Committment to Global Food Security Sadly Lacking

Sphere: Related Content This post is made up from a number of sources provided by Avaaz, which sometime ago sent a request to join in the call urging world leaders to make good on their promises to tackle the world food crisis by delivering a strong agriculture and food security package for developing countries.

Zunia provided a link to E-Learning: Food Security Information for Action. The link leads to information on the work that the FAO and European Union are doing together on Food Security Information for Decision Making. The goal is the Linking Information and Decision Making to Improve Food Security. The program offers self-paced e-learning, developed by international experts to support capacity building and on-the-job Training and Workshops at national and local food security information systems and networks. You can try a sample lesson "What is Food Security?"

This is one of the times that the effort did not reach its goal either in numbers or in effect. World leaders who met in Rome in November of 2009 for the World Food Summit, backed out on a pledge to fund lifesaving food production. The countries of France, Germany, UK, Italy and Japan all backed out on a $20 billion promise made earlier this year. Only $3 billion or Only 15% of G8 pledge was new money, according to Reuters.

The BBC reports Global Hunger worsening, warns UN's annual report on global food security which confirms that more than one billion people - a sixth of the world's population - are undernourished. This is a scandal with literally millions facing life-threatening hunger especially when the economic crisis has only made the situation wors and billions were found to help out the banks. Although the world produces enough food to feed everyone, according to this report for World Food Day: There is enough food grown in the world for everyone (Op-ed), Oxfam International: chronic hunger across the planet has reached the record-high figure of 1 billion this year.

Change.org, even more recently shifted the focus back to the United States and President Obama with the message: Feed the Hungry Instead of Wall Street

Most of the time, broken promises from politicians barely raise an eyebrow.

But what if a broken promise condemned one sixth of the world's population to chronic hunger?

The world's most powerful leaders, including President Obama, did just that in November when they refused to even show up for the Food Security Summit in Rome.

And just four months after promising $22 billion to fight hunger, the G8 leaders still haven't spelled out how they will fund it.

Don't let world leaders get away with ignoring the problem of global hunger.

Ask President Obama to take the lead and demand world leaders make good on their promise >

- The Change.org Team in partnership with ActionAid

They are working with the anti-poverty organisation ActionAid, which brings over 30 years of knowledge and experience in fighting poverty by applying the following principles:

• Work together with poor people, local partners and organisations in combating poverty
• Focus on fighting against the causes of poverty, not just the results.

Their efforts are prioritized into five areas of work to make the most difference:

1. education,
2. hiv and aids,
3. food rights,
4. emergencies,
5. women and girls and
6. governance.
   

Here is ActionAid's HungerFREE Scorecard which sees small scale farming systems being critical in tackling hunger and poverty:

This is an in-depth investigation into what 50 governments (poor and rich) are doing to tackle the billion hungry. Giving them each scores based on their achievements and policies.

While some of the poorest countries in the world have been able to reduce the number of hungry people, many of the richest countries lag shockingly behind.

More information about ActionAid´s HungerFREE global campaign:

• # The ActionAid HungerFREE campaign aims to put the issue of hunger to the top of the political agenda. The right to food has been sidelined for too long!
• # We are a global campaign that lobbies governments to deliver on their commitment to halve world hunger by 2015.
• # We want to ensure that corporations are held accountable for abuses of the rights to food, water, land and seeds
• # We believe that low-impact farming by small-holder farmers is the best way to tackle hunger. A UN study found sustainable agriculture increased crop yields in Africa by an astonishing 116%.
• # We’re teaming up with hungry people and communities, individual farmers, farmers’ groups, supporters, celebrities, artists, influencers and sympathetic politicians – all with one thing in common – we are determined to end hunger.

There is growing evidence, like this article from Greenpeace, showing that intensive farming models are not only ineffectual in countering hunger, they have a highly damaging affect on our environment. However, as strange as it may sound to some, an argument could be made that it makes more sense to work with businesses than governments. UN meets with food businesses to discuss food security Reuters(11/12)

Private sector, governments, non-government organisations should work together to solve long-term problems in developing countries and eradicate hunger in the world, said Ertharin Cousin, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. food agencies in Rome.

