hungryfacts

Hungry Facts

www.feedingminds.org

Projeto Fome Zero

The members of the visiting team wish to record their deep appreciation for the opportunity given to them to share in the design of a key component of the incoming government’s programmes.

Projeto Fome Zero places primary importance on the reduction of hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty. Such an approach is inspired by the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goals, which call for cutting hunger and extreme poverty by half by 2015. Extreme poverty – inadequate resources to produce or to acquire enough food – is estimated by PFZ to affect 9.3 million households or 44 million people in Brazil . While a national problem, occurring throughout the country (with an incidence of 19% in metropolitan zones, 46% in non-metro urban centres and 35% in rural areas), extreme poverty has certain regional “pressure points”, with a concentration of the poor in the North East Region (50%) and the South East Region (26%).

Hunger robs far too many Brazilians of a full life, infringing the most fundamental of human rights, the right to adequate food. Hunger thwarts children’s learning abilities, reduces the productivity of working adults, makes people susceptible to illness and provokes early death, perpetuating poverty and detracting from economic growth. Hunger passes from one generation to another, as undernourished mothers beget underweight children. And hunger provokes desperation, providing a fertile breeding ground for crime, insurrection and terror.

In Brazil , hunger, although a distinct concept from poverty, is closely related. Indeed PFZ defines its target population through the use of an available income based poverty line (monetary income minus fixed rental payments or instalments plus value of food self- reliance). Hunger, poverty, and malnutrition are related concepts with causal relations running from each to the others. Nonetheless, in Brazil , the main cause of hunger, defined as inadequate access to food, is inadequate purchasing power.

The goal of eradicating hunger within four years is admirable and implies an enormous national commitment. Brazilian society, however, is united in its determination to banish hunger and has sufficient wealth to be able to afford it. The Project faces two main challenges: first that of strengthening, with the full engagement of civil society, the institutional capacity to implement what is necessarily a complex multi-faceted programme; and secondly that of mobilising the required resources in ways which are consistent with economic and fiscal stability.

If PFZ is successful, Brazil will more than fulfil its commitment, made at the World Food Summit (WFS) in 1996 and reaffirmed this year at the World Food Summit – five years later (WFS:fyl), to reduce the number of undernourished people by half by 2015. Its actions will inspire other countries to follow its lead and bring about a world free from hunger.

The concepts embodied in PFZ are consistent with those of the Rome Plan of Action and the strategy converges closely with that set out in the Anti-Hunger Programme, which was unveiled by FAO at WFS:fyl. In particular, the Project:

· Embodies many of the basic concepts of the human right to

adequate food;

· Recognises that eradicating hunger is not simply a moral

imperative but also generates important social and economic

benefits;

· Is fully inclusive and nation-wide in its approach;

· Posits a twin-track approach to reducing hunger and

malnutrition which combines actions to improve the

production and livelihoods of the family farming subsector with

measures to broaden access to food and improve nutrition;

· Aims to use the growth in effective demand for food

attributable to broadened access to stimulate the expansion

of small farmer output without distorting price formation

processes;

· Proposes planning and implementation with the full

engagement of civil society, in line with the concept of a

National Alliance against Hunger;

It is also recognised that PFZ cannot be limited simply to interventions and programmes in support of the incremental consumption and production of foodstuffs. It is essential to consider the possible need for far-reaching structural changes in the broader policy environment to create conditions which are favourable to hunger and poverty reduction in the medium to longer term. In this context PFZ is signalling the start of a process which is expected to lead to the formulation of new national policies towards hunger and malnutrition which would be sustainable in the longer term.

Elements of PFZ fit well with the strategies of the two international Banks. IDB’s strategy in Brazil emphasises (i) reform and modernisation of the public sector at the federal, state and municipal levels; (ii) improved competitiveness by supporting the financial system, small and medium enterprises, rehabilitation of basic infrastructure and modernisation of the productive sectors; and (iii) reduction of social inequality and poverty, giving priority to education and health, and seeking out associations with community and civil society.

The World Bank’s mission is poverty reduction. Poverty and hunger are closely related, and mutually self-reinforcing. The World Bank’s strategy in Brazil gives priority to public policies that directly contribute to poverty reduction. Within these actions, two important categories are (i) improving productivity in the rural space, including support to family farms, and (ii) strengthening the system of social protection. Both form part of the outline proposals contained in PFZ.

One of the main issues facing the incoming government will be how to reconcile the high expectations of the Brazilian people for rapid results on a very large scale with the need to ensure quality, avoid contributing to a culture of dependency and minimise unintended side-effects.