RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Peter Henriot
• Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection
• International Experts Dialogue Conference
• Lusaka, Zambia
• 03-04 April 2009

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Is there a right to food?
• Why is there such a right?
• What would it mean?
• What does it mean in Zambia?
• What does it mean for all of us here?

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• This morning, most people in Zambia did not have
  breakfast and do not, can not, look forward to
  three meals
• In a country of rich agricultural lands,
  plentiful water, abundant potential
• In a world of enormous plenty but immense
  deprivation, impoverishment
• One billion malnourished 40,000 die a day

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Is there a right to food?
• A few years ago, the Vice President of Zambia
  made the following statement Lets be clear
  about all this no Zambian citizen has the right
  to food!
• Correct it is not a right guaranteed in the
  Bill of Rights of the Republican Constitution of
  Zambia.

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• But should we not speak of it in a much wider
  sense?
• Ethical sense of common humanity and right to
  life
• African sense of ubuntu and solidarity
• Biblical sense of feeding the hungry
• International agreements sense of Covenants and
  Declarations

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Foundational ethical sense of respect for life
  and hence for the basic requirements of life
• Philosophical discussions.
• African wisdom of ubuntu but with hunger and
  malnutrition solidarity is broken and personhood
  of all is diminished

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Biblical foundations
• Old Testament manna God feeds the community
  in need
• New Testament Matthew 25 feed the hungry
  example of Jesus faith and deeds of James 2
• Place of meals in community

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• International covenants and agreements
• State parties to the International Covenant on
  Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have a
  legally binding obligation to take steps to
  respect, protect, facilitate and fulfil the right
  to food
• Article 11(1) states clearly that the "right to
  an adequate standard of living includes food,
  housing, clothing." Moreover, article 11(2)
  recognizes the "fundamental right of everyone to
  be free from hunger."

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Rome Declaration on World Food Security 1996
• Article1 "We the Heads of State and Government,
  or our representatives, gathered at the World
  Food Summit at the invitation of the FAO,
  reaffirm the right of everyone to have access to
  safe and nutritious food, consistent with the
  right to adequate food and the fundamental right
  of everyone to be free from hunger."

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• MDG 1 eradicate poverty and hunger.
• Target 2 halve between 1990 and 2015, the
  proportion of people who suffer from hunger

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Right to Food opens wider issues
• Agricultural policies for whom?
• Land tenure, use
• Education extension services
• Health proper foods (obesity??)
• Trade internal and external
• Environment care of nature
• Sustainability for this generation and future

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Right to food and gender issues
• Food is largely a womens issue.  In most
  families it is women who prepare the meals and
  who work in the fields.  At the same time, it is
  often they who eat last and eat only what is left
  over. 

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Right to Food
• Right to adequate food quantity and quality
• Right to access to food ability to produce,
  ability to purchase

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Access to adequate food is fundamental for the
  right to adequate food.  Accessed food must be
  adequate in terms of quality and quantity. 
  Access to adequate food has been defined in terms
  of intake of nutrients, calories and proteins. 
  Hunger and malnutrition are the consequences of
  lacking access to adequate food. 

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Are we talking about abundant meals, banquets?
• Are we talking about nutritious meals, healthy
  opportunities?
• We are talking about basics, necessities,

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Central to Churchs Social Teaching (CST)
• The available data show that the nonfulfillment
  of the right to food is not only due to natural
  causes, but also and above all, to situations
  provoked by the conduct of men and women that
  lead to a general deterioration of social,
  economic and human standards. Benedict XVI

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• Food security must stress components such as
  the production of a sufficient amount of food, a
  stable supply throughout the year, access to food
  for all, the proper and equitable distribution,
  and a commitment to producing the components of a
  balanced and healthy diet in keeping with local
  nutritional practices. Cardinal Martino

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• A persons status and location affect perceived
  causes of poverty. For example, in some areas
  farmers link poverty to drought the urban poor
  link poverty to rising prices and fewer
  employment opportunities and the rich link
  poverty to the deterioration in domestic and
  international terms of trade, neglect of
  time-honoured customs and traditions, a lack of
  motivation among certain classes and groups of
  people, price liberalization and devaluation,
  lack of education, and absence of government.
  Poverty never results from the lack of one thing,
  but from many interlocking factors that manifest
  themselves in the experiences of the poor.
  Benedict XVI

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• But what does all this mean in Zambia?
• Rich country, poor people
• With no constitutional right to food!
• JCTR does research, education, advocacy,
  consultation on this in our Social Conditions
  Programme

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Urban BNB

• Cost of living for a family of 6
• Lusaka BNB
• Cost of basic food K774,250
• Cost of Essential non food items K1,425,250
• Total BNB K2,199,880
• Comparative wages
• Minimum wage K500,000 (including allowances)

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Rural Basket

• Sec A Basic Food Items
• Sec B Essential Non-Food Items
• Sec C Essential Services
• Sec D Prevailing Livelihoods
• Sec E Minimum Annual Food Production for HH
  Food Security

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Observations

• Results indicate that the areas are
  undernourished
• Ultra poor consume less than 1600kcal/ person/
  day. Income levels half of US1.25
• Masaiti February Basket 1200k/cal per person
  per day

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Sec B - E

• Failure to meet essential non-food items
• Poor service delivery inadequate drugs, poor
  road network, unsafe drinking water, etc.,
• Few opportunities for viable off farm economy
• Poor people do not benefit from tourism (Malama
  area)
• Unfair TOT
• SEC E planning purposes

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• So what to do in Zambia?
• Get at root causes of hunger
• Establish right to food in Constitution
• Promote agricultural policy
• Caution about GMO
• Promote school feeding programme
• Open to wider trade issues

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• So what to do in Germany and wider?
• Thats for our discussions the rest of this
  consultation!

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RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD

• THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
• JCTR
• www.jctr.org.zm