Food Security Addressed through Local Government Initiatives in New Book from UNCDF
Living on the margins of food insecurity is a way of life for Teble Mengistu. Living in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, he works from dawn to dusk every day to eke out a living for his family. Photo by Adam Rogers.
Food and the Poor: How can democratic local governments reduce food insecurity in Africa?
12 June 2007: The United Nations Capital Development Fund has published a new book on food security, with an emphasis on the challenges in Africa. 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.
"The book's 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," said author Angelo Bonfiglioli, UNCDF's senior technical advisor for East and Southern Africa.
"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," he added. "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."
The book points out that at least one-sixth of humanity is 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.
Food for the Poor is available for sale at UN Publications and Amazon.com.
It also is available for free as a pdf download.
