09059
January 30, 2009

Faith groups hail recognition of ‘right to food’ as hunger weapon

by Ecumenical News International

GENEVA ― Faith-based organizations around the world have welcomed the recognition that the “right to food” is essential in combating hunger. The acknowledgement came at the High Level Meeting on Food Security for All held in Madrid Jan. 26-27.

“We welcome this outcome and look forward to the concrete elaboration of how the ‘right to food’ will be linked to the actions proposed by the U.N. High Level Task Force,” said Rudolf Buntzel of the Church Development Service (EED) in Germany, one of a number of faith-based organizations grouped by the Geneva-based Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance.

In a statement made available by the alliance on Jan. 30, he added, however, “It is essential that this statement is much more than lip service, but will be made operational and guide actions at country level.”

In his closing remarks at the food security meeting U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, “We must continue to meet urgent hunger and humanitarian needs by providing food and nutrition assistance and safety nets, while focusing on improving food production and smallholder agriculture.”

Ban explained this was a “twin-track approach.” He added, “We should be ready to add a third track ― the right to food ― as a basis for analysis, action and accountability.”

Ban said, “The way forward must link actions to reduce hunger, improve food and nutrition security, broaden social protection for the vulnerable, improve agricultural production, and make trading systems work for the world’s poorest. We must raise the political profile of actions in all of these areas, advocating for finance, action and results.”

Michael Windfhur of Bread for the World (Brot für die Welt) in Germany noted, “We certainly hope that the inclusion of the ‘right to food’ as a framework for action will lead to concrete actions that do not just tackle technical problems related to raising agricultural production, but also more politically sensitive issues such as fair access to resources like land and water.”

Buntzel, Windfhur and Stineke Oenema of ICCO (Interchurch Development Organization) in the Netherlands were faith-based delegates to the Madrid meeting, advocating for more just policies to benefit the poorest and most vulnerable. They represent three organizations in the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, which works on the right to food, campaigns for trade justice and is launching a new four-year campaign on food among churches and Christian organizations around the world, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Speaking on the Madrid meeting, the Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, reflected on the Christian prayer for “daily bread”: “When we pray for ‘our’ ―  rather than ‘my’ ― daily bread, we define our need for the minimum requirements for human dignity in explicitly communal terms. Adequate food must be a right for all, not a privilege for some.”

In Madrid, some participants promoted a new Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security. However, the plan was criticized by civil society organizations and some governments and the partnership was not formalized during the meeting and will undergo further discussion.

“Of course we are strongly in favor of better coordination,” Oenema stated. “But we question if the complex process proposed during the conference (known as GPAFS) will lead to a more efficient structure, rather than improving the functioning of the international organizations that currently have the lead in tackling hunger such as FAO, IFAD and WFP.”