World Food Day - here's one thing you can do and I did

Sphere: Related Content

This is an timely update to the post I did earlier on World Food Day. The video came from the folks at ONE

To commemorate World Food Day, the State Department released this excellent video about global food security– the challenges and the opportunities.

I added it with what got from the Oxfam folks.

Today is World Food Day.

It's a sobering moment to consider the impact that hunger has on more than one billion women, men, and children worldwide.

But it can also be an empowering moment. Because we CAN reduce hunger and poverty by working together with poor communities – and by demanding action from our leaders in Congress.

No one should have to go to sleep hungry. Tell Rep. Miller to co-sponsor the Global Food Security Act of 2009.

At least 70% of the world's poor people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods – but climate change, rising food prices, and unfair trade rules present extreme challenges to millions of small farmers.

The Global Food Security Act, along with a new global hunger initiative from President Obama, are decisive steps in the right direction.

These proposals would provide critical resources for investing in agriculture and rural livelihoods – which are both key to reducing poverty.

With broad Congressional support, we can invest more – and more wisely – in local agriculture. We can help small farmers find sustainable and innovative ways to rebuild their livelihoods.

Together we can empower millions.

Sincerely,

Raymond C. Offenheiser
Oxfam America Advocacy Fund

Learn more about hunger and the food crisis by visiting the Oxfam information hub and action center here.

Here is the introduction to my letter to Representative Miller.

I urge you to co-sponsor H.R. 3077, the Global Food Security Act of 2009, sponsored by Congresswoman Betty McCollum of Minnesota. H.R. 3077 would enhance developing nations' ability to respond to future food crises and prevent millions more from falling into poverty and hunger. On this day of all days, World Food Day would be the right time to show your support for this essential effort.

Today is the Day Stand Up and Be Counted to support World Food Day and End Poverty!

Sphere: Related Content

The moment has finally arrived. The Stand Up Take Action global event has officially begun. So began the message that greeted me this morning. This blog is part of the Online Campaign of Stand Up Take Action Now! at BloggersUnite for Stand Up Take Action End Poverty Now! There are already two posts from the Philippines at the Bloggers Unite event created especially for this cause. You want to start there if you want to contribute a blog post to this effort. One post from Ang Sa Wari Ko Stand Up and Take Actions Now! Ang silbi ng 45 pesos at ang isyu ng kahirapan [English Translation] and the other from 2Rivers Can We End Poverty In Our Generation. I will post others as they come in.

The challenge has been stated by World Hunger Notes.

• The world produces enough food to feed everyone.
  
• Poverty is the principal cause of hunger.
• An estimated 982 million poor people in developing countries who live on $1 a day or less (World Bank, Understanding Poverty, Chen 2004).
  
• Conflict as a cause of hunger and poverty.
  
• Hunger is also a cause of poverty.

Today is also World Food Day, which is also being celebrated by BloggersUnite. The FAO or Food & Agricultural Organization of the United Nations is one of the primary global organizations addressing this issue.

The Objective: World Food Day is annually held on Oct. 16 to commemorate the founding of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

One concern of paramount importance today in order to achieve Millennium Development Goal 1. End Hunger is FAO Reform:

In November 2007, the Conference welcomed the report of the Independent External Evaluation of FAO (IEE) and passed a resolution on the Follow-up to the IEE. This included the establishment of a time-bound Committee of the Conference (CoC-IEE), open to all FAO Members, and tasked with preparing proposals for an immediate plan of action to be considered by a Special Session of the Conference in the latter part of 2008. Based on the work of the CoC-IEE, the Special Session of the Conference adopted Resolution 1/2008: the Immediate Plan of Action for FAO Renewal and extended the CoC-IEE to further develop outstanding aspects of follow-up and report to the FAO Conference in 2009.

