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	The Global Malnutrition Epidemic: A Human Rights Agenda by Hilal Elver Special Rapporteur on the right to food   Dec. 2016   800 million people worldwide remain chronically undernourished, and over two billion suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, also known as hidden hunger.   Another two billion are overweight, with 600 million of these being obese. Meanwhile some 159 million children under five years of age are stunted, approximately 50 million children from this same age bracket are wasted, and 42 million are obese.   For the first time in human history, there are more obese than underweight adults in the world. As a result, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) associated with obesity have surpassed undernutrition as the leading cause of death in low-income countries.   These figures indicate that the challenges of malnutrition in all its forms are daunting. Nevertheless, in many developing and least developed countries (LDCs), policies against hunger receive more attention than does the prevention of malnutrition in general, or the stunting and wasting of children.   Therefore it is important to emphasize that the right to adequate food includes nutrition. “Adequacy” with respect to food simply embraces nutritional value. This means that the quality of the food we consume has to become as important as the quantity.   It is not enough to provide quantities of food as measured by caloric intake to eliminate hunger. This caloric intake must include the necessary ingredients for human health.   Like access to food in general, access to nutritious food is often a key indicator of economic inequalities, as well as of discrimination.   Therefore including nutrition in a rights-based framework is critical to ensuring that marginalized and vulnerable segments of the population are able to access adequate, healthy, and nutritious food.   Despite recent well meaning initiatives and an existing framework for action, there are several barriers to implementation.   Poverty, social exclusion, gender inequality, low socio-economic status and lack of control over productive resources (issues such as land grabbing and seed patenting) are all major contributors to malnutrition.   Similarly, malnutrition is aggravated by poor sanitation and the absence of safe drinking water and adequate housing, as well as a lack of education, health and social protection services in many societies.   Besides all these economic and social determinants, the current food systems are based on industrial agriculture involving the dominance of few big food companies and supermarket chains that systematically contribute to resource scarcity and environmental degradation, as well as unsustainable production and consumption patterns, food losses, waste, and distribution imbalances.   The legal duty to provide access to adequate nutrition   International law instruments provide a normative and legal foundation for the human right to adequate food and nutrition. There are several human rights documents that support the claim that the right to adequate food and nutrition is not only legitimate, but constitutes a legal duty.   The clear inclusion of a focus on nutrition is revealed, for example, in the “right to adequate food” of Article 11 of the ECSR Covenant (International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights), closely linked to the “right to health” of the Covenant’s Article 12.1, which recognizes “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.”   If nutritious food is not sufficiently available and accessible, there will be adverse consequences for physical and mental health.   In its General Comment 12, Paragraph 14, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) interpreted the right to adequate food as follows: “Every State is obliged to ensure for everyone under its jurisdiction access to the minimum essential food which is sufficient, nutritionally adequate and safe, to ensure their freedom from hunger.”   Furthermore, General Comment 14 Paragraph 43 (b) reiterates that one of the core state obligations under the right to health involves ensuring “access to the minimum essential food which is nutritionally adequate and safe, to ensure freedom from hunger to everyone.”   The FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security (Voluntary Guidelines, 2004) notes that “States should take measures to maintain, adapt or strengthen dietary diversity and healthy eating habits and food preparation, as well as feeding patterns, including breastfeeding, while ensuring that changes in availability and access to food supply do not negatively affect dietary composition and intake.”   Besides the universally protected right to food and nutrition for all, further protections have been adopted for children, pregnant and lactating women due to the fact that malnutrition does more harm to these populations, especially poor women and children.   Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) acknowledges that to pursue the full implementation of “the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health…” states “shall take appropriate measures to (c) combat disease and malnutrition… through, inter alia… the provision of adequate nutritious foods.”   