Media briefing: Catholic aid network tells G20 ‘it is the right of all human beings to live free from hunger’
"If you go to my grain store, you will see it is empty. We have no food until October." -- Hamani Fodi, Niger
In a new briefing report launched in the run-up to this year’s G20 summit in Mexico, Caritas Internationalis and CIDSE are telling world leaders to act on hunger.
Food Security and the G20 highlights that access to food is about more than mere nutrition and is linked to much wider issues of livelihoods, and that those issues must be addressed by the G20.
The report says: ‘It is the right of all human beings to live in dignity, free from hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. There are nearly a billion people suffering from hunger in the world today. In every society food does not comprise of solely material ‘nutritional’ elements, but also social, economic, political, cultural elements connected to food use, production and trade. Endangering food security has obvious impacts on the most vulnerable social groups, the poorest.’
The G20 meeting takes place in Los Cabos, Mexico on June 18 and 19 and risks being taken over by debate on the Eurozone crisis at a time when the global economic downturn is increasing the vulnerability of the world’s poorest communities and families.
CAFOD’s G20 network coordinator, Dominic Foster, who wrote the report said: “The Caritas-CIDSE G20 Network is calling for urgent and tangible action from the G20 to address the root causes of food insecurity. Poor and vulnerable farmers need to be given fair and meaningful access to markets, and the G20 is central to addressing economic structures that prevent this from happening.”
"Hunger is not inevitable"
Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Michel Roy said: “Hunger is not inevitable. It must be tackled by fighting its structural causes, primarily by promoting sustainable agricultural development of poor countries.”
The report highlights that food security is the consequence of precise choices taken by many of those who hold power, for example: unfair resource access, unfair market conditions, unheard voices, unresponsive institutional environments, a lack of technical solutions that use local knowledge, and the complexities of local conditions not being acknowledged in global policy decisions.
CIDSE Secretary General Bernd Nilles said: “The Mexican G20 has a real opportunity to show leadership on the issue of food security by ensuring better regulation of markets, strengthening of local food production and creating better access to markets for small-holder farmers. The G20 also have a particular responsibility to lead the fight against global poverty, since more than half of the world's poorest people live in G20 countries.”
The Caritas-CIDSE G20 Network is calling on world leaders to:
- Adopt more inclusive growth, including better policy dialogue and markets for small holder farmers;
- Encourage other forums (such as the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation) to address factors that limit small-scale farmers, women-led households, landless workers and urban poor in developing countries access affordable and adequate food.