Here are some ways of getting involved with FAO's mission. It is of particular concern to the UN MILLENNIUM CAMPAIGN's to get the G20 to address this need in the current economic crisis, despite the valiant $42.6 million, three-year immediate plan of action by the FAO in November of 2008. These two efforts seem to be different sides of the same coin. One appealing to primarily the emotions of others and their capacity for compassion and collaboration, the other appealing to science, technology, and management skill sets. My natural tendency is to discount "showboat" demonstrations and focus on "hard nose" numbers and demonstrable programs, but I now believe that there is an important role to be filled in getting others to be part of this effort on an emotional level as well. We can't all be experts, but if we can't get most of the people in the world to care at some basic level, no matter how many campaigns FAO tries to put together it won't End Poverty! Below are some past posts dealing with the FAO.

• Making Hope Last Longer Than Hunger
• FAO not Schwartz part 1 - Global Plan of Action Addresses a Global Challenge Hunger

Other Blogging Efforts For the Same Cause Ending Poverty

Sphere: Related Content

Now that the Millennium Milestones Wiki is finished, I am going to start to focus on another project related to this effort and that is working with

I have participated in their blogging events before, but this is the first time that I have tried to promote a BloggersUnite event myself in support of the Stand Up Take Action End Poverty Now! campaign. I have to admit that so far the participation is limited to only two other bloggers (who are greatly appreciated).

Part of the problem may be competition. Seems that October is the month of actions against poverty and hunger. Below are other BloggersUnite actions taking place in October of this year. I have decided to take "the-more-the-merry" approach to this, figuring we are all supporting the same basic cause and have joined up with each. I have also included them on the calendar at the Milestones for a New Millennium wiki. My hope is that people participating in each of the events will take the same approach.

• World Food Day

• World Food Day is annually held on Oct. 16 to commemorate the founding of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

• International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

• Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated.

• Up Against Corruption and Poverty

• To Support the Millennium Development Goals

Of course another part of the problem is that I have not done a good enough job of promoting the event on BloggersUnite or other venues. That will be one the the next things on my to-do list to support the Millennium Development Goals.

Related (Somewhat) Posts:

• Making Hope Last Longer Than Hunger
• Refugees Across the Globe - A Millennium Problem
• FAO not Schwartz part 1 - Global Plan of Action Addresses a Global Challenge Hunger
• FAO not Schwartz part 2- Opposing Pathways to Ending World Hunger and Malnutrition
• FAO not Schwartz part 3 - A World Tragedy Too Long

Making Hope Last Longer Than Hunger

Sphere: Related Content

Tomorrow is the day to Unite For Hunger and Hope but I will be at work so I am writing tonight. This is a natural for this blog as it involves the first of the Millennium Development Goals 1. End Hunger and on a global level it will involve 8. Global Partnership. While I fully support charitable efforts such as that being put on here by Heifer International, it will be a collective, collaborative, sustained effort by governments, NGOs, change-agent organizations, of us to bring about a lasting change. It cannot be just through well meaning donations during particular times of the year, we have to change how we do things both locally and globally. Others will be able to write far more eloquently about the suffering wrought by hunger than I will. I look for change that can be made manifest.

It is of particular concern to the UN MILLENNIUM CAMPAIGN's to get the G20 to address this need in the current economic crisis, despite the valiant $42.6 million, three-year immediate plan of action by the FAO last year. The FAO or Food & Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, is one of the primary global organizations addressing this issue.

I have written about World Hunger Notes before and will provide a link to the post below, so here are some bullet points.

• The world produces enough food to feed everyone.
  
• Poverty is the principal cause of hunger.
• An estimated 982 million poor people in developing countries who live on $1 a day or less (World Bank, Understanding Poverty, Chen 2004).
  
• Conflict as a cause of hunger and poverty.
  
• Hunger is also a cause of poverty.
  

Another global agency address hunger is the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which provided a plan of actionable objectives in its Challenge of Hunger 2008

Combating the food crisis will require

1. More food aid for poor people;
2. Much greater investments in agriculture - especially the small farm sector;
3. More investment in social protection programs and social sectors - education & health;
4. Reforms to create a fair world trading system;
5. Changes to biofuel policies;
6. Measures to calm global food markets;
7. Better data collection and improved monitoring of the food and nutrition situation;
8. More support for nongovernmental organizations that work on behalf of poor people in developing countries.