Article 27(3) states that: “Parties… shall take appropriate measures to assist parents and others responsible for the child to implement this right and shall in case of need provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing and housing.”   The Committee of the CRC in its General Comment on Article 24 calls on states to ensure that all segments of society are informed of the advantages of breastfeeding.   The protection and promotion of breastfeeding is also enshrined in the International Code on Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, which was adopted by the World Health Assembly in 1981. The Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, adopted in 2002, sets out the obligations of states to develop, implement, monitor and evaluate comprehensive national policies addressing infant and young child feeding, accompanied by a detailed action plan.   The 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) highlights the importance of children, as well as the importance of lactating and pregnant women.   Article 12 stipulates that all states shall ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the postnatal period, granting free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.   Unfortunately, CEDAW fails to fully protect a woman’s right to adequate food and nutrition as an individual, but only provides protection within the parameters of pregnancy and breastfeeding. It is vitally important to correct this protection gap as soon as possible.   Considering the pivotal role of the private sector in the provision of adequate food and nutrition, it is appropriate that the primary role of regulating and monitoring the private sector should be given to governments.   A human rights framework underlines the responsibility of corporations that produce food and shape nutritional standards to respect human rights and to contribute to equitable access to nutritious foods for all persons.   Such responsibility is implied in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which clearly asserts that “everyone has duties to the community” (Art. 29), and that groups and persons must refrain from activities causing encroachment on the rights enshrined within the Declaration (Art. 30).   In 2011 the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, formally recognizing the responsibility of enterprises to avoid infringing on the human rights of others and to address adverse human rights impacts arising from their commercial activities.   This responsibility extends to the adverse impacts caused by the food industry in relation to the right to adequate food.   Although there is no significant resistance opposing a human rights approach to adequate food and nutrition, several potential barriers exist that affect proper implementation.   As indicated earlier, the impact of industrial food systems on nutrition and public health is alarming. These systems focus on increasing food production and maximizing efficiency at the lowest possible economic cost and highest profitability.   They therefore rely on mono-cropping, factory farming, industrial food processing, mass distribution and aggressive marketing that promotes the affordability and availability of their products. The marketing strategies of these industrial producers generate a very significant portion of the world’s food sales.   More importantly, trade liberalization and foreign direct investment by transnational corporations in the processed food industry have played a large role in increasing the availability of ultraprocessed (junk) foods that are marketed globally.   These corporations furthermore pose a challenge to the policymaking process itself. Although the private sector has a role in fighting malnutrition, there is a danger in giving corporations unprecedented access to policymaking processes under the banner of “multi-stakeholder partnership,” since it may generate conflicts of interest at numerous levels unless governed properly.   Moreover, corporations greatly prefer voluntary commitments to regulatory frameworks, which often results in lax implementation.   At both the domestic and international levels, we see other forms of corporate intransigence, such as their resistance to labeling, taxing, and limiting excessive advertisements for junk foods, which covers highly processed foods containing excessive amounts of salt, sugar and saturated fats.   Then there is a governance problem, since nutrition poses a multifaceted challenge that needs to be coordinated through the cooperative effort of several parts of government machinery.   Finally, the complex character and long-term impacts of malnutrition on human health, as well as the absence of indicators and lack of robust data, creates difficulties when it comes to establishing workable monitoring, accountability and transparency mechanisms.   Taken together, these issues pose significant challenges that must be addressed if the human rights to decent nutrition are to become truly operational on a global scale.   http://globalejournal.org/global-e/december-2016/global-malnutrition-epidemic-human-rights-agenda http://hilalelver.org/ Visit the related web page
