Outreach Issues A daily publication of Sustainable Development Issues Network (SDIN) and Stakeholder Forum (SF)
WEDNESDAY
A Recipe for Hunger: How the World is Failing on Food
May 6, 2009 The International Trade Union Confederation released a report which predicts a worsening of the already serious global food crisis unless urgent action is taken by governments and international agencies. The number of people without enough to eat increased by 150 million in 2008, and the global economic crisis is likely to result in a further 200 million falling into absolute poverty.
Inside this Issue: A Recipe for Hunger: How the World is Failing on Food
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Meetings and Meat Things
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Derecho Humano al Agua
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The Human Right to Water
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Dr. Tariq Banuri Profile
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Live from the CSD
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Food for Thought...
8 By: Annabella Rosemberg, Trade Union Advisory Committee
Outreach Issues is the civil society newsletter produced by the SDIN Group and Stakeholder Forum. Outreach Issues aims to report with attitude, from the global scene of sustainability. The organizations publishing Outreach Issues are not responsible for the content of signed articles. Opinions expressed in articles are those of the authors.
Food prices have diminished somewhat but the food crisis has not gone away: as long as the factors that caused it have not been tackled, it will return in the near future, almost one billion people live in constant hunger close to starvation. With the attention of the International community turned to the global financial and economic crisis, the real danger is that the world hunger situation may deteriorate even further. If anything useful is to come out of the food crisis, we will have to learn from past mistakes. Now is the time to act, and if the international community is determined to halve the number of hungry people by 2015 in MDGs, serious political will and commitment is needed. The trade union movement is demanding more
investment in the agricultural sector and universal social protection coupled with respect for core labour standards to bring about the decent and sustainable production of food and other agricultural products. The right to food must be considered a basic human right for everyone. The phenomenon The world witnessed hunger and famine in almost every decade of the 20th century. Currently, more than 963 million people are malnourished and living in dire poverty across the globe. The majority are rural and urban working poor. Yet the situation today is different in terms of its impact, ranging from poor people in developing countries to workers in industrialised countries all feeling the effect of soaring food prices on their household budgets. 1
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Never before have so many working women and men been forced to cut back on meals, health care or other essential spending so rapidly. The effects of high prices of food and lack of a decent income have been felt from Europe to Africa, from Asia to the Americas. The food crisis has affected everyone, but particularly the worst off, those living at the lower end of the income scale, who spend 50 to 70 percent of their income on food. The global food crisis has deprived them of one of their fundamental human basic rights, the right to be free from hunger and malnutrition. The sources of the crisis The policies pursued by the international financial institutions since the 1980s have been significant in determining why developing countries cannot ensure food security for their own citizens. During the heyday of the “Washington consensus�, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank supported market incentives by demanding that developing countries phase out agricultural subsidies that otherwise could have helped develop a strong domestic economy, and that grain buffer stocks be sold to pay off debt. A continuous and erroneous fixation on trade liberalisation as the answer to the world’s economic and social problems, took focus away from the vastly underdeveloped domestic agricultural sector. Many of those countries are now net importers of food, as opposed to their status as net exporters in the 1960s, and with the incredibly high prices of food commodities, it is clear that the policies of the IMF and the World Bank have failed. At the same time, more deregulation in trade and financial markets has mainly favoured agrofood multinationals based in industrialised countries and not the working rural and urban poor across the globe. In an effort to make quick returns and seek new investment options away from the traditional stock market, investors like hedge funds have sought out the agricultural commodity market in search for high-yield gains. The massive increase in speculative invest-
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ment has been a contributing factor in driving up prices of basic food staples. Another part of the problem is that the world is getting more populous. By 2050, there will be more than 9 billion people. The strain on food availability is estimated to rise in the future but already, pressure on water accessibility and grain production is rising because meat and dairy products are in higher demand than ten years ago. Climate change will make matters worse: recurring droughts, flooding and other climate change-related pressures are a global challenge. Climate change disasters occur most often in developing countries where failed harvests and poor crop yields can result in people going hungry for months. The solutions The first priority in alleviating this crisis must be to ensure food security in all countries so that rapid and secure food supplies can be guaranteed for those in need. Only by ensuring economic safety mechanisms that with certainty can reach the poorest people, the unemployed, waged workers and vulnerable groups such as women, can the international
community prevent the financial and economic crisis from worsening an already grim situation. Financial assistance for countries experiencing problems must be granted minus the failed policy conditionality from the international financial institutions. Another immediate action should be eliminating politically supported subsidies that boost biofuel production diverting food crops into fuel. More effective regulatory mechanisms are needed in the agricultural commodity and futures markets, limiting the speculation that helped drive up food prices during 2008. In the longer run, investment in rural infrastructure must be increased in developing countries. Assistance to smallscale agricultural production in developing countries would contribute to enabling the world to restore the supply-demand balance for food at a lower price level. Such assistance must take place under the right terms to achieve economic, social and environmental sustainability including decent work and respect for international labour standards for rural workers.
