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About the zero hunger challenge
First proposed at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil in June 2012, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Zero Hunger Challenge aims for a future where every individual has adequate nutrition. This requires comprehensive efforts to ensure that every man, women and child enjoy their Right to Adequate Food; women are empowered; priority is given to family farming; and food systems everywhere are sustainable and resilient.
The challenge of Zero Hunger means:
While India produces enough food to feed its population, the country is home to 25 percent of the world’s hungry population. A holistic approach to food security requires ensuring available, accessible and nutritious food to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in India.
The United Nations Secretary-General gives top priority to the elimination of hunger.
Eliminating hunger involves investments in agriculture, rural development, decent work, social protection and equality of opportunity. It will make a major contribution to peace and stability and to the reduction of poverty. It will contribute to better nutrition for all – especially women from the beginning of pregnancy and children under the age of two.
In few countries in the world is the Zero Hunger Campaign more relevant than for India. Despite rapid economic growth and while food production is sufficient, many remain without access to adequate food and nutrition. Many children are stunted, i.e. are less tall than expected for their age. Faced with learning difficulties and limited employment opportunities as they grow older, they often face a life of poverty. A rising population coupled with changing climates and land use pressures, increases the burden on the ecosystem to ensure enough food production. An overwhelmingly majority of India’s farmers are small and marginal farmers i.e. holding less than one hectare of land. Many are not able to generate enough income to keep their families out of poverty, yet increasing their productivity is crucial to meeting India’s future food requirements. The challenge of food security is compounded by significant loss of food, much of which can be attributed to poor post-harvest management and a lack of storage facilities.
The Government of India has evolved several social safety nets to address these challenges: the Public Distribution System; the Antodaya Anna Rozgar Yojana, the Mid day Meal Scheme; the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and most recently in 2013, the landmark Food Security Act which aims to provide subsidized foodgrain to up to 75 percent of the rural population and 50 percent of urban households.
The United Nations in India especially through its specialized agencies supports the Government of India in implementing its national missions and programmes aimed at strengthening food security and nutrition.
Torben Due, Country Director, World Food Programme India says that ending child under-nutrition could increase a developing country’s GDP by 16.5 percent.
| Second International Conference on Nutrition The Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), jointly organized by FAO and WHO and held in Rome from 19-21 November 2014, will convene leading policymakers from the food, agriculture and health sectors to develop a cohesive policy framework that more effectively addresses today’s major nutrition challenges. | |
| Google Hangout – World Food Day 2014 Marking World Food Day 2014, a Google Hangout live discussion on the topic ‘Can the world feed 10 billion?’ was held on Thursday 16 October, 18:00 to 19:00 hours. The global conversation was led by four eminent speakers including Mr. Sam Pitroda, Chairman, India FoodBanking Network and Chairman, Global Knowledge Initiative; Mr. Torben Due, Country Director, World Food Programme India; Ms, Nina Fedoroff, Evan Pugh Professor of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University and Mr. Jay Naidoo, Chairman, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). | |
| Need to launch National Action Plan for “Zero-Hunger” For every 8 people in the world, one person goes to bed hungry. However, it is not about statistics but about giving importance to every individual to ensure that no one in the world is hungry and achieve the “Zero Hunger Challenge”. Experts at the Asia-Pacific Consultation on “Family Farming” called for speedy launch of National Action Plans by countries in the region to rid the world of hunger, while issuing the “Chennai Declaration” of the Conference. |
| Zero Hunger Challenge in India The Zero Hunger Challenge recognizes that eradicating hunger is multi-dimensional and that countries need to move beyond an approach that focuses on food production, to work towards achieving progress on five pillars. The Zero Hunger Challenge is extremely relevant for India. While the country has 18 percent of the world’s population, 25 percent of its people go hungry. The booklet outlines the five pillars of the Zero Hunger Challenge in India. | |
| Food is Life – Save Food High Level of post-harvest losses and food waste in Asia and the Pacific pose a threat to Food Security. Post-harvest losses refer to the decrease in the amount of food available for people as food moves from the farmer to the market. | |
| The Save Food Asia-Pacific Campaign The Save Food Asia-Pacific Campaign seeks to raise awareness about the magnitude of food losses and food waste in Asia and the Pacific region, and advocate for actions to reduce food losses and food waste and promote sustainable consumption. |
