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	Break down barriers to end world hunger by 2030 by SUN Movement, UN TV, agencies   May 2016   At the World Humanitarian Summit, leaders from governments, United Nations, inter-governmental, regional and non-governmental organizations confirmed that achieving Zero Hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030 is possible.   However, they emphasized that it requires urgent action, leadership and new ways of thinking and working together to break down the barriers between humanitarian and development approaches. It also requires longer term financing and partnerships with the private sector, international financing institutions, and above all, societies which ultimately decides not to leave anyone behind.   Michael D Higgins, President of Ireland, addressed the event on Zero Hunger noting that “today, we have the opportunity to state with clarity and certainty that the source of global hunger is not a lack of food. Rather, it is the persistence of poverty and inequality in our societies. Unequal rights, opportunities and protection deepen the global problem of hunger amongst millions, with all its consequences for women, men and above all children”.   Access to food, water and health services that form the basis of healthy and diverse diets and lives is intricately linked to both rights – particularly equity and women’s rights – and resilience to future shocks.   In his report for the World Humanitarian Summit, the United Nations Secretary-General argues that immediate, life-saving assistance must be part of long term efforts to reduce needs and vulnerability and develop resilient women and men, households and communities. Women are critical for strong communities as caretakers and home providers, as food producers and decision makers, and ensuring the wellbeing of the whole family.   Long term efforts also mean a shift in focus to local and national institutions wherever possible, and recognition that national social welfare and safety nets, health systems, and local community organizations can all play an important role in preventing and preparing for disasters and in responding to crises.   The Director-General of FAO, Mr. Jose Graziano da Silva, emphasised that “ending poverty, hunger and malnutrition must become the basis of a new social contract in which no one is left behind. We have a second chance. This is what the SDGs are all about and it is key to resolving the world humanitarian crisis".   Ertharin Cousin, World Food Programme’s Executive Director, advocated for "moving forward from persistent food crisis demands, reducing and transferring risk, strengthening people’s own capacities for resilience and truly uniting humanitarian and development actions that people on the front line of climate-change, hunger and poverty require and deserve”.   “Building resilience to disasters does work and saves communities from suffering.   However, there has to be a global commitment to invest in preparedness and long-term development,” said Josefina Stubbs, Associate Vice-President, International Fund for Agricultural Development.   “If we want to reach zero hunger, we need to go beyond the simple response of food,” said Action Against Hunger CEO Andrea Tamburini. “We must work together, and embrace a holistic approach of nutrition security – including all elements that lead to a healthy and well-nourished life – water, health care, education, strong livelihoods and strong communities. If we focus on food and provision and production of food only, we will not be able to reach our target by 2030. Full, and holistic commitment will be necessary”.   Amira Gornass, the Chair of the Committee on Food Security said “a global policy shift is needed if we truly want to achieve Zero Hunger. The Committee on World Food Security’s Framework for Action on Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises, endorsed globally in 2014, says how we can achieve this shift. I commend FAO and WFP for upholding this framework in their commitments at this Summit and I urge all countries and UN agencies to do the same”.   The Irish President said that "ensuring that we ‘leave no-one behind’ requires us to acknowledge and systematically address hunger and inequality for what they are: an injustice, a breach of rights. In Ireland, our own history of famine and emigration has defined us as a people. Consciousness now compels us that we should, as an independent state, recognise our common interest in tackling the persistence of famine and displacement in our world today”.   * According to the World Health Organization, 800 million people are chronically undernourished, 159 million children under 5 years of age are stunted, around 50 million children under 5 are wasted, more than 2 billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies.   In September 2015, countries adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 is to "End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture". The SDGs aim to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people – especially children and the most vulnerable – have access to sufficient, healthy and nutritious food all year round. As a maker and marker of development, nutrition is central to the achievement of the SDGs.   In April 2016, UN Member States agreed to intensify action to end hunger and eradicate malnutrition, and ensure universal access to healthier and more sustainable diets by proclaiming a UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025). By agreeing on resolution (A/RES/70/259), governments endorsed the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and Framework for Action adopted by the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) in November 2014.   