World Food Day

Zero Hunger Challenge and the Sustainable Development Goals

by Sina Gösele

This Friday, the world celebrates Food Day! The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United ations was founded on this day in 1945. This year is especially important for the organization because the new Sustainable Developments Goals have been adopted recently.

The Sustainable Development Goals are the successor of the Millennium Development Goals. The MDGs were running from 1990 until this year. In the course of the last 25 years 73 countries have reached Goal 1 of the MDGs to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and chronical undernutrition has therefore decreased by 210 Million. The SDGs want to continue this successful road with the second goal to “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” until 2030. Furthermore Goal 12 “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns” is just as important for the Zero Hunger Challenge.

It costs as little as US 25 cents a day to feed a hungry child and change her life forever.

To break it down, Goal 2 aims to eradicate hunger and give all year round access to food to everybody, however particularly to the poor and vulnerable once. Moreover, any form of malnutrition has to be eliminated. 80% of the population in developing countries eat food by small farms, therefore it is essential to invest in these.  Small-scale food producers, such as women, family farmers and indigenous people will be furthered in order to double their productivity and increase their income. It sounds crazy, but if female farmers had equal access resources such as land as man, there would be 150 million less people hungry.

In short, Goal 12 promotes resource and energy efficiency and a sustainable infrastructure. It is also important to create awareness for the topic of living in harmony with nature and to give everybody the relevant information. Also, the “Waste Generation” has to make a turn and prevent, reduce, reuse and recycle waste. As a part of that, food waste will be reduced by half all along the supply chain – from production over retail to consumer. So far, one third of all food that is produced worldwide does not end up in our stomachs, but in our trash bins and in the waste containers of retailers. While 66 million children in the developing world sit in class hungry. That’s perverse.

Therefore, Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, launched the campaign “Zero Hunger Challenge” in 2012 to tackle the “daily emergency” of hunger. The campaign acts as a platform for stakeholders and governments to communicate the aim of Zero Hunger.

There are 5 aspects to the Zero Hunger Challenge which make it possible:

• Children in their first 1000 days – from the start of the pregnancy – shall not face undernutrition. The family has to be provided with health care, sanitation, water and specific nutrition interventions
• Guarantee access to adequate food over all the year through agriculture that adapts to nutrition. Furthermore, the social protection has to be widened or created and local farmers have to be furthered
• Every food system has to be sustainable and these standards for sustainability have to be established by society and governments. Following these standards has to be rewarding for all. Furthermore, governance of land has to be sustainable and responsible
• Increase income and productivity of smallholders by 100% by empowering women, small farmers, fishers, young people, indigenous people and their communities and through this reduce rural poverty
• Eliminate food loss or waste in any station of the supply chain and giving consumers more information and power through labeling.
  

Together we are making progress
in reducing the number of hungry people in the world. We can achieve Zero Hunger in our
lifetimes.

Let's accept this challenge, let's be the zero hunger generation!