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The production of foodstuffs in developing countries for domestic consumption at accessible prices is essential in ensuring domestic food security and reducing poverty, by providing some security against escalating world prices for basic commodities. The provision of universal social protection is another part of the international framework for combating hunger.
The above combination of recommendations shows that there is no one, magic solution to the global food crisis. Yet governments must accept their role. They are failing when more than 963 million people are living in hunger and the number of poor people increases by more than 150 million in one year due to high food prices. In today’s interdependent world, that is not acceptable.
The international community must accept its joint responsibility to deliver an effective right to food for all the world’s citizens. This report will be presented in a Side Event, next Monday, at 6.15 pm, in Conference Room 6. The report is available at: http://www.ituccsi.org/IMG/pdf/food_crisis_EN.pdf
Meetings and Meat Things By: Don Gerritsen and Michaela Hogenboom, Dutch Youth Representatives
Hundreds of omnivores have gathered at CSD17. We must acknowledge that the extent of prosperity amongst the delegates is not representative to that of the average global citizen. Country representatives reiterate that the world is currently witnessing rising incomes of middlemen in several developing countries. As people achieve rising incomes, their ability to purchase more products and those of higher quality increases.
average American and all land was used in the same technological way as the Netherlands, meat production alone would account for 30% of the world’s potentially arable land, at least 4 times as much as is currently being used. Land is urgently needed for food crops, especially with the current food crisis. Land availability is not the only problem. Greenhouse emissions and energy requirements also pose potential difficulties. For example, production of 1 kg of beef requires the equivalent of 14.8 kg of CO2. In comparison, one gallon of gasoline emits approximately 2.4 kg of CO2.
Consuming kilo of beef, thus has a similar impact on the environment as 6.2 gallons of gasoline, or driving 160 miles on the highway in an average American mid-size car. The current cycle of the CSD provides countries with an excellent opportunity to discuss this topic now and actually implement policies this year. Action needs to be undertaken to reduce the effects of globally changing diets with reference to natural resources and to mitigate the current food crisis and climate change.
Food products are a good example of this phenomenon. Purchasing higher quality foods means altering from traditional, low cost food such as wheat and rice to meat products such as beef, poultry and pig. Meat consumption patterns vary around the world. The average worldwide consumption of meat is 31 kg. pp. per year. In American it is 124 kg. pp. per year while Bangladesh consumes 3 kg per person. However, meat consumption around the world is growing at an incredible pace. Economic development is in essence excellent for the well-being of country's citizens. But it could simultaneously have an enormous impact on the world’s environmental systems. One of the problems regarding meat is the amount of land required for its production. In the Netherlands, 20.9 m2 of land is required to produce a 1 kg of beef. If every person on the planet were to consume the same amount of meat as the
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Derecho Humano al Agua By: Prof. Dr. Demetrio Loperena, Centre for International Environmental Conflict Translated by: Gabriel Ballesteros, the International Court of Environment Arbitration and Conciliation
Desde la antigüedad el agua ha sido vista como uno de los elementos básicos de nuestro planeta. De hecho, el agua es el elemento que ha permitido el surgimiento y desarrollo de diversas y complejas formas de vida. El ser humano, como fruto de esta evolución, representa una de las más formas de vida más desarrolladas. Éste puede ser, en gracia de discusión, categorizado y separado de las demás especies. Pero, desde una perspectiva biológica somos parte de un conjunto interconectado y dependemos unos de los otros para nuestra supervivencia; y nuestra relación con el agua es tan obvia que nuestra especie manifiesta una fragilidad extraordinaria ante su ausencia. Desde esta perspectiva de interdependencia debe ser comprendida la protección del medio ambiente; así, manteniendo el balance biológico de nuestro planeta aseguramos nuestra propia subsistencia. Actualmente, vivimos en un mundo en el que podemos apreciar un vasto contraste que requiere un sentido de justicia. Muchos no tienen acceso al agua potable, mientras que para otros su acceso implica graves riesgos y rigurosos esfuerzos. Esto puede no implicar consecuencias desde una perspectiva biológica, pero la ética y el Derecho no pueden permanecer indiferentes ante ello: el Derecho no puede ser indiferente al sufrimiento humano. El derecho al agua, a diferencia de otros derechos básicos, como el derecho a la educación y a una vivienda digna, no es resultado de la civilización y el desarrollo. Esta es primordial para la existencia humana. El Derecho no puede perder de vista esta realidad biológica y, contrario sensu, su aplicación y desarrollo debe basarse en esto. Los derechos humanos se basan en principios éticos relativos a la dignidad de la persona, desde una perspectiva 4