The UN resolution calls upon FAO and WHO to lead the implementation of the Decade of Action on Nutrition, in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and involving coordination mechanisms such as the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN) and multi-stakeholder platforms such as the Committee on World Food Security (CFS)   http://webtv.un.org/watch/zero-hunger-by-2030-sustainable-food-and-nutrition-security-for-all/4924374141001 http://scalingupnutrition.org/news/world-humanitarian-summit-embracing-new-approaches-to-nutrition-security-for-long-term-resilience http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/ground-breaking-school-feeding-analysis-launched-help-countries-implement-sustaina http://bit.ly/1tt8rqW
	Devastating impact of El Nino and Climate requires new response model by Mary Robinson UN Special Envoy on El Niño & Climate   Sep 2016   This El Niño is a huge Humanitarian Crisis - But it didn’t have to be, write UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoys on El Niño and Climate: Mary Robinson, Ambassador Macharia Kamau; and Oxfam International Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima.   As a weather phenomenon, El Niño is a complex concept to grasp. Cyclical ocean temperature changes affect other weather patterns in complicated ways, resulting in drought, floods and more severe storms. To further complicate matters, El Niño is now also interacting with climate change in ways that we do not fully understand.   But when you look a mother in the eye as she tells you that she can’t feed her baby due to the drought, El Niño’s human cost is suddenly very clear. And when you remember that this mother is one of more than 60 million people affected by the 2015-2016 El Niño, it’s clear that we are watching a massive but neglected humanitarian crisis unfold.   Over the past six months we have met with communities in dusty villages in Ethiopia, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Timor-Leste, Vietnam and Zimbabwe, just some of the dozens of countries around the world that have been most affected by El Niño-linked drought and other environmental impacts.   Women like Victoria Sánchez Pérez in Honduras have told us that when her family’s corn crops failed due to the drought, it meant they suddenly had no food or source of income. Now Victoria and her family are faced with selling literally all of their belongings in order to pay for food.   A lack of food or clean water affects every aspect of a person’s life   In East and Southern Africa, some one million children already require treatment for severe acute malnutrition due to El Niño-linked drought. For these children access to treatment is literally a matter of life or death.   Water shortages have also caused movements of people across arid regions in search of basic needs, disrupting education and livelihoods and creating greater protection risks.   Women and girls are disproportionately affected as they are often responsible for fetching water, and may have to travel longer distances and take on greater risks, making them susceptible to exploitation in return for food.   Schools are closing; dehydrated or sick students are unable to focus on their studies. Malnutrition-linked stunting in childhood can also affect lifelong development and wellbeing.   Poverty, inequality, competition over scarce natural resources and instability will likely deepen the crisis, threatening human security, undermining the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and undoing hard-won development gains.   Significant funding gaps remain   Donors and many national governments of affected countries have contributed generously but significant funding gaps remain. Five billion dollars is needed to address this urgent humanitarian crisis - but less than two billion has been received. In practical terms a funding gap of this size means that far too many people will be going hungry and thirsty; far too many people will not have the support they so badly need.   El Niño-affected communities must not be forgotten. They need immediate and intensified assistance that takes into account long-term impacts.   Tomorrow’s problem may be even worse   As we have travelled to these countries and met with communities, governments and those providing assistance, the thing that’s weighed most heavily on our minds is that this devastating El Niño is just a glimpse of what is yet to come.   The 2015/2016 El Niño was a window into a climate future that is less predictable and more extreme. Although El Niño is not caused by climate change the two are locked in a deadly dance, stepping in time as human-induced climate change continues its march.   We must do everything possible to drastically reduce the fossil fuel emissions that are driving the climate crisis. This means urgent mitigation action by developed countries and provision of the necessary financial support to ensure that developing countries can develop without emissions.   But even if we are successful, future weather events like El Niño and its equally troublesome sister La Niña will be more frequent and severe than ever before.   This ‘new normal’ demands a different way of doing things, both in our actions to reduce and adapt to the impacts of climate change, but also in the ways that we prepare for, and respond to, these climate-linked threats.   