|
Goal 1. Eradicate
extreme poverty and hunger
Target 2.
Halve, between 1990
and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Indicators
4.
Prevalence of underweight children under five years of age
(UNICEF-WHO)
5. Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy
consumption (FAO)
World Food Day:
An International Alliance Against Hunger
The goal of reducing by
half the number of hungry people by the year 2015 was adopted at
the WFD summit in 1996 and reflected in the Millennium Development
Goals of the United Nations, yet progress is painfully slow.
Governments have made verbal commitments to fight hunger, but few
have done enough on the scale required. Nations would need to
create the policy environment, provide the funding and implement
the programmes to allow people to overcome hunger and poverty.
The World Food Day is celebrated on October 16 every year with the
goal that "Food for All" should become a human right for the
present and future generations.
With this new commitment by the International Community to fight
hunger, nations must put food security in the forefront of
national priorities because it is only when people were well fed
that they could take part in economic and social advancement.
Ironically, it is often ridiculously said that severe hunger hits
most developing countries on each occasion of World Food Day,
which has to be a day of abundance.
An International Alliance against hunger is a call to action, with
a view to working together to reduce poverty and to guarantee to
the people the basic human right of freedom from hunger.
A call for a national alliance against hunger should be focused on
setting targets through the legislature and laying out steps to
move forward, including implementing a programme that targets the
hungry. Clearly, no new mechanisms are needed to fight hunger.
Instead, political commitment to existing initiatives needs to be
strengthened to translate the concept of the right to food into
reality.
In the vision of Alliance Against Hunger, Governments, NGOs and
Civil Society Groups should set guidelines on the progressive
realization of the right to food in the context of national food
security.
These guidelines should serve as basis for framing national
policies and assigning responsibilities in key areas such as
targeting the poor and the hungry by providing them with
entitlement to employment and food assistance.
FAO estimates that reducing by half the number of hungry people in
the World would yield economic benefits totalling 120 billion
dollars a year as more people would be freed from the chain of
hunger and start leading longer, more productive lives.
It would also reduce child mortality, improve maternal health,
reduce the risk of infectious diseases and extend the lives of
people living with HIV/AIDS.
The Alliance Against Hunger would be a success if policy makers
showed commitment to eradicate hunger and poverty. Agriculture
exports must be encouraged as well as the sharing of agricultural
technology among countries.
Partners in the alliance could also help in building poor nation's
capacity to improve the quality and safety of their food products,
thus enabling them to compete fully in agricultural trade. The
International Alliance Against Hunger is a way to push aside
apathy and indifference to usher in a new era of cooperation and
action to join forces to move swiftly to decrease and ultimately
eliminate the scourge of hunger.
Bangladesh
Country Profile
| |
1990 |
1995 |
2001 |
2002 |
|
Percentage share of income or consumption held by poorest 20%
|
- |
- |
9.0 |
- |
|
Prevalence of child malnutrition (% of children under 5) |
65.8 |
57.4 |
47.7 |
- |
|
Population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption
(%) |
35.0 |
38.0 |
32.0 |
- |
|