| Improving Child Nutrition through rice fortification The World Food Programme in India in partnership with the Government of Odisha is implementing a two year project in Gajapati district to improve nutrition through rice fortification in nearly 1,500 schools through the mid day meal scheme |
| The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2014 The latest FAO estimates indicate that the trend in global hunger reduction continues. About 805 million people were estimated to be chronically undernourished in 2012–14, down by more than 100 million over the last decade and by 209 million since 1990–92. However, about one in every nine people in the world still has insufficient food for an active and healthy life. | |
| WFP India: Improving Child Nutrition through Rice Fortification in Gajapati The World Food Programme in India in partnership with the Government of Odisha is implementing a pilot to improve nutrition in school mid-day meals through rice fortification technology. | |
| Rayagada’s Journey in Food Distribution Reform The World Food Project’s pilot in Rayagada, Odisha reached out to a population of over a million people being served through nearly 400 Fair Price Shops and provided tremendous learning for an efficient Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). | |
| WFP Innovating with India WFP draws from more than 50 years of experience in India to support the Government in finding solutions to strengthen the country’s food safety nets in order to address existing levels of malnutrition and food insecurity in the country. Over the last few years, WFP has transitioned from direct provision of food aid, into delivering advice and technical support to the Government of India to improve delivery of subsidized food through the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). | |
| Saving and Improving Lives The eighth annual Partnership Report ‘Saving and Improving Lives’ presents this year the United Nations-European Union partnership for food and nutrition security from 2008 to 2012. The web photo publication and the videos included in the report will take you through the results of the work on the ground. The report is launched coinciding with the 2013 World Food Day. | |
| The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013 A total of 842 million people in 2011–13, or around one in eight people in the world, were estimated to be suffering from chronic hunger, regularly not getting enough food to conduct an active life. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013 presents updated estimates of undernourishment and progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and World Food Summit (WFS) hunger targets. The latest assessment shows that further progress has been made towards the 2015 MDG target, which remains within reach for the developing regions as a whole, although marked differences across regions persist and considerable and immediate additional efforts will be needed. |
| Mr. Khadka, views on Agriculture in India and Global Hunger Issues He also spoke about India’s progress in achieving food security for its people and highlighted some of the key challenges faced by the country in the area of hunger and malnutrition. He is quite positive about the zero hunger goal of the SDGs and is of the opinion that specific targeted programmes, increased financial allocations and improved implementation is key to achieving the goals. | |
| Addressing food insecurity in India Torben Due, Country Director, WFP India on India’s progress in addressing food insecurity and becoming a food exporting country | |
| Ban Ki-moon, (Secretary-General of the United Nations), Opening of the SIDS Conference 1 Sep 2014 – H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, at the 1st Plenary meeting of the 3rd International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Samoa 2014. | |
| Eradicating Hunger in Our Lifetime Peter Kenmore, FAO Representative in India on eradicating hunger and malnutrition | |
| Zero Stunting Dean Spears, Delhi School of Economics and research institute for compassionate economics (r.i.c.e.) on the links between sanitation and stunting. | |
| Zero Stunting Diane Coffey, research institute for compassionate economics (r.i.c.e.) and Princeton University on the relationship between women’s status and stunting of children. |
Marking World Food Day on 16 October 2014, the UN Secretary General says that it is fitting that in this International Year of Family Farming, there are 100 million fewer hungry people than just 10 years ago.
Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
NineIsMine Campaign
NineIsMine, an advocacy initiative driven by children aims to secure an allocation in the national budget of 6 per cent for education and 3 per cent for health by 2014.
For crafting credible systems
Source Courtesy: Frontline, 20 Sept 2013
Food for security
Source Courtesy: Frontline, 20 Sept 2013
More bite, less to chew
Source Courtesy: Down to Earth, 15 Sept 2013
Bill will push PDS reform: Interview with jean dreze
Source Courtesy: Down to Earth, 15 Sept 2013
‘Food security concerns should be addressed upfront in WTO’
[Date: 31 October 2014, Source: Business Standard]
Glacial melt may hit food security: Scientist
[Date: 31 October 2014, Source: The Tribune]
Why is the Modi government withholding malnutrition data?
[Date: 31 October 2014, Source: Mint]
India moves up 8 places on Global Hunger Index
[Date: 30 October 2014, Source: The Hindu Business Line]
‘One-third India’s women, children underweight’
[Date: 30 October 2014, Source: Business Standard]
Convened by the World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), seven UN agencies in India including IFAD, ILO, UNDP, UNICEF and WHO are working together to improve the efficient and inclusive implementation of the public food distribution system.