising food prices.

“The G20 has the chance to change the bad habits of the past and come up with new solutions to the problems facing poor people. A currency transaction levy on the banks that helped cause the global slump could bring in USD50bn to help those suffering in a crisis they did nothing to cause. It is time bankers paid a bonus to the world’s poor.”

Oxfam is also calling on G20 leaders to fulfil a promise made by President Obama in July to deliver new funds to help poor countries cope with global warming. This funding is vital to break the deadlock in global warming negotiations leading up to the make-or-break UN Summit in Copenhagen in December. Oxfam calculates that USD50bn-a-year is needed to help poor countries cope with global warming and another USD100bn is needed to help them control their emissions.

David Waskow, Oxfam climate adviser, said: “The clock is ticking on the chances of a fair deal to prevent misery for millions at risk from climate change. It is time for G20 leaders to stand up and deliver the money needed to protect poor people.”

2050: A third more mouths to feed

Using water more efficiently will be key to produce more food. Photo: FAO

Producing 70 per cent more food for an additional 2.3 billion people by 2050, while at the same time combating poverty and hunger, using scarce natural resources more efficiently and adapting to climate change are the main challenges world agriculture will face in the coming decades, according to an FAO discussion paper.

The UN agency will organise a High-Level Expert Forum in Rome on 12-13 October 2009 to discuss strategies on "How to Feed the World in 2050". The Forum will bring together around 300 leading experts from academic, nongovernmental and private sector institutions from developing and developed countries.

The Forum will prepare the ground for the World Summit on Food Security, to take place in Rome 16-18 November 2009.

Cautious optimism

"FAO is cautiously optimistic about the world's potential to feed itself by 2050," said FAO assistant director-general Hafez Ghanem. However, he pointed out that feeding everyone in the world by then will not be automatic and several significant challenges have to be met.

Ghanem said there was a need for a proper socioeconomic framework to address
imbalances and inequalities and ensure that everyone in the world has access to the food they need and that food production is carried out in a way that reduces poverty and take into account natural resource constraints.

Global projections show that in addition to projected investments in agriculture, further significant investment will be needed to enhance access to food, otherwise some 370 million people could still be hungry in 2050, almost 5 per cent of the developing countries' population.

According to the latest UN projections, world population will rise from 6.8 billion today to 9.1 billion in 2050 - a third more mouths to feed than there are today. Nearly all of the population growth will occur in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa's population is expected to grow the fastest (up 108 per cent, 910 million people), and East and South East Asia's the slowest (up 11 per cent, 228 million).

Around 70 per cent of the world population will live in cities or urban areas by 2050, up from 49 per cent today.

Food demand

The demand for food is expected to continue to grow as a result both of population growth and rising incomes. Demand for cereals (for food and animal feed) is projected to reach some 3 billion tonnes by 2050. Annual cereal production will have to grow by almost a billion tonnes (2.1 billion tonnes today), and meat production by over 200 million tonnes to reach a total of 470 million tonnes in 2050, 72 per cent of which will be consumed in developing countries, up from the 58 per cent today.

The production of biofuels could also increase the demand for agricultural commodities, depending on energy prices and government policies.

Land

Despite the fact that 90 per cent of the growth in crop production is projected to come from higher yields and increased cropping intensity, arable land will have to expand by around 120 million hectares in developing countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Arable land in use in developed countries is expected to decline by some 50 million hectares, although this could be changed by the demand for biofuels.

Globally, there are still sufficient land resources available to feed the future world population. FAO cautioned, however, that much of the potential land is suitable for growing only a few crops, not necessarily the crops with highest demand and it is concentrated in a few countries.

Much of the land not yet in use also suffers from chemical and physical constraints, endemic diseases and lack of infrastructure which cannot be easily overcome. Therefore significant investments would need to be undertaken in order to bring it into production. Part of the land is also covered by forests, or subject to expanding urban settlements. A number of countries, particularly in the Near East/North Africa and South Asia have already reached or are about to reach the limits of land available.

Water

Water withdrawals for irrigated agriculture are projected to grow at a slower pace due to reduced demand and improved water use efficiency, but will still increase by almost 11 per cent by 2050.

Globally, fresh water resources are sufficient, but they are very unevenly distributed and water scarcity will reach alarming levels in an increasing number of countries or regions within countries, particularly in the Near East/North Africa and South Asia. Using less water and at the same time producing more food will be the key to addressing water scarcity problems. Water scarcity could be made more acute by changing rainfall patters resulting from climate change.

Yield potential

All in all, the potential to raise crop yields to feed a growing world population seems to be considerable, FAO said. "If the appropriate socio-economic incentives are in place, there are still ample ‘bridgeable' gaps in yield (i.e. differences between agro-ecologically attainable and actual yields) that could be exploited. Fears that yields are reaching a plateau do not seem warranted, except in a very few special instances."

