CARE welcomes the opportunity to submit feedback here and in the attachment on the Issues Note regarding the focus of the forthcoming High Level Panel of Experts report on Nutrition and Food Systems. CARE is pleased that the Committee on World Food Security has taken up the critical issue of nutrition and the role the CFS can play. CARE appreciates the focus of the report on food systems and all aspects of sustainability. In particular, CARE welcomes the reference in the Issues Note to Global Goal 13, on climate change.
We face a greater challenge than ever before: ending hunger and malnutrition in the face of climate change and natural resource scarcity. While much of the global dialogue on ending hunger focuses – overemphasizes, in fact – the need to increase yields, it is vital that the global community acknowledge that lack of food is not the sole cause of hunger. Inequality shapes who has access to food and the resources to grow it and buy it. It governs who eats first and who eats worst. When food is scarce, often because of extreme weather or disasters, women and girls are less likely or the last of the family to eat. And even without crisis, cultural tradition often dictates that women and girls eat last, after men and children have eaten. If we are to achieve the new Sustainable Development goal of ending hunger and malnutrition by 2030, particularly in the face of climate change, we must address these underlying inequalities in food systems.
Acknowledging that this focus for the HLPE report is important and complex, CARE also recognizes the role of inequality as a driver of hunger, malnutrition, and poverty, and believes strongly that issues of gender inequality and power dynamics (from household to global level, as it impacts the ability of different populations to access adequate nutritious food) must also be included. These issues should, in fact, serve as the lens through which all the questions are examined.
By beginning with questions of power and inequality, particularly through a gender lens, and examining growing threats to nutrition like climate change, the HLPE report can contribute to policy approaches, actionable solutions, and research that target underlying causes of malnutrition and contribute to sustainable, positive impact. We offer additional reflections on and recommendations for the focus of the HLPE report on Nutrition and Food Systems.
Tonya Rawe