	We were able to eat just one meal each day by World Food Programme   UN Agencies in Algeria appeal for continued Food Assistance for Western Saharan Refugees   The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), together with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Children's fund (UNICEF) is appealing for continued donor support for refugees from Western Sahara living in Algeria. The three agencies say that insufficient funding makes a cut in basic food rations imminent.   For more than 40 years, the Sahrawi refugees have been living under extremely harsh conditions in the Sahara desert in south-western Algeria. Hosted in five camps close to the town of Tindouf, they remain heavily dependent on external humanitarian assistance.   WFP represents the most important source of food in the camps; any reduction or halt of WFP food assistance will have a severe impact on the food security and nutritional status of the refugees, especially young children, pregnant and nursing women, the elderly and the sick.   'At the recently adopted New York Declaration this month, states committed to providing additional and predictable humanitarian funding and development support for refugees', said UNHCR Representative in Algeria Hamdi Bukhari.   'We badly need this for our humanitarian activities in support of the Sahrawis. Chronic underfunding has affected the provision of health, shelter, food and water. In June last year, our three agencies warned about the lack of funding for food, and we are doing so again as food assistance is critical'.   WFP faces a funding shortfall for the next six months. In October, WFP was forced to suspend part of its food assistance; from November, rations are likely to be reduced by half. Stocks have already been depleted to cover the last few months, and at least three staple products - wheat flour, vegetable oil, and rice are running out. WFP has informed donors, stakeholders and local partners, including the Algerian and Sahrawi Red Crescent, of possible cuts.   'Cost-cutting measures, such as the replacement of some commodities by cheaper ones, have so far allowed WFP to extend resources to cover requirements. However, if new funding is not available soon, WFP will be forced to reduce food rations. This is bound to hurt the nutritional status of refugees', said WFP Representative Romain Sirois.   Last month, WFP, UNHCR, UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as NGOs providing humanitarian assistance to Sahrawi refugees, appealed for funds to provide food, shelter, health and education in the camps. The appeal was issued to donors in Algiers on 19 September, and will be re-issued soon at a donor meeting in Geneva.   'Sahrawi refugee children living in camps in Tindouf are highly dependent on food distributions, and anxiety among families about further reduction is high. Children's nutritional and health status could be at risk', said UNICEF Representative in Algeria Marc Lucet.   'Together with UN agencies working in the camps, we call upon donors to maintain their support to refugees so their basic humanitarian needs continue to be covered'.   WFP has been supporting refugees from Western Sahara in Algeria since 1986. All WFP assistance in Algeria is carried out and monitored in collaboration with national and international organizations to make sure the assistance reaches the people for whom it is intended. http://bit.ly/2fpGGMf   Better Support for the Poorest in Malawi, by Erin Collins   WFP is trying to ensure that food assistance reaches the poorest in Malawi by linking its emergency relief operations with the Government's Social Cash Transfer Programme.   Climatic shocks have left Malawi suffering from its second meagre harvest in a row, triggering increased levels of acute food insecurity countrywide. To ensure assistance will reach the poorest in Malawi, WFP is linking its emergency assistance with the Government's Social Cash Transfer Programme.   In southern Malawi, temperatures are already high in Chikwawa district where El Nino has left maize fields arid and overridden by dust. This is home for Enegentsi Mitha, a 70-year old woman caring for her five grandchildren, who were orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Since August 2015, Enegentsi has been receiving the equivalent of about USD 5.50 each month through the Social Cash Transfer Programme, which targets the ultra-poor who are unable to work so that they can afford basic needs like nutritious foods and schools fees.   In previous years, Malawians enrolled on the Social Cash Transfer Programme were excluded from receiving emergency assistance, despite them being the poorest of the poor. Local authorities designed assistance this way in an effort to spread available resources to as many community members as possible, against the backdrop of widespread poverty.   'We were able to eat just one meal each day', explains Enegentisi in reference to previous years when she had to spend her full social cash transfer on food.   This year, WFP has worked with the government, partners and NGOs so that Enegentsi and other food insecure households receiving social cash transfers are not excluded from extra support during the lean season.   By insuring their inclusion, the emergency assistance addresses acute food insecurity with lifesaving food and cash-based assistance, allowing recipients to continue using the governments social cash transfer to invest in the longer term development of their families, such as paying for school fees, maintaining their homes and investing in livestock.   