Policy makers from Capitol Hill to Westminster Abbey are warning that
they will ease off the gas as hunger gives way to the burgeoning
economic crisis.
The G8 leaders have so far left hunger off the agenda and the G-20
seems poised to do the same, when, in fact, the economic crisis with
which they are so consumed is the very reason they should accelerate
funding for food security.
Crisis spilling from Manhattan to Nairobi
The economic crisis is just beginning to spill from the streets of
Manhattan where it has already wreaked havoc to the streets of Nairobi
and Mumbai.
Overseas workers are sending less money home to places like the
Philippines, Nicaragua and Kyrgyzstan, where these so-called
remittances make up as much of 20 percent of the GDP.
Commodity prices are plummeting, destroying the export markets in
countries like Zambia where copper prices have fallen 50 percent,
pushing tens of thousands out of work and destroying the export market.
Foreign direct investment is drying up as lending institutions jealously guard their capital.
These kinds of dramas are beginning to play out around the world we
work in, leading to poverty – and if we aren't proactive – wasted human
potential and civil unrest.
Poverty breeds hunger
The pattern is familiar. Poverty breeds hunger. Hunger breeds
malnutrition, which in turns breeds stunting. Without resources and
political will, we will share a future world with millions of
malnourished children who have grown into millions of adults whose
bodies are less able to fight disease, and whose minds linger far
behind their full potential. Moreover, when food and water are
absent, populations begin to move in search of both, increasing the
chances for civil unrest.
So at the World Food Programme, we are trying to think of how to
streamline food to places where we prevent malnutrition and stabilize
populations – even as we think about medium term solutions to
hunger. That may mean expanding school feeding as a social safety
net in certain countries like Haiti; or employing cash and vouchers as
we are in Burkina-Faso, or helping governments with their own programs
as we are in Honduras. All these things require funding. They require
time. They require attention.
G-20 and hunger
The G-20 is poised to meet next month in London, where they will tackle
the cutting edge issues of our day. To be sure, central banking
policies, stimulus packages and tax policies will be among them as they
grasp at economic straws to rescue a global economy that may well be
beyond rescue. The killer irony here is that while it is hard for any
government to reverse a downward global spiral, they have a good shot
to do something about hunger. For US$3 billion they could feed every
hungry school child. For $6 billion they could fund the World Food
Programme's full body of work. For $30 billion they could address a
bale of medium and longer-term agricultural issues.
These are difficult days and crisis sometimes crowds out common sense.
But let's do what we can to make sure that the global financial crisis
doesn't give birth to a more tragic human crisis.
That's what the G-20 should talk about. –
By the World Food Programme
Post published in: News