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HUNGER, THE MDGs AND SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES
Prof. Dr. Willem Van Cotthem
University of Ghent (Belgium)
I have been reading again and again "THE 1 BILLIONHUNGRY
PROJECT" introduction:
"THE 1 BILLIONHUNGRY PROJECT
Hunger, a quiet crisis, is rarely in the news.
Yet current calculations show that close to one billion people
worldwide continue to go hungry on a
daily basis. It now appears all but certain that the hunger
target associated with UN Millennium
Development Goal no. 1 reduction of hunger by half by 2015 will
not be met.
On reflection, it is a situation that stirs feelings of
frustration, indignation, even anger. Most people, if
they believed it was within their power to change things, would
take action.
The 1billionhungry project is a global communication campaign
that offers a constructive outlet for
peoples feelings of anger and indignation. It is a carefully
orchestrated drive to attract at least onemillion signatures to a
petition calling on national and international leaders to move
hunger to the top
of the political agenda."
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Some questions keep coming to my mind:
* Will the political leaders really be "moved" by this petition
and move hunger to the top of the
political agenda?
* Aren't the MDGs their most important political agenda, with
poverty and hunger as Goal No. 1?
* Do we remember well the content of MDG 1 ? :
"Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
* Target 1A: ...................
* Target 1B: .....................
* Target 1C: Halve the proportion of people who suffer from
hunger
o Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age
o Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy
consumption"
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More questions remain:
* Will this petition really change something at the decisions
already taken by those leaders?
* When will something really change in a s ustainable way?
* Why don't the "1 million people feeling frustration, anger and
indignation" come up with suggestionsabout the best practices to
combat hunger?
* Which are the efficient solutions, different from the actual
ones leaving the daily situation of 1 billion
people hungry almost unchanged during the last decades
(notwithstanding a recent reduction to 925
million)?
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1 million signatures should not be a final objective of this
project, it should be the start of an efficient
program based upon success stories, if not by the political
leaders and their national and international
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organizations, then by the hundreds of organizations of the 1
million people who have signed this
petition ("Most people, if they believed it was within their
power to change things, would take action."
And I signed it too! So, let us create the power to change
things, let us take action, following all thosewho already take
action to produce their own food, e.g. the ever-growing group of
the so-called city
farmers.
A new dawn? Absolutely not, for already in World Wars I and II
the political leaders decided to offerallotments to the poor, a
sustainable strategy to alleviate poverty and hunger, still well
alive and
kicking (see the thousands of allotment gardens all over the
world).
Well, well, isn't that MDG 1 all over?
