Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Dears,

Please see attached relevant Template by GUPAP!

In peace & justice!

Thank you for opening up this consultation.

For the older among us in this circle, there may well be a sense of déjà vu as we look back at a decade and more of consultative activity. Questions, and answers, seem to follow annual generations. What is posed from year to year varies little, and what is answered, the same.

That is why, in this contribution - which I make after a long gap - I would suggest a revisiting of terms, definitions and concepts. I think this needs to be done, every so often, and also especially as the fsnforum has expanded greatly in numbers from where it was some 13 or 14 years ago.

I'd like to start with the root level term, food. Does it mean the same as what we thought it to mean 15 years ago? Now, as I see it, 'food' can mean anything ultra-processed (there's another term we didn't have a decade ago) and sold in supermarkets with the packaging claim that it is food. So what do we mean by 'food'? Primary processed grain crop? Packagaed vegetables? Tetra-packed milk?

Next, the right, towhatever we call 'food', and guidelines. Without loading a thesis worth of material here, I would like to ask the question: are we talking about a right to be free from hunger, or a right to whatever it is that is expedient to call 'food'? I think thatere's a world of difference between the two.

Now for 'guidelines'. Here's what the text says: "practical guidance for States on how to realize the right to adequate food". Far too many fuzzy variables, in my view. What is 'adequate'? Could what's adequate in smalltown USA be the same 'adequate' as a village in the Horn of Africa? I would say not. What then is meant by 'adequate'?

And also, what have States (with a capital 'S') made of such rights and guidelines over the last 20 to 30 years? Without some kind of assessment about what States (which means countries and territories) actually do - on the ground and not on paper - it becomes moot as to whether any guidelines at all, let alone rights, are followed and ensured.

On to "Governments have legal obligations to ensure the right to food". Well, look, when governments are sending out factory-made inedible reprocessed junk, as some adjunct of a direct benefot transfer or universal basic income, then this as I see it is assuredly not the fulfilment of a legal obligation. Does the FAO Committee on Food Security (which many governments listen to) recognise this as being a rather knotty problem?

There are large doses of buzzwords and feelgood signalling in this text that really, I think serves no purpose other than to distract from pressing local problems. Why are we being carpet-bombed with the same old 'sustainable development,' ' conflict', 'inequality', 'disease', 'climate change', 'loss of biodiversity', 'cooperation and collaboration', ' collective public good', ' poverty', ' inequality'?

At 20 years old, shouldn't these have been worked out? Or at least substantially on the way to being worked out?

Best wishes, Rahul Goswami

Dears,

Thank you much for sharing and please see attached input from GUPAP!

In peace & justice

AHMED SOURANI | Co-Founder & General Coordinator

Gaza Urban & Peri-urban Agriculture Platform (GUPAP) | Gaza, Palestine  

Dear Sir/Madam,

Please find my attached contribution for your consideration.

Thank you.

Isaac

Estimado equipo del Foro FSN,

Remitimos en el archivo adjunto el formulario con la descripción de una segunda experiencia del uso de las directrices voluntarias en Colombia. Su aplicación aportó a la construcción participativa de políticas territoriales para la garantía progresiva del derecho humano a la alimentación, con actores sociales e institucionales.

 Quedamos atentas a cualquier información adicional que sea necesaria.

Cordialmente,

Carolina Santos Niño

FAO - Colombia

The right to food has been recognized since the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as part of the right to an adequate standard of living and is also enshrined in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. From the above observation(s), the right to feed oneself in dignity and continuously violated once there is not enough supply of food and the right nutritional content. What could be added is the mechanism to monitor, evaluate and strengthen these rights within the confines of the sovereign boundaries according to international agreements and obligations.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, several countries have developed and implemented constitutional amendments, national laws, strategies, policies, and programs over the last decades to fulfill all rights to food. Thus, every man, woman, and child should be free of hunger and able to sustainably develop their physical and mental faculties. However, these rights fall short of the desired standards for various reasons, such as global economic constraints severed by problems such as pandemics, wars, and climate change. As a result, hundreds of millions remain chronically hungry, and famines persist worldwide.

Ultimately, food-insecure communities are prone to public health problems, particularly those resulting from malnutrition. On the other hand, food insecurity also breeds other issues, such as societal discomfort and disorders, conflict and insecurity, infectious diseases, poverty, and immigration matters.

As FAO rightly puts it, hunger and malnutrition can be eradicated in our lifetime. The following can be done:

1. In addition to access to food as enshrined in the Conventions, the need to reinforce these rights should be bolstered by the availability of concrete and evidence-based data to inform global policies regarding food production, distribution, and end-use.
2. Food policies should be bolstered with substantial monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to assess how effectively global policies are implemented and whether gaps exist between the planned and achieved results.
3. International partnerships and collaborations are essential to aid resource mobilization, foster interdisciplinary approaches, and share knowledge, skills, and experiences, for food problems in the contemporary world are intersectoral in context and content.

Thanks to FAO, which has partnerships with the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and others.

Estimado equipo del Foro FSN,

Remitimos adjunto el formulario con la descripción de una experiencia del uso de las directrices voluntarias con líderes y lideresas sociales que fue desarrollada por la oficina de FAO Colombia.

Quedamos atentas a cualquier información adicional que sea necesaria.

Cordial saludo,

Angela Marcela Gordillo

 

There must be decentralized planning and action for ensuring an equitable public distribution system among the needy is highly recommended. It must be ensured through continuous evaluation/ performance monitoring and take necessary corrective steps to ensure accountability and access to adequate quality and quantity food in an equitable way. 

Hello!

I am Oyediji Olubukola Tolulope from Africa. I believed that right to food can be achieved when everyone has physical and economic access AT ALL TIMES to adequate food or means for it's procurement. This seems not to be the case in sub Saharan Africa this could be due to level of development, adoption of strategies that ensures this. Programmes and policies have been used but tend to be defeated through lack of adequate monitoring and evaluation. 

Its time to re-strategize as we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the right to food guidelines.. we hope to have revised strategy, well developed Policies and legislation that helps all to have access to food at all times.

Thank you.

OYEDIJI OLUBUKOLA TOLULOPE.

Dear Colleagues,

Right to Food Guidelines  and GC12 to the human right to food together have provided a  detailed characterization and illustration of the normative contents of the right, as envisaged under Article 11 (1 and 2) of the ICESCR. However, there is a compelling need to recognize the RtF expressly and unequivocally under constitutions of the member states. For such a recognition would be a major milestone, though not a panacea, to address the problem. It would facilitate the realization of the RtF, and help the states and their agencies to comply with their constitutional obligations to the right and to hold them accountable accordingly. Apart from this, a RtF legal framework would support the effort to better realize the right by providing the details on the right and its means of enforcement. Moreover, there is a need for a paradigmatic shift in policy approach. Non-binding and technical one does not put a duty on the state for the realization of the same. On the other hand, a policy alternative and a grass-root social movement that underscores food as a fundamental human right would be an instrumental to the realization of the right. Finally, through more democratic governance that ensures participation, accountability, non-discrimination, transparency, human dignity, empowerment, and rule of law the RtF can be better realized.