Food and the Poor

Description

Food and the Poor focuses on Africa and the specific situation of food insecurity for millions of African women and men. Many of its observations and recommendations are also pertinent in other contexts worldwide. The book primarily aims at stimulating further exchange and debate within the UN system and among our development partners and our national government counterparts. Its main message is that democratic processes, public reforms, fiscal measures and economic growth can be sustainable only if they do secure the livelihoods of millions of poor people, particularly in terms of reducing their vulnerability to food crises. Since the signing of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, the gravity of poverty around the world and the urgency for more specific initiatives aimed at reducing it have greatly informed general development discourse and practices. Among the various goals and targets of this worldwide initiative, hunger eradication certainly occupies a special place, because hunger more than other aspects of poverty directly erodes human dignity and undermines the foundations of human society. At least one-sixth of humanity is still threatened by vulnerability to hunger. Food insecurity dramatically affects millions of people both in rural areas and in urban centers of poor countries, with unacceptable human, economic, social and political consequences.