All of this has been talked of before and will be talked about again and again. Often repetitive actions are necessary to bring about change. Each time we talk or write maybe one more person listens, but if a thousand small voices speak up that is a thousand more added to the effort to change the world.

What more can be done in the future? Starting on October 16, which is also World Food Day, people will once again be Standing Up To End Poverty. You can join that effort now and start organizing now to make a difference to bring real hope and stamp out hunger for the next millennium and beyond. The growth of the Stand Up Campaign is exponential. From 2006 to 2007 it achieve 46% growth, from 2007 to 2008 62% growth, and now 2008 to 2009 depends upon what happens in 2009. Could we hope for even greater growth of 75% or 80%? That could be 170,000,000 or 190,000,000 or even break 200,000,000. Maybe it is a bit unfair to use this forum to promote another event, but those are inconsequential details of who and when, the important thing is the what - ending hunger.

Related Posts:
FAO not Schwartz part 1 - Global Plan of Action Addresses a Global Challenge Hunger
FAO not Schwartz part 2- Opposing Pathways to Ending World Hunger and Malnutrition
FAO not Schwartz part 3 - A World Tragedy Too Long
Financial Fears * Global Challenges * Some Potential Answers
Blog Action Day Is Today The Struggle Continues
Taking the Measure of Chronic Poverty

The People of the United States Stand Up Speak Out

Collaboration Tools for the Millennium Development Goals.

Sphere: Related Content

This blog takes two approaches. One, learning more about the UN Millennium Development Goals and related programs. Two, learning more about using Web 2.0 tools to learn more about and to promote the UN Millennium Development Goals. These basically include so far blogging and social-tagging. This has been the subject of discussion at the End POVERTY / Fim POBREZA forum Leveraging Social Media. Last month I found some great resources that were featured in the post Implications for Aid Practice - From the Citizen Perspective and The Global Perspective. Afterward, I received some kind appreciation from Elizabeth Corley of the Development Gateway Foundation.

Dear Brian,

We appreciate the links on your blog to dgCommunities and Development Gateway.

Elizabeth Corley
Director of Communications
Development Gateway Foundation
1889 F Street NW, Second Floor
Washington, DC 20006 USA

Information Tools. Global Partnerships. Effective Aid.

Those resources have already been described as extensive and expansive, but they go even further than that. They begin to meet the challenge of making the web a collaborative platform for these efforts, and does so in a way that is of educational use for the learner and of practical knowledge for the practitioner. It fulfills one of the wishes from the forum discussion, finding better means of collaboration.

Once these ideas were in mind, similar resources began popping up. Some from the European Forum on International Co-operation or EUFORIC. EUFORIC introduced me to ComPart, who introduced me to ICCO.

ComPart provides the Web 2.0 tools, and the site itself is a PBwiki site, providing directions on Working with this site and ComPart, providing information on how to Get trained on ComPart, Linking & Learning Wiki and the ComPart Learning Blog. I also downloaded their toolbar, which features ICCO Alliance feeds.

The ComPart system is being developed within the ICCO-Alliance as to sustain the COMmunication with PARTners. It is a combination of (mostly) free Internet based applications that are all user friendly and stimulate participation and collaboration.

The ICCO applies those tools through a variety of different partnerships in fulfilling its mission which is:

The ICCO Alliance’s mission is to strive for a world in which people can live in dignity and well-being. The Alliance focuses on three main themes:

• Fair Economic Development
• Democratisation and Peacebuilding
  
• Access to Basic Services

The ICCO Alliance works on these themes in over 50 countries through the ICCO Alliance Operation Plan 2007-2010 (pdf)

With ICCO, I took advantage by downloading their search tool, which features not only Google searches, but icco alliance, euforic, focuss and Wikipedia searches as well.

Maarten Boers, the administrator of ICCO-Alliance Learning Network, explains below how Compart is suppose to work as a collaborative tool. I received a response from Mr. Boers regarding joining the ICCO-Alliance, but have not been granted access just yet.