individual y colectiva, en virtud de ello estos derechos no pueden ser relativizados. La dignidad humana se reconoce a todas las personas y los derechos humanos derivan de ello; y estos, a su vez, son la base de todo sistema legal. Por muchos años, los derechos humanos han sido abordados desde una perspectiva estrictamente jurídica, lo que ha ocasionado que la actividad económica se desenvuelva con indiferencia de estos. Con el surgimiento de un nuevo paradigma político, el desarrollo sostenible, y su corolario empresaria, la responsabilidad social corporativa, se ha abierto el camino a llenar este vacío. Hoy, más que nunca, la gestión de los recursos hídricos requiere una aproximación inexcusablemente humanística. De los datos recolectados puede deducirse con claridad que no nos encontramos ante una situación de escases, sino ante una gestión defectuosa. Además, garantizar el acceso al agua no es suficiente, ya que es igualmente necesario detener su contaminación. Tanto el derecho al agua como el
derecho a la vida son independientes de toda civilización y no han sido creados por el Estado. Sin embargo, se ha confiado a los Estados la tarea de proveer la infraestructura necesaria para hacer llegar el agua a las personas. Esto lleva a que el derecho al agua se transforme en el derecho a que se provea el agua. La naturaleza legal del derecho al agua y del derecho a que se provea el agua deben ser abordados conjuntamente. Desde una perspectiva legal, cualquier consideración del agua como objeto mercantil debe ceder el paso a una perspectiva relacionada con el derecho a la vida. Debe emprenderse un esfuerzo analítico para evitar la deshumanización del agua como un simple bien de consumo, cayendo a un abismo financiero. Por tanto, el derecho humano al agua no es el fruto de la especulación intelectual de los juristas, sino la respuesta práctica a una realidad. Así, todo análisis jurídico debe continuar estudiando el agua con el propósito de abolir los errores políticos y legales.
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The Human Right to Water By: Prof. Dr. Demetrio Loperena, Centre for International Environmental Conflict
From antiquity onwards, water has been contemplated as one of the most basic compositional elements in the world. Indeed, water has been the major element that has permitted our planet to emerge and develop diverse and complex forms of life. The human being, a fruit of this evolution, represents one of the most highly-developed forms of life. Analytically, we can categorize and isolate the human being as a species. However for biological purposes, we are part of an interwoven collection of living beings mutually dependent upon one another for the survival of each individual, and even more, for the survival of the species. Our relationship with water is so obvious that our species manifests extraordinary fragility in its absence. It is from this concept of natural dependency that we are able to derive an understanding of environmental protection: maintaining the
balance of the Planet's complex biotic system ensures our own survival. At present we live in a world of vast contrasts that intensely calls for a sense of justice. Too many have no access to drinking water and access for many others involves risks or hardships. This may perhaps be indifferent for the biotic complex but it is not so for ethics or the law. The law cannot and should not be indifferent to personal suffering. Water, unlike other basic rights such as housing or education, is not a result of a civilization's development. Water is primordial to life. Accordingly, the law cannot overlook this biological reality and must instead base any of its development or application from this assumption. Human rights are shared ethical principles referring to the individual and the collective dignity of persons. Rights are not contextual. The idea is that human dignity is possessed by all persons and human rights derive from this basic understanding. Human rights are the
regulatory apex of any legal system. For many years, human rights were left in the hands of jurists. This allowed economic activity to function separately and thus apart from the rights that promoted and guaranteed it. With the emergence of a new political paradigm, sustainable development and its business corollary, corporate social responsibility, we are on the way to bridging the gap. Today more than ever water management demands an inexcusable humanistic conception in its approach. From the data furnished it may be clearly deduced that we are not faced with a scarcity of water but rather with poor management and distribution. Moreover, It is not enough to have access to water, what is required is non-contaminated water in suitable quantities. Water or life, both of which are also human rights, do not come from any development of civilization and no State can create them. Nevertheless, we entrust States with providing the necessary infrastructure so that it reaches our homes. These circumstances turn the right to water into the right to the supply of drinking water. The legal nature of the right to water and the right to the supply of water must be addressed jointly. From a legal perspective, any consideration of water as an object of commerce should yield considering its connection to the right of life. Analytical efforts should be taken to avoid dehumanizing water as a mere object of consumption which falls into the abyss to the exclusion of the financially deprived. The human right to water is therefore not the fruit of the intellectual speculation of jurists, but rather a practical response to realities. Legal researchers must continue studying water in order to avoid mistakes in policies and law. 5 7
