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Year of
Agriculture
atSAIS
has advised world leaders,
including the prime ministers
of Kosovo, Macedonia,
Montenegro and Poland.
Pearson said of her new
role at REACH, “At the
country level, aid coordination
is imperative to tackle
the problems of hunger
and malnutrition. We are
exiting an era of easy fixes,
large global investments
and pilot projects that do
not make full use of existing
resources and local
partners at the community
level. All partners, especially
NGOs and the private
sector, need to contribute
to building sustainable local
food systems.”
The Hunger-Poverty Cycle
The problem of world hunger
is complicated because
of the way hunger and
poverty intersect. Hunger
is a cause of poverty, and
poverty causes hunger.
Resulting poor health, and
even mental impairment,
can lead to greater poverty
by reducing people’s ability
to work and learn—in turn
leading to even greater hunger.
Risk analysis sheds light
on these complexities.
“There are three levels of
risk analysis that need to be
taken into consideration,”
Pearson said. “First, the
global economy and rising
food and fuel prices affect
poor countries’ market volatility
and local food prices,
which affects the poorest
segments of society most
severely. These political
factors often put pressure
on governments to charge
export taxes and develop
schemes to keep food supplies
at home.”
The second type of
risk analysis, Pearson
said, relates to how well
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