Stronger interventions

FAO called for stronger interventions to make faster progress towards reducing and finally eliminating the number of hungry and poor people. Investment in primary agriculture should become a top priority and needs to increase by some 60 per cent since agriculture not only produces food but also generates income and supports rural livelihoods.

Poverty reduction also requires investments in rural infrastructure (roads, ports, power, storage and irrigation systems); investments in institutions, research and extension services, land titles and rights, risk management, veterinary and food safety control systems; and non-agricultural investment including food safety nets and cash transfers to the most needy.

Without developing and investing in rural areas in poor countries, deprivation and inequalities will remain widespread, though significantly less than today, FAO said.

Kenya threatened by new urban disaster

Photo: Oxfam
Rapid urbanisation is changing the face of poverty in Kenya

Kenya is facing a new urban timebomb, with millions of Nairobi residents suffering a daily struggle for food and water as the divide between rich and poor widens, international aid agency Oxfam warned in a new report. A combination of falling household income, rising prices, and poor governance is making life a misery for the poor majority in Kenya’s capital, the report on ‘Urban Poverty and Vulnerability in Kenya’ said.

Rapid urbanisation is changing the face of poverty in Kenya. Nairobi’s population is set to nearly double to almost six million by 2025, and 60 per cent of residents live in slums with no or limited access to even the most basic services such as clean water, sanitation, housing, education and healthcare. Whereas the starkest poverty has previously been found in remote rural areas, within the next ten years half of all poor Kenyans will be in towns and cities.

“An increasingly disenfranchised and poverty-stricken urban underclass is set to be the country’s defining crisis over the next decade, unless the Kenyan government and international donors act urgently to address it. Nairobi is fast becoming a divided society where the gap between rich and poor is now similar to the levels of inequality in Johannesburg at the end of apartheid. It is a city of a small minority of ‘haves’ and millions of ‘have nothings’,” said Philippa Crosland Taylor, head of Oxfam GB in Kenya.

Children in Nairobi slums are now some of the least healthy in the country, the report found. In some parts of the city, infant mortality rates are double those of poor rural areas, and half of young children suffer from acute respiratory infections and stunted growth. Acute child malnutrition is a growing concern.

The urban crisis has intensified over the past year, with people now earning less but having to pay more to survive. Household incomes have fallen due to the global economic crisis, with casual and long-term work harder to find as companies scale down. Meanwhile, the price of staple foods such as maize has more than doubled in the past year, with 90 per cent of poor families forced to reduce the amount of food they eat as a result.

With drought devastating much of Kenya, the water crisis in Nairobi is one of the most severe in the country. Cholera cases have recently been reported and are expected to increase as almost 90 per cent of slum dwellers have no piped clean water. Forced to buy from commercial street vendors, the poorest people often have to pay the highest prices – the report found that some poor communities pay eight times as much for water as wealthier communities in the same city.

Oxfam said the Kenyan government has repeatedly ignored the growing magnitude of the urban crisis, and urged it to invest more funds and resources in improving life for the most vulnerable residents of Nairobi’s slums. Projects that improve access to clean water and sanitation, and boost people’s income, are most urgently needed. International donors, who have tended to focus exclusively on rural poverty, also need to recognise the scale of the urban problem, the agency said.

“Just a few miles away from the country’s parliament and State House, poor families are living in breathtaking poverty, scouring the streets for scraps of food and queuing for hours for water they can barely afford. If the government does not acknowledge this crisis, it will get even worse. Failure to address this now will leave Kenya paying for generations to come,” said Crosland-Taylor.

The report warned that the rising urban inequality is creating a huge underclass with serious consequences for the country’s security and social fabric. The struggle to survive has forced some of the most vulnerable people into crime and high-risk occupations such as prostitution. Frustrated youth are increasingly turning to violence and with Kenya still extremely politically volatile following the 2007/08 post-election violence, the risk of ethnically-linked clashes in Nairobi’s slums is being exacerbated by the growing resentment over inequality and desperate living conditions.

“Having enough food to eat and clean, safe water is one of the most basic human rights, yet in Nairobi it is increasingly only for the rich minority. Nairobi is one of the biggest and most prestigious cities in East Africa, yet it is crumbling before our eyes,” said Crosland-Taylor.

Extreme poverty: Zambia needs to move "from rhetoric to action"

Photo: Florence Devouard/Wikimedia Commons"Effectively addressing extreme poverty in Zambia requires moving from rhetoric to action," said the United Nations Independent Expert on human rights and extreme poverty, Magdalena Sepúlveda, at the end of her visit to the country, the first mission of a UN human rights expert to Zambia.