Holesi Kalonga, a 72-year-old farmer who heads a household of 10 people, is also a recipient of social cash transfers and, like Enegentsi, is a first-time beneficiary of WFP's emergency assistance this year, despite having faced acute food insecurity during previous lean seasons.   'We would have had a huge problem this year without the extra assistance', says Holesi. 'There would have been no food and it would have been difficult to continue sending our children to school'.   Now able to use WFP emergency cash assistance to purchase food, Holesi directs social cash transfer funds to pay for school fees, ensuring the continuation of his children's education and other investments in his family's livelihood.   In collaboration with the Government of Malawi, WFP recently hosted a high-level panel discussion on strengthening social protection systems within Malawi.   International and local participants discussed ways that stronger and more responsive social protection systems can help reduce chronic need for Malawians like Enegentsi and Holesi and make them more resilient to future shocks. Looking forward, to break the cycle of food and nutrition insecurity, WFP hopes that by making social protection more shock responsive, Malawi will see a reduced need for future large-scale emergency humanitarian responses to food insecurity.   Increasing the Impact of School Meals in Rwanda, by John Paul Sesonga   In the poorest and most food insecure districts of Rwanda school meals are a lifeline for many families.   A daily school meal provides a strong incentive to send children to school and keep them there (especially girls), it helps to increase school enrollment and attendance, decrease drop-out rates, and improve learning.   The World Food Programme (WFP), in partnership with World Vision, is now increasing the impact of school meals thanks to a generous contribution of USD 25 million from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) through McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Programme.   The new home grown school feeding programme involves schools buying food directly from local farmers and traders in the area. The programme supports access to education while also stimulating local economic development (including agricultural production), increasing farmers income and creating additional jobs for a wide range of stakeholders involved in getting the food from the field to the classroom.   This essential grant has enabled WFP to buy maize and beans locally, supporting 31 farmer organisations to increase their supply of food to schools and earn a living.   WFP is providing a daily hot lunch composed of maize, beans, vegetable oil and salt to 40,000 children in 49 schools in Nyamagabe and Nyaraguru in Southern Rwanda, while hot porridge made of highly nutritious fortified food is provided to 43,000 children in 55 schools in Rutsiro and Karongi in the West of the country.   Sylvania Nyiransabimana, 16, is studying at Sanza primary school in Karongi district. Her mother is a single parent, caring for her and her four siblings. Sylvania had dropped out of school to help her mother earn money through casual labour work. Thanks to the home-grown school feeding programme, she was able to re-join the school and is committed to continue school to achieve her dream of becoming a teacher.   Everyone has a role to play   Through the home-grown school feeding approach, WFP intends to see schools graduate from external support to self-sustainability. Empowerment of the local community is key to ensure gradual ownership as the community becomes more resilient and self-reliant.   Members of the community share responsibility of the school meals by providing firewood, water, utensils and working as volunteer cooks.   WFP works closely with the Government of Rwanda towards a nationally owned school feeding programme in 2020, and advocating for school feeding infrastructure to be included into national standards.   The targeted districts of Nyamagabe, Nyaruguru, Rutsiro and Karongi were selected based on their high levels of food insecurity at the household level above 30 percent compared to 18 percent at the National level.   School feeding is an important element of national social protection systems, and along with other safety nets an integral part of care for the most vulnerable. School feeding programmes motivate development by functioning as a safety net to help vulnerable households and communities survive difficult times and shocks without compromising their nutrition and food security.   Educated and healthy people are better able to withstand shocks such as drought. The school lunch accounts for more than half the attained recommended daily allowances of energy, protein, Vitamin A, iron, and iodine for about 40 percent of students, and is often the largest meal of the day and in frequent cases the only meal.   Despite only starting in August this year, teachers are already crediting the home-grown school feeding programme for increased concentration in class and improved attendance rates.   Global studies have shown that children who receive extra years of schooling in addition to accessing proper nutrients will greatly increase their chances of employment and of earning more over their lifetime. Visit the related web page
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