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Dr. Tariq Banuri Profile By: Brett Israel, Stakeholder Forum
“When you think about turning a ship around, you don’t do it on dime, you think about how to convert your energy and join forces with others,” said Tariq Banuri, Director of the UN Division for Sustainable Development. Banuri knows a few things about bringing people together. As a co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2007 report, he shares the Nobel Peace Prize with, among others, Al Gore. Banuri is at the UN to speak at the Commission for Sustainable Development 17. A Pakistan national, Banuri was a guest on Pioneers of the Planet, a radio program recorded live at the UN by the Stakeholder Forum in partnership with BBC World Trust. Sustainable development is a social justice issue according to Banuri. At the CSD, he is building partnerships with people from all levels of power – from grassroots to policy makers – to form a responsible environmental ethic that will benefit everyone. “To this day my notion of sustainable development or environment is driven by the notion of what is just,” said Banuri, “how do we behave justly as a group and as a species.” Banuri landed in the world of sustainable development by a circuitous route. After
his doctorate in economics, he was curious about how people from different communities value forests. He talked with people from all over the world and he realized that the damage in forests alone was too large to continue without impacting us all. The planet, he said, is too big to fail.
“To this day my notion of sustainable development or environment is driven by the notion of what is just” He decided to do something about this problem. To help bring together citizens, researchers and advocates, Banuri set up the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Pakistan, which integrates environmental and social concerns. 17 years later, Banuri is still hard at work. “It’s not something I’d say ‘Oh, look, I’m going to work on this for two years, and then it’s going to get done.’ It’s really the challenge that lies before my generation, and perhaps your generation as well,” Banuri said on the radio program. “I mean it’s an unfinished agenda and we’ll have to
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Dr. Tariq Banuri
pass it on,” said Banuri. Banuri’s main focus at CSD is to build partnerships across all barriers. He wants to bring people together from all aspects of justice - whether economic, social, political or labor – to create a more collaborative, and hopefully more effective, action plan. Any plan they craft must be “for us as a human civilization,” Banuri said, and not for any one group. As a self-professed optimist, Banuri is undaunted by the challenges before him. He believes that it’s up to us as a human species to solve this problem of sustainable development, just like we’ve solved other problems in the past. He says this encourages him to speak out on sustainable development. “You realize that literally almost anything you can do will be useful, because there is just so much to be done. Everybody can pick up a little piece and start running with it,” said Banuri. Banuri’s entire interview with Pioneers of the Planet is available online at media.stakeholder.org.
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Live from the CSD
http://media.stakeholderforum.org
First Counsellor, Delegation of the EC to the UN. The discussion focused on the already visible affects of climate change on communities in these fragile environments.
By: Merim Tenev, Bulgarian Journalist, Stakeholder Forum
Today at the CSD Today at “Earth Talk” we discussed how the key issues and views on environment protection and nature preservation have changed over the years since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 up until the current CSD 17. Our guests were Genevieve Verbrugge and Kiara Worth. Genevieve leaded the French Government Delegation to the CSD for a number of years and now works as an independent consultant. Kiara is a sustainable development specialist from South Africa and representative of the youths cluster.
process on sustainable development which included vox pops from the streets of New York, on the meaning of sustainable development to average citizens. Michael Strauss moderated “The Greentable” on Small Island Developing States with guests Ambassador Ronny Jumeau from the Seychelles, Angus Friday of AOSIS and Maria Francesca Spatolisano
The Stakeholder Forum will be holding a training day tomorrow “Working with the Media” in Conference Room B between 3-5pm. The training will be led by Richard Black BBC Environment Correspondent, Michael Strauss Media Consultant, Nikhil Chandavarkar Chief of Communication and Outreach,UN DSD (DESA) and Jean-Victor Nkolo UN Department of Public Information.