"Zambia is a country rich in natural resources that experienced significant economic growth in the last 8 years. Nevertheless, it was appalling to see the persistence of extreme poverty in different regions of the country," stressed the UN expert sharing some of her preliminary findings at a press conference in Lusaka.

Ms. Sepúlveda met with various Government authorities, international organisations and NGOs, and visited communities living in poverty in Chipata, Chirundu, Katete and the Zambian capital. "In my visits to communities I learnt about the daily struggle for survival by people living in extremely difficult conditions. The Government has made clear commitments and outlined important plans to change this situation, but words must be translated into more actions."

The expert, who was briefed on the ongoing review of the Constitution by the National Constitution Conference, pointed out that this process is a unique opportunity to bring the Zambian legal framework in line with international human rights commitments made by the country. "Access to health, housing, education and social security are all universal human rights that must be incorporated into the Bill of Rights," said Ms. Sepúlveda.

According to the expert, improving law is important, "but it is not sufficient". In her view, poverty will not be reduced in Zambia until poor people are placed at the centre of national policies planning and if resources to social protection are not ensured. "The extremely poor must be the number one priority of the State budget," she stressed.

Ms. Sepulveda saw first-hand the remarkable impact of pilot programmes of social cash transfer in urban and rural communities, which benefit households unable to undertake any income generating activity. "Without social cash transfers, older people, women and children would be virtually abandoned to their fate," said the expert. "I was extremely pleased to hear that the Government has decided to scale-up these programmes."

The independent expert fully acknowledged the resources constraints of the Government and encouraged international donors to support social protection programmes in Zambia. Nonetheless, she also stressed that the Government still can do much more with the limited resources that it has. "Governments must closely assess the allocation of public spending and fiercely combat corruption".

The expert stressed that transparency, accountability and participation are indispensable for effective poverty reduction policies. "Civil society has a crucial role in the struggle against poverty, it should not only actively participate in the design process but also be able to monitor and evaluate what is being done."

In this sense, Ms. Sepulveda expressed concern about the impact that the recently adopted NGO Act may have in restricting the independence of NGOs and subjecting them to excessive controls. She also called for enhanced support to the Human Rights Commission and the immediate adoption of the Anti Corruption Statute and an access to information act.

As a result of this visit, the expert will prepare a report that will be presented at the UN Human Rights Council in June 2010, describing her main findings and providing recommendations on the enhancement of the human rights situation of people living in extreme poverty.

Training students to tackle food systems, poverty problems

Although farming and food distribution improvements have increased the quality of life in Asia, Europe and North America, 2.6 billion people still live on less than USD2 a day and suffer from chronic extreme poverty.

A new Cornell University program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) will train a cadre of graduate students to use interdisciplinary approaches to tackle food systems and agricultural problems that contribute to extreme poverty.

A five-year, USD3.2 million NSF grant will support 25 Ph.D. students for two years each in the Food Systems and Poverty Reduction Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) program, administered through the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development. The NSF IGERT grant, in turn, is funded through federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, intended to spur economic development by expanding educational opportunities, among other things.

Open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, the program is scheduled to begin in August 2010 with more than 20 graduate fields participating. The curriculum will include a seminar series; field research in Kenya and Ethiopia to study both highland and dryland agricultural systems in collaboration with partners at Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia and the International Livestock Research Institute; and a three-semester core course sequence that takes interdisciplinary approaches to addressing such problems as water shortages, climate change and vulnerability to food systems, soil degradation, pests and diseases, and food supply chains.

"The idea behind the program is to expose students to different disciplinary approaches to the same problem," said Chris Barrett, the Steven B. and Janice G.
Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management and the program's principal investigator. "If you are tackling issues related to pests and disease, for example, a food scientist's approach will be different from [that of] a plant pathologist or an entomologist."

Students will also learn to use and link together new concepts and computer modeling techniques applied by different disciplines for more integrated and dynamic insights on these issues. For example, if researchers want to study problems of maintaining a small but productive farm, they must integrate information relating to soils, crop selection, fertiliser use, livestock, water management and more.

A fortnightly seminar series will include talks by Cornell and other food experts. During weeks between those talks, professional development seminars will teach students such skills as how to write grant proposals, make effective presentations, manage data, uphold research ethics and work in a multicultural field setting.

"Some of the biggest challenges facing society revolve around poverty, food and the environment, areas that have been hallmarks of graduate Cornell training for years," said Barrett. "This program will deepen that training and stitch together interdisciplinary approaches."

Co-principal investigators include Rebecca Nelson, associate professor of plant breeding and genetics and of plant pathology and plant-microbe biology; Alice Pell, professor of animal science and vice provost for international relations; Per Pinstrup-Andersen, the H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy; and Alison Power, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and dean of the Graduate School.