The world celebrated International Day of Rural Women on October 15, World Food Day on October 16 and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17 — all key days for The Hunger Project.
The theme for World Food Day 2010 was United Against Hunger. This theme was chosen to recognise the efforts made in the fight against world hunger at national, regional and international levels.
Several major new initiatives are already pointing the way in a growing global effort to defeat hunger, extreme poverty and malnutrition. At long last, such initiatives are giving top priority to long-term, sustainable approaches that empower the women small-scale farmers who grow most of the developing world’s food.
The Hunger Project has been playing an active role, along with our partner civil society organisations, particularly in the Global Food Security Initiative and the UN’s Scaling Up Nutrition Initiative. We were pleased that women’s and children’s health were at the top of the agenda of this year’s MDG Summit, with a new $40 billion commitment to a Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. The Hunger Project is an active partner in a supporting initiative — the 1,000 Days movement — which focuses on maternal and child nutrition from the start of pregnancy to age two as a critical window of time that can have a measurable and lasting impact on a child’s growth and development. (Learn more)
So, although the figures are distressing — last year, we saw the largest number of hungry people in the world ever, 1.02 billion, and though it has decreased to 925 million in 2010, the figures are still devastating — We strongly believes that we have achieved a breakthrough in terms of international support for issues of hunger and malnutrition. This policy shift — combined with the courage, resourcefulness and creativity of the women and men living in conditions of hunger and poverty — creates an enormous potential for change.
People around the world are taking actions every day to lift themselves out of hunger. In Ghana, corn-farmer Ms. Theresa Sekyere participated in The Hunger Project’s agricultural courses and skills trainings for income generating-activities. She learned how to triple her corn crop yield from two bags (6 kg) per acre to six bags per acre (18 kg). Rather than simply providing for her family, Ms. Sekyere was able to use the additional crops in market, becoming financially independent and fully funding her children’s formal education.
There are many other success stories like that of Mrs. Sekyere and there will be millions more. May World Food Day 2010 remind us all that together, we can and are making great strides in eradicating world hunger.
Links
Watch a video: Who Feeds Our World? Women produce most of the developing world’s food, yet receive virtually no support.
Find out more about World Hunger Day 2010 which will take place on January 9, 2011 in the UK, to celebrate and support the individuals and communities in developing and developed countries that are working to end hunger and poverty worldwide.
Invest in The Hunger Project’s work to empower women and men to end their own hunger.