Finally, both introduced me to Dgroups.

Welcome to Dgroups, the starting point for fostering groups and communities in international development. We are a partnership which caters to both individuals and organisations by offering tools and services that bring people together. Whether you are trying to support a team, a group, a network, a partnership or a community, we hope to provide you with the capacity to do this in an environment which is simple, non-commercial, respectful of privacy, and targeted at low bandwidth users in the South. Learn more here.

Again, this is collaborative effort with numerous current partners including Bellanet, DFID, Hivos, ICA, ICCO, IICD, OneWorld, UNAIDS and WorldBank. Member organizations include CGIAR, CIDA, CTA, Danida, FAO, IDRC, INASP, KIT, SNV, Sida, SDC, and UNECA.

So now my list of what I can learn about the Millennium Development Goals and related organizations, program, projects, and Web 2.0 tools has grown expontentially. My latest endeavor is signing up for a PBwiki account. Finally, I decided that all this rates having its own section on this blog - Collaborative Tools for the Millennium Development Goals.

FAO not Schwartz part 3 - A World Tragedy Too Long

Sphere: Related Content

This post is the third on the work of the FAO and the challenges that they are addressing - hunger and malnutrition. The questions are raised by everyday people who see the tragedy of the affliction and the immorality of inadequate response from the developed world.

The images are cut from the heart: men and women depleted, the frazzle clothes, their bodies reduced to skin and bone. Even more painful is watching the children deformed by malnutrition, left to die in the dust.

Watch this video - the words are in Portuguese but the pictures are universal.

963 million people hungry, says FAO reports the Monitor Online News , According to the Guardian Newspaper Nearly a billion people worldwide are starving, UN agency warns, and Food prices add 40 million people to ranks of malnournished.

The problem of hunger is most acute in Africa were people are starving. Malnutrition is more widespread and actually affects more children in Asia according to World Hunger Notes.

According to the most recent estimate that Hunger Notes could find, malnutrition, as measured by stunting, affects 32.5 percent of children in developing countries--one of three(de Onis 2000). Geographically, more than 70 percent of nourished children live in Asia, 26 percent in Africa and 4 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Africa though has multiple afflictions that combined together present a daunting challenge. People speak of an African Scourge, but scourge in Africa has many faces.

• Incontinence African Scourge; Lack of Medical Care Turns Girls into pariahs.
• Confronting Africa's scourge: AIDS
• Short draws attention to Africa's scourge of river blindness
• Central Africa: Scourge of Africa examined Genocide

Near the top of the list, the affliction of hunger and malnutrition seems to strike again and again.

• 14 Million at Risk of Starvation in Africa August 2008
• Starvation in Southern Africa October 2005
• Africa: millions threatened with starvation September, 2002
• Africa Death by Starvation - TIME January 1990

Sudan is dying of hunger again. The question is why, why anywhere?

World Hunger Notes provides some insights into the problems, a few of which are summarized below.

• The world produces enough food to feed everyone. The principal problem is that many people in the world do not have sufficient land to grow, or income to purchase, enough food.
• Poverty is the principal cause of hunger. The causes of poverty include poor people's lack of resources, an extremely unequal income distribution in the world and within specific countries, conflict, and hunger itself, an estimated 982 million poor people in developing countries who live on $1 a day or less (World Bank, Understanding Poverty, Chen 2004).
  
• Conflict as a cause of hunger and poverty. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)reports that as of December 2006, there were at least 22.7 million displaced, including 9.9 million refugees and 12.8 million internally displaced persons (UNHCR 2007).
• Hunger is also a cause of poverty. By causing poor health, low levels of energy, and even mental impairment, hunger can lead to even greater poverty by reducing people's ability to work and learn.
  

