Goal 2 : Zero Hunger

GOAL NO. 2: ZERO HUNGER

There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.

- Gandhi

The realization of the need to fight hunger has long been felt by many. The presupposition that Global Hunger is the call of the hour is indeed a categorical truth. But what is more important than the tenets of The UN and the organizations spearheading this global cause, is the modus operandi that briefly follows this decade and the next. Though the initiatives are nascent, it is important that the commonwealth are well informed about the big tidal wave that is about to follow.

Simply stated, the title says it all. “Zero Hunger”, the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), aims to battle the global malnutrition by ensuring the denizens of the world get adequate and nutritious food. On a grandiose scale, it is a global political mission involving the participation of several Individuals, NGOs, Governments and Civil Society. Inspired by the success of countries like Brazil in reducing hunger, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon initiated the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012. The Challenge has an integrated approach, with logical objectives. It calls on all stakeholders to work together in an amalgamated manner, and help them recognize that Zero Hunger can only be achieved if all elements are taken together: zero stunting and good nutrition, with access to adequate food for everyone at all times. The twelfth SDG calls on member states to “Ensures sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns” which similarly includes a target on global food waste and loss. With these goals in hand, The UN aims to eradicate hunger and improve prudential consumption of food.

Having established such a daring proposal, the UN faces a demanding mission which requires a diligent and meticulous undertaking. The 2030 Agenda recognizes that the UN cannot claim success if any goal is unmet, or if any country or person is left behind. Hence the UN recognizes that each goal can only be achieved in the company of the others.

The Birth of the Goal

“If, by the end of my term, all Brazilians are able to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, I will have fulfilled my life's mission,” said Lula in his inaugural speech as his country's president on January 1st 200. To end this national threat that plagued his country, the flagship of his administration's all-out attack on poverty became Fome Zero (Zero Hunger), a scheme to ensure that even the poorest Brazilian will get three square meals a day. That was 9 years before the Rio Summit. Today Rio is successful in reducing its nation hunger by 93%. The United Nations decided that Rio would be the perfect place to hold the summit.

Ban praised the previous efforts of the Brazilian government to reduce poverty and hunger through its Fome Zero program, launched in 2004 at the summit. The initiative has lifted millions of people out of poverty by supporting local farmers and community kitchens and introducing social welfare policies such as the Bolsa Familia scheme. He went on to propose a similar vision of his for the world at the summit. He named it Zero Hunger. He called on everyone to take action that would reduce the number of undernourished people – more than 870 million at that time – and help build sustainable food systems that could provide adequate nutritious food to all people all year round while supporting smallholder and family farmers.

The Causes of Hunger and Food Security include the following

1. Depleted Assets and Depleted Resources.

2. Insufficient Income.

3. Climate Change and Global Warming.

4. Lack of livelihood diversification.

5. Weak Global nets and Weak Policy Environment.

The Objectives of the Zero Hunger Program

1. 100% access to food for all, all year round

2. An end to stunted growth among children under two, due to lack of nutrients in their infancy.

3. Ensuring food systems are sustainable (although there is no reference to how this could be achieved).

4. Doubling smallholder productivity and income

5. A reduction in food waste beginning from the sowing of the seed till the final consumption.

The Modus Operandi

Three years after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched his Zero Hunger Challenge he wanted it to be a millennium development goal. He invited more than 40,000 people from more than 130 countries, UN officials and civil society leaders to share his vision of the future. The 23 UN agencies, funds and programs of the High-Level Task Force for Global Food Security have aligned their collective work plans around the elements and vision of the Zero Hunger Challenge. This instilled hopes in the minds of millions of people around the world who are expecting a rapid change in the developmental process.

Endorsing the challenge, the UK's deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, said Britain would be allocating £150m from the international climate change fund to support about 6 million farmers, particularly in Nigeria and Ethiopia. The money will be channelized through the adaptation for smallholder agriculture program to help farmers adapt to the impact of climate change.

The man who designed the Fome Zero program for the Brazil, Graziano da Silva, is currently the director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He promised to work along with the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD), the World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF, the World Bank and Biodiversity International to collectively amass money for the Sustainable Development Funds.

Also the World Bank has pledge to invest 35 billion US $ for the mission with investments in technology of leading Corporates such as Biogen, Amway and PepsiCo.

The Global Response

Unilever and DSM

In Bangladesh, Unilever has invested more than $800,000 this year in programs to improve the nutritional health of school children in government schools within India by initiating a free school meals program that is reaching more than 47,000 children. DSM, is providing its expertise to help WFP improve the nutritional value of the food it distributes in the form of micronutrients enhanced fortified rice.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The world’s largest private foundation — will spend $776 million over the next six years to fight malnutrition, a strong signal of support for a historically underfunded sector, according to the foundation’s leaders. Co-chair Melinda Gates announced the new pledge — and its accompanying new program strategy —at the European Development Days, the European Commission’s development forum held annually in Brussels, Belgium. In her remarks, Gates highlighted nutrition’s chronic underrepresentation in global development budgets and called on other donors to step up their own commitments.

The Indian Response

The Midday Meal Scheme

The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal program of the government of India designed to improve the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide. The MDM scheme has many potential benefits: attracting children from disadvantaged sections (especially girls, Dalits and Adivasis) to school, improving regularity, nutritional benefits, and socialization benefits. Media reports have also highlighted several implementation issues, including irregularity, corruption, hygiene, caste discrimination, etc. The toddlers are also given only a 270 Calories intake despite the promised 450 Calories. Hence, the efficacy of the scheme is highly debatable.

M.S.Swaminathan’s Commitment

2015 is the International Year of the Soil and Mr Swaminathan, the Father of Green Revolution, aimed to highlight the importance of land and soil in achieving the Zero Hunger Challenge. He promised to contribute 18000 GM Seeds to farmers in Punjab for free of cost. He helped farmers in Punjab construct Solar Panels which are connected to a hydroponics system of irrigation. He also held an All India Workshop at Gurgaon - Haryana, to educate farmers on the scientific method of Farming and told them about the UN SDGs.

The Future and Solution

Eliminating hunger and malnutrition means building policy frameworks and investing in programming approaches that prioritize nutrition for children in their first 1,000 days, sustainable smallholder agriculture, rural development, poverty reduction, climate control, social protection and equality of opportunity. The only two solutions to this conundrum are Technology and Sustainability. Today’s crops crisscross the globe: Mexico's tomatoes end up on our plate, our wheat heads to Africa. As a result, the challenge of growing twice as much food by 2030 to feed nine billion people—with less and less land—is everyone's problem. But scientists are hard at work, fomenting a second green revolution.

The Future Solutions

1. Farming the Deserts

2.  Increasing Biodiversity in countries  

3. Rebuild Rice by altering its genome

4. Replace Fertilizer with Recycled Food waste

5. Re-Map a Continent

6. Use Robot Labour

7. Resurrect the Soil using Carbon Nanotubes and Nanotechnology

8. Make Super-crops adjust to Global Warming

As we work towards the objectives set out in the Zero Hunger Challenge, we recognize that no single organization – however committed it is, and however deep its pockets – will be able to help the world reach these goals on its own. It is only with the arduous efforts of many people can such an audacious issue be confronted.