If we fail to do this, already vulnerable communities will become trapped in a never-ending cycle of environmental shocks and partial recovery.   The bottom line is this; when communities require humanitarian assistance for predictable weather events it means our resilience building and preparedness efforts have not succeeded. Communities are telling us that El Niño, La Niña and other weather events should not just be about humanitarian response, the focus should also be on risk-informed development that prioritises prevention, resilience and preparedness.   All the evidence tells that this type of early action works, and that it provides exponential returns in terms of human dignity, safety and wellbeing, as well as countries’ overall economic and social development.   In order to help communities prepare for, and respond to, this new climate reality, we need to look closely at the way that we operate as an international community. Donors, the UN, NGOs, civil society and communities themselves must work in partnership with national governments of affected countries.   We collectively must break this cycle - and we can. We know what needs to be done to prevent droughts and other weather threats from becoming disasters. We have the technical know-how. And now we are building the political will.   It is likely that the next climate-linked humanitarian disaster will be upon us even before communities have recovered from El Niño. Our development and humanitarian systems need to be climate-proofed and fit for purpose. If we fail to act now we will be letting down our most vulnerable communities and undermining the foundation principle of the Sustainable Development Goals - of no one left behind.   We have a moral duty to ensure that children and vulnerable communities are not devastated by the effects of El Niño. If we do not succeed in our mission we will be letting down those that need us most and the impacts will be felt for generations.   July 2016   The newly-appointed United Nations Special Envoy on El Niño & Climate Mrs Mary Robinson, said in her remarks at a meeting with UN agencies and humanitarian donors on the impact of El Niño in Ethiopia that responses by governments and international partners to climactic events must urgently integrate humanitarian, development and resilience strategies to ensure effective, coherent and sustainable change.   “We must embrace the reality that climate change is increasing the frequency and ferocity of natural disasters and will continue to do so. It is no longer effective to view the devastating impact of these climate events from a humanitarian lens alone.   Governments and the international community must urgently focus on reducing vulnerability of the poorest communities so that these events are not recurring humanitarian crises. Humanitarian, development and resilience interventions must be integrated in response planning to include institutional reforms, rural development, economic opportunities, increased access to energy, and strengthened public service management” Mrs Robinson said in her remarks at meetings in Addis Ababa with UN agencies, NGOs and donors.   United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon appointed Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and founder of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice) and Ambassador Kamau (Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York) as his Special Envoys on El Niño and Climate in late May, tasking them with calling attention to the more than 60 million people around the world affected by severe El Niño-linked drought and climate impacts, and mobilising an integrated response that takes preparedness for future climactic events into account.   Mrs Robinson recently completed a visit to Ethiopia to witness the devastating impact of the El Nino drought, the worst in 50 years. During this mission the Special Envoy met with the Ethiopian authorities, international ambassadors, UN agencies, and development and humanitarian partners before visiting several projects in Tigray in northern Ethiopia. She acknowledged the significant efforts of the government and partners to address the impact of the crisis, including malnutrition, which has helped prevent deaths. She also underscored that these efforts must continue and more resources will be required.   “The Ethiopian Government has taken important steps to respond early to the crisis facing their people, including with substantial amounts of funding from their own budget. This crisis is not over, nor will it be the last. It is critical that international donors stay engaged and focused on supporting efforts to respond both to the immense immediate needs and long term requirements to build resilience” Mrs. Robinson said.   In Tigray, Mrs Robinson observed firsthand how smart water management and innovative resilience schemes can help to mitigate the impact of El Nino even in a challenging environment.   Mrs. Robinson said: "This visit reinforced my belief that, when preparing for the inevitability of the next El Nino, we need to look more closely now at how we support local communities in the management of water systems and other natural resources, rendering them more resilient."   http://www.mrfcj.org/news/ http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/un-seeks-boost-response-el-ninos-dire-impact-africa-and-asiapacific-urges-la-nin-p http://www.wfp.org/stories/southern-africa-food-security-crisis-0 Visit the related web page
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