Two resources featured in this blog can also help to provide some understanding. Both are under Millennium Bloggers with Minds of Their Own below this post. Anup Shah writes about, World Hunger and Poverty, at GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Sunday, July 06, 2008. Rav Casley Gera provides an informative chart in African history in ten seconds: New and improved! in his blog African Development for the Completely Bloody Ignorant posted under Useful sources. The recently discovered, The Profits of Famine: Southern Africa's Long Decade of Hunger is an older article from back in 2002, but it still provides some good insights into how we were brought to the present circumstances.

It is hoped though that the article will become even more out of date as people continue to endeavor to change the world for the better. As many of the stories in the TED Talks Africa, The Next Chapter tell us, Africa has unrealized potential and does not wish to be seen as either the charity case for the world or as the stepping stone for the world. One of my past posts Accession of African Activists. A DIY approach to the MDGs has a number of videos taken from the series.

Another worthwhile site, Goal One: Eradicate Hunger and Extreme Poverty.

It is still possible to continue making the needed changes to create a better world.

Related Posts -

FAO not Schwartz part 2- Opposing Pathways to Ending World Hunger and Malnutrition

FAO not Schwartz part 1 - Global Plan of Action Addresses a Global Challenge Hunger

FAO not Schwartz part 2- Opposing Pathways to Ending World Hunger and Malnutrition

Sphere: Related Content

My last post dealt with the global efforts of the FAO to address the global challenge of world hunger and malnutrition. I took my usual public policy wonk approach that the organizational infrastructure and business-like strategy were as important as social relevancy and moral inspiration. The ability of the FAO to conduct evaluations of past activities at an in depth level was as important as its laudable intention to be more proactive in its future endeavors.

There is another level of discussion that goes beyond the efforts of the FAO and United Nation's efforts to the basic philosophy behind the best means of addressing these problems. My inspiration once again comes from the End POVERTY / Fim POBREZA group forums. How we see the problem will influence how we see any potential solutions. One of group's members used a famous bet to frame the debate.

The ongoing debate centers around a bet between Noble Prize winning scientist Paul Ehrlich and the famous American economist Julian Simon. The metric of the bet was the price that five metals reached on the Chicago Stock Exchange in the following decade. Ehrlich claimed that population growth would raise the demand and the price of metals. The metal lost value, and Ehrlich lost that particular bet.

Paul Ehrlich wrote the controversial best-seller the Population Bomb in 1968 which made projections about the catastrophic consequences of population explosion. Ehrlich was trained as an entomologist and has an affinity for systems and seeing the big picture. Ehrlich follows in the tradition of English philosopher Thomas Malthus, who in the eighteenth century posited "his hypothesis that (unchecked) population growth always exceeds the growth of means of subsistence" creating a Maltusian catastrophe. His "Essay on the Principle of Population" also influenced Darwin's theories.

Losing that particular wager did not stop the debate, the question is whether Ehrilich's work on population is still relevant. Taking the affirmative, the blog Yale Environment 360 discusses the matter in The Population Bomb: Has It Been Defused?

The Ehrlichs are sometimes ridiculed because Paul’s original book predicted hundreds of millions of deaths from famine in the 1980s, when we were bailed out by the Green Revolution. But they are right to question the new orthodoxy that technological fixes will always save the day. For myself, I fear that when the Wall Street Journal talks about a revival of Malthusian fears, it reflects a tendency to excuse those guilty of overconsumption, while instead blaming the poor for their poverty and our planetary predicament.

Fred Pearce
Environment consultant for New Scientist magazine

Others are still supportive of Simon, for example Jeffery Goldberg's article in the Atlantic, The Population Bomb That Bombed.

Ehrlich is now leading the Center for Conservation Biology research at Stanford University in California, and still holds to his central thesis: the earth is nearing its limit of sustainability of human life. Ehrlich's current work was featured in Wired Magazine back in March of this year, Population Bomb Author Tackles Cultural Evolution.

My own personal view is an attempt to find a middle path that incorporates both perspectives. Defining the problem as Ehrlich does, but recognizing the viability of Simon's arguments. This blog continues to be against an unfettered free market approach to economics and at the same time support social entrepreneurial efforts incorporating effective business discipline. Ehrlich proposes a Fix For Next Extinction: Educate Women. Where I come somewhat closer to siding with Simon is in applying the solutions. Finding that middle path, however, continues to be an ongoing debate with myself.