“What Greenpeace wants decision-makers to agree on at this session at the CSD are solutions and implementable measures, that will be able to change the current system. The current system is not sustainable.” - Marco Contiero.
In “Pioneers of the Planet” our guest was Dr. Tariq Banuri. A national of Pakistan, Dr. Banuri is Director of the UN Division on Sustainable Development. He presented his views on building partnerships between the developed and the developing countries, as well how sustainable development and social justice are achievable. See a fuller profile of Dr Banuri on page 6. In “Today at the CSD” our round-up programme of the days events, we explored the issue of sustainable agriculture and presented the session on “Fostering a Culture of Partnership for Rangelands”. We also talked about the policy level implementations for agriculture at the national level. There is also a very interesting segment about the education
Ambassador Ronny Jumeau, Seychelles and Ambassador Angus Friday, AOSIS
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Food for Thought…
Felix Dodds, Stakeholder Forum
“TED” I was sitting in a Borders book shop, or rather Borders book shop/coffee bar waiting for the CSD Radio team to arrive. I was using the time to think about what to write for this column and what would be my favourite green film. I am not a great documentary watcher. I am not sure if living and reading about the problems we are facing has turned me against watching a documentary. If I watch TV or films I guess I do prefer to get lost in fiction. Or I should say that was true until a couple of years ago, until I discovered TED. If you haven’t logged on to the TED web site (see www.TED.org) then do so after you have finished reading the latest issue of Outreach Issues. TED sprang forth in 1984 out of an observation by Richard Saul Wurman, of the potential for powerful convergence between Technology, Entertainment and Design. It started out as a small conference in California and has grown into a global community, many million strong, focused on exchanging and spreading ideas. The conference is where people meet to discuss topics as varied as: Sarah Jones as a one-woman global village; re-wiring the
E DITORIAL T EAM Senior Editor: Jan-Gustav Strandenaes, ANPED
brain; to smash fear, learn anything. Some of the most interesting people talk about what they are doing. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). Previous speakers include Al Gore, Bill Gates, Bono, Frank Gehry, Jane Goodall, Billy Graham, Peter Gabriel, Quincy Jones, and Hans Rosling. I think everyone has their favourite. Mine is possibly the one in which Al Gore talks about how the world media found out that he was opening a restaurant with Tipper and they were serving .... or were they!? But my all time favourite is the one in which Hans Rosli does amazing things with statistics. Hans is a Norwegian development expert, who explains development in a way that shows how far we have come in the last 100 years and what the challenges could be in the next 50 years. If you want to understand development then this is an absolute must. Most recently I have enjoyed David Gallo’s ‘Underwater Astonishments’, where he shows jaw-dropping footage of amazing sea creatures, including a colour-shifting cuttlefish, a perfectly camouflaged octopus, and a
Previous and today’s issues are easily available online, go to:
Co-Editor: Felix Dodds, Stakeholder Forum Daily Editor: Stephen Mooney, Stakeholder Forum Design and Layout: Erol Hofmans, ANPED
www.sdin-ngo.net media.stakeholderforum.org
Contributing writers: Annabella Rosemberg, TUAC Don Gerritsen and Michaela Hogenboom, Dutch Youth Representatives Prof. Dr. Demetrio Loperena, Centre for International Environmental Conflict Brett Israel, Stakeholder Forum Merim Tenev, Stakeholder Forum
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Times Square's worth of neon light displays from fish who live in the blackest depths of the ocean. As he points out we have only explored something like 5% of the oceans and even so found the largest mountain on the planet and some of the richest biodiversity. Oh! I forgot I was going to discuss my favourite green movie-- the one I’ve watched over and over is the Pelican Brief. This is based on a wonderful John Grisham novel. Two Supreme Court judges killed for the sake of a pelican breeding ground or oil. Possibly a reflection on the challenges we are and will increasingly face as the demands for decreasing resources raise more and more challenges. But what would your favourite green movie be?
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