SA, others striving for #ZeroHunger for World Food Day
IN NOVEMBER 1979, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation hosted its 20th General Conference, where member states agreed to the annual commemoration of World Food Day (WFD).
Each year, WFD events are hosted in more than 150 countries under an identified theme to highlight a specific area of concern, globally, with a prevailing focus on hunger and poverty.
On October 16, the SA Human Rights Commission commemorated World Food Day under the global theme: “Change the future of migration. Invest in food security and rural development” – using the global hashtag, #ZeroHunger – as part of its broader objective to monitor and promote the right to food and the elimination of hunger, poverty and inequality.
The country’s constitution guarantees the right of everyone to access sufficient food. To ensure the realisation of this right, the state must assist in the provision of resources to enable people to procure food.
In the event that people are unable to access such resources, the state is obliged to provide appropriate social assistance to them.
By making a commitment to changing the future of migration, there is a recognition that hunger is one of the contributing factors to migration of people. The Food and Agricultural Organisation notes that besides conflict and political instability, hunger, poverty, and an increase in extreme weather events linked to climate change are other important factors contributing to the migration challenge. This then calls for sustainable measures to curb the underlying causes of hunger and poverty leading people to migrate within and outside their borders.
The commission notes efforts made by the government towards the realisation of the right to food.
However, research by Statistics South Africa has indicated that just under one-quarter of South Africans have inadequate or severely inadequate access to food.
And research by the commission has found that many families with access to food are consuming unhealthy food with empty calories.
Current policies on the right to food are disproportionally focused on production, while other rights-based issues are ignored or not adequately addressed.
As such, the commission urges the state, relevant stakeholders and the public at large to commemorate this day by reiterating their commitment to alleviating food insecurity, hunger and poverty.
“Comprehensive legislation regulating the entire food system must be developed to co-ordinate and streamline South Africa’s food system, which will assist in ensuring access to nutritious food and information on healthy eating and non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes.
Further, the commission calls on the state to invest in sustainable food systems and the acceleration of rural development initiatives by creating business opportunities and jobs for emerging farmers, particularly young people who aspire to work in the agricultural sector,” says JB Sibanyoni, commissioner responsible for Rural Development and the Right to Food.
Ultimately, a co-ordinated multi-sectoral approach is required to realise national and international goals, and achieve #ZeroHungerSA. Gail Smith South African Human Rights Commission