Related Posts -

FAO not Schwartz part 1 - Global Plan of Action Addresses a Global Challenge Hunger

FAO not Schwartz part 3 - A World Tragedy Too Long

Change Initiative to Empower Adolescent Girls Investing in the Girl Effect

Social responsibility,seeking the good

FAO not Schwartz part 1 - Global Plan of Action Addresses a Global Challenge Hunger

Sphere: Related Content

FAO members approve $42.6 million reform plan.

I have been learning more about the work of the FAO, (Food and Agricultural Organization) of the United Nations, inspired by some of the discussion at End POVERTY / Fim POBREZA.

Back in November of this year, the FAO member countries agreed to a $42.6 million, three-year immediate plan of action to enable the FAO to “reform with growth”. The recommendations were based upon an independent external evaluation (pdf) (View as HTML) completed last year and form the foundation of a strategy though which the United Nations Calls for New World Agricultural Order. Here is a draft addressing both an immediate Plan of Action for FAO Renewal, and a rationale for "Why reform?" (pdf)- (View as HTML) More insights are provided by MIJARC President George Dixon Fernandez in his review of the special session of the FAO convened (pdf) - (View as HTML) 18 – 22 November 2008, in Rome.

To my mind the evaluation and the plan of action are of equal importance. Evaluation is an important aspect of what FAO does.

The policies for evaluation of these programmes have been set by member countries in the Governing Bodies and the Director-General. Evaluation is designed:

• a) for accountability on results, particularly in terms of evidence of contribution to sustainable impacts for the benefit of member countries; and
• b) to assist decision-making by the Governing Bodies, the Organization’s management and individual member countries as part of a results-based approach to decision-making.

The introduction in 2000 of an enhanced results-based planning model for FAO has made it somewhat easier to identify the outcomes and impacts (objectives) towards which programmes are working

The FAO did not avoid criticizing its own programs. One program sponsored and evaluated by the FAO was Telefood. Their evaluation highlighted some of the shortcomings of the program.

TeleFood events have not made their audiences aware of the causes of hunger, at the international ,national or local levels and of the multifaceted FAO activities in policy development, emergency response and field projects.

Evaluation Brief 10 Evaluation of TeleFood

All of this can be placed under the ongoing discussion as to how to best address the challenge of world hunger and malnutrition. There is always the heartfelt, fully justified and understandable urge to do something to relieve suffering. There is also the need to make sure that such programs are effective in their impact, efficient in their use of resources and sustainable.

Related posts -
FAO not Schwartz part 2- Opposing Pathways to Ending World Hunger and Malnutrition

FAO not Schwartz part 3 - A World Tragedy Too Long

Financial Fears * Global Challenges * Some Potential Answers

The Darker Side of Biofuel

Sphere: Related Content

Ending hunger is usually the first thing one thinks about when thinking about the Millennium Development Goals. Another important goal is environmental sustainability. What happens when they are put into conflict with each other?

Biofuels: Burning Food? via Allianz Knowledge / Latest Articles on 10/20/08 asks,

Are biofuels responsible for higher food prices and a growing number of hungry people? Terri Raney, senior economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), explains the links between food and fuel.

"Biofuels demand is likely to keep basic food commodity prices 10 to 15 percent higher than they would have been otherwise."

Terri Raney, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre on 10/20/08 introduced us to an even darker side with The Gates of Hell - Jungle takes a look at the lesser known side of the ethanol boom.

My task is to translate, photograph, film and get permission to accompany the Brasilian government's Mobile Group on a rescue mission to release men, women and children being forced to work in sub-human conditions...[by] unscrupulous land owners...since 1995, 30,000 slaves have been freed.

Other earlier posts from my blogs dealing with biofuels have included:

• Good Intentions: Biofuels / Bad Consequences: Worse Than Gasoline And Better As Food?
• Energy And Politics Bio-Fuels And Barack
• Financial Fears * Global Challenges * Some Potential Answers