The war on hunger and the 1996 promise by world leaders to cut it in half in 20 years is no longer practical or reachable, hunger advocates concede.
“Hunger is on the rise again after falling steadily during the first half of the 1990s,” the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization stated in a report issued two weeks ago.
An additional 18 million people were added to the world’s hunger rolls, a 50 percent reversal in the reductions recorded earlier.
“This clearly is a setback to the hunger goal,” said David King, chief official for the International Federation of Agriculture Producers. “I think it’s due entirely to the neglect of agriculture in countries around the world.”
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Hartwig de Haen, FAO assistant director general, saw it as a lack of political will, even as world leaders and politicians gather at FAO head offices in Rome this week to reaffirm the commitment to hunger reduction that they have not been backing with national policies. Federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief is representing Canada.
“Ultimately, success in reducing hunger will depend on mustering the political will to engage in policy reforms and invest resources where they can do the most good for the poor and hungry,” de Haen said in statement issued in Rome.
It has not been happening since the first commitment was made in the pomp of a world food summit in Rome eight years ago.
The FAO reported last week that after years of falling numbers of starving people in the world, millions more were added in the years 1999-2001. The hunger total is now up to 842 million people.
The 1996 World Food Summit commitment was that the 800 million then on the hunger list would be reduced to 400 million by 2015.
Politicians and international hunger advocates say the hunger reduction goal cannot be met.
The FAO cited wars, bad weather, the onslaught of AIDS in many countries and continued underinvestment in agriculture as the primary culprits.
In Canada, a senior international development bureaucrat saw the grim international numbers as a vindication of Canada’s recent emphasis on agriculture and food security in its aid programming.
Susan Whelan, minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency, has promised that Canada’s contribution to food projects and agricultural development will increase from $100 million to $500 million by 2007-08.
“I think the message in these latest numbers is that there is a problem and that Canada is on the right path,” said CIDA acting policy branch director Mark Gawn. “I think the message is that we should stay the course. We have been emphasizing agriculture and food in our policies and clearly that is what is needed.”
At the offices of the international farmers’ federation in Paris, King said it is a symbol of the fact that many countries endorse the principle of hunger eradication but do not take the political decisions necessary to make it work domestically.
“I think you have to see this as a failure so far,” he said. “There are lots of words but far fewer actions.”
