Feeding hunger and insecurity

6. what more is needed?Box 7: Hunger in the InternationalCovenant on Economic, Soicaland Cultural RightsArticle 11: 1. The States Parties to the presentCovenant recognise the right of everyone to anadequate standard of living for himself andhis family, including adequate food, clothingand housing, and to the continuous improvementof living conditions. 2. The States Partiesto the present Covenant, recognising the fundamentalright of everyone to be free fromhunger, shall take, individually and through internationalco-operation, the measures, includingspecific programmes, which are needed:(a) To improve methods of production, conservationand distribution of food by making full useof technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminatingknowledge of the principles of nutritionand by developing or reforming agrariansystems in such a way as to achieve the mostefficient development and utilisation of naturalresources;(b) Taking into account the problems of bothfood-importing and food-exporting countries, toensure an equitable distribution of world foodsupplies in relation to need.Source: Renton 2007tions must become national law. Only when statescan be challenged by their citizens, will there bea space for the hungry to demand food. We canbegin by learning from India’s National Rural EmploymentGuarantee Scheme, which allows citizensto claim 100 days of work per year at minimumwage from the government. There is a greatdeal of progress to be made, but the potential isconsiderable.6.2.4 Improve Surveillance and LinkSurveillance to Implementation!Figure 5.1 shows the substantial delay betweenthe rising food prices and the international response,a characteristic of many famine interventions.Figure 6.1 illustrates the same patternfor the 2005/06 drought response in the Horn ofAfrica. Action Against Hunger’s assessment inLiberia observed that while food prices were affectinglivelihoods in early 2008, WFP was onlyeffectively operational in September. It is vital thatwe shed this reactive, media-sensitive approachto combating hunger – particularly acute malnutrition.In order to react sooner to emergenciesand implement proper interventions a good surveillancesystem is needed. A good surveillancesystem would:Figure 6.1: Timeline of the response to the 2005/06 drought in the Horn of AfricaOct Nov DecJan Feb Mar Apr MayEarly warningWindow of opportunity to take preventative actionGovernment of Kenya declaration of emergencyMulti agency assessmentsFunding appealsLivelihoods interventions by agencies with longer term programmingEmergency responsereaches capacitySource: ODI 200656ACF International NetworkFeeding Hunger and Insecurity