Governments accused of making hunger worse

ActionAid UK

EMBARGOED until: 00.01 hours Friday 16th October 2009

Newshook: 16th October World Food Day and release of ActionAid’s Who’s really fighting hunger?

October 16th - World Food Day - Some of the poorest countries in the world have made striking progress on hunger, while some wealthier countries, such as India lag behind, new findings from ActionAid show.

“It’s the role of the state and not the level of wealth, that determines progress on hunger,” said Anne Jellema, ActionAid’s policy director, launching the scorecard report Who’s Really Fighting Hunger?

“Every six seconds a child dies from hunger, but this scandal could easily be ended if all governments took determined action.”[i]

ActionAid has investigated what 51 governments are doing to tackle the billion hungry. The scorecard report shows that China, ranked second out of the developing countries, cut hunger numbers by 58 million in ten years through strong state support for smallholder farmers. By contrast, in liberalizing India, thirty million more people have joined the ranks of the hungry since the mid-nineties.

Brazil comes out top in the rankings of developing countries, having cut child malnutrition by 73 per cent in just six years through extensive investment in smallholder farmers and a strong package of social welfare policies.

Ghana and Malawi, ranking third and fifth among developing countries, have demonstrated that with political will there is a way. In just a few years, Malawi moved from recurring famines to food surpluses by ramping up state support to agriculture.

Speaking from a rally in famine-stricken Kenya - one of the twenty organized by ActionAid globally - ActionAid's food rights coordinator, Nixon Otieno said, “It is a scandal that one in ten Kenyans needs emergency food aid, while we export fruit and vegetables to European supermarkets. Our government and donor partners must invest in poor farmers who grow food for local markets. Permanent safety nets must be put in place so that no one starves for lack of income.”

Otieno also slammed rich countries for contributing to hunger by allowing climate change to worsen. “Climate-related droughts and floods are already causing food crises in my country and across Africa. Rich countries must cut their carbon emissions now.”

Developed countries fare even worse in the report. The United States scores woeful 8 out of 100 on hunger eradication, while Italy scores just 19, mostly because of their miserly aid to agriculture.

Overall, donor countries reduced aid to agriculture budgets from 16.8 per cent of all official development spending in 1979, to just 3.4 per cent in 2004, despite signing up to the UN goal to halve hunger by 2015. The US and EU also promote biofuels, which displace food crops. Germany spends a staggering $23 per person per year on biofuel subsidies.

“There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but there are clear lessons to be drawn from our top performing countries,” said Jellema. “Massive and urgent support to poor farmers, and social welfare programmes for vulnerable groups, are needed now to reverse growing global hunger. At the World Food Summit next month, donor countries need to announce an additional $23 billion annually to fund these measures.

ENDS

LINKS to:
The HungerFREE scorecard report and activities taking place across the world: http://www.actionaid.org/main.aspx?pageId=1373

ActionAid's HungerFREE Scorecard report looks at the performance of 51 governments in tackling hunger. Unlike other hunger indices, which assess outcomes only, it also evaluates government actions and commitments.

The actions and commitments tracked are those singled out in the UN’s 2008 Comprehensive Framework for Action as most critical for reversing hunger.[ii] Developing countries have been graded on their legal commitment to the right to food, investment in agriculture and social protection, and performance on hunger and child nutrition. Developed countries have been ranked on aid to agriculture and social protection; commitment to sustainable agriculture and tackling climate change.

The first section of this report, ‘HungerFREE Global Indicators,’ compares performance and progress across countries. The second section of this report, ‘HungerFREE Country Scorecards’, takes a closer look at each country with at-a-glance scorecards.

Out of 22 developed countries, the UK ranks eighth, Denmark fifth, Netherlands seventh, France ninth, Italy 14th, Greece 16th, Australia 17th and the US 21st. Luxembourg is top and New Zealand bottom.

Out of thirty developing nations, Brazil ranks top, China second, Ghana third, Vietnam fourth and Malawi fifth. Democratic Republic of Congo is bottom.

ActionAid believes the lessons from top performing countries can be applied to reverse growing global hunger. It is calling on governments to:

· Reverse decades of neglect of agriculture by increasing developing country budget allocations to at least 10 per cent as part of a comprehensive national anti-hunger action plan.
· Increase donor aid to agriculture by at least US $20 billion per year, and ensure these funds directly support national plans by channeling them through a coordinated funding mechanism.
· Give priority to investment in poor farmers, especially women, and support climate-resilient, low-input agriculture.
· Eliminate subsidies for biofuel production, which directly undermine food security.
· Increase both donor and developing country investment in social protection and basic social services.
· As part of a just global climate deal in Copenhagen in December 2008, developed nations must agree to limit emissions but also to support and sustain adaptation and mitigation measures in developing countries to the tune of US $182 billion per year.