Tackling Hunger in Third World countries

Tackling Hunger in Third World countries

-Ecenur Dede

Third world countries opt for dealing with the scarcity of food thereby causing the hunger problem in the country.This is due to the lack of sources in water,economy,food and severe other challenges that bring the hunger problem.In addition to this 98% of people living in developing countries face hunger (Christensen,2016).Therefore it is a huge problem and affects the quality of individuals living in third world countries.The hunger issue even causes people to die in these realm of the world.Thus,.In this article ,it will be elaborated the reasons of hunger in third world countries and the possible solutions will be suggested.In third world countries the issue of hunger stems mainly from poverty .

People are poor enough to sustain their basic needs thereby not being able to supply enough foods for themselves and in their househoulds.In addition to this,there are severe reasons that causes to experience hunger such as weak health, climate changes, and natural disasters.Apart from that Hunger also results from war and displacement, unstable or unavailable markets, and from waste.For instance,In sub-Saharan Africa which is one of the third world countries, people still live in rural places and are dependent on the lands for their livelihood,Decades of underinvestment in agriculture has inevitably inhibited their productivity. More frequent droughts and other weather shocks also affected farmers’ ability to produce enough food for themselves and the society.(Bread,2020).Additionally,Many countries in this region experience high economic growth rates, but they still lack concrete systems, such as administrative, legal, education, and health systems. They also lack roads, electricity, and irrigation..(Bread,2020). These situations make it more difficult for countries, communities, and individuals to bear with hunger and recover from shocks, such as disease outbreaks or droughts.Thus,there are severe reasons that third world countries face the hunger crisis.The solution for hunger can be depicted as boosting agriculture to increase income since mostly those third world countries are dependent on agriculture.In addition to this,Educating people on proper nutrition, sanitation and hygiene so that they keep their health is essential to addressing food insecurity.(USAID,2017).Besides this,empowering women for taking place in the agriculture might help to tackle with the hunger due to contributing the household as

financially .Lastly,The third world countries have issue on hunger due to the fact that they are having poverty ,have lack of sources on water and are usually dealing with the droughts and other natural disasters.Therefore such issues cause them to be exposed to poverty and lack of food thereby having hunger.In order to be able to deal with the hunger,the countries should be more aware of their legislative and administrative entities and should work on trying to boost and strengthen such subcategories in their government.In addition to this,those countries should also work on educating their citizens on nutrition,sanitation and hygiene so that it could have an impact on the hunger crises.

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Bibliography

Christensen,S.(2016) “HUNGER IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: FIVE FACTS YOU

NEED TO KNOW”The Borgen Project. Available at

https://borgenproject.org/hunger-in-developing-countries-five-facts/

Bread.(2020).Where does hunger exist? Bread For The World.Available at

https://www.bread.org/where-does-hunger-exist

USAID (2017) “ 5 Ways USAID Is Helping to End World Hunger”OCHA.Available at

https://reliefweb.int/report/world/5-ways-usaid-helping

World Day Against Child Labour

Act now: end child labour!

This year’s World Day Against Child Labour focuses on action taken for the 2021 International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. It is the first World Day since the universal ratification of the ILO’s Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, and takes place at time when the COVID-19 crisis threatens to reverse years of progress in tackling the problem.In June for the World Day, the ILO and UNICEF will release new global estimates and trends on child labour (2016-2020), under the aegis of Alliance 8.7. The report will include an assessment of how the pace of progress towards ending child labour is likely to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented economic crisis that has accompanied it.

Almost one in ten of all children worldwide are in child labour. While the number of children in child labour has declined by 94 million since 2000, the rate of reduction slowed by two-thirds in recent years. Target 8.7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals calls for an end to child labour in all its forms by 2025. How can the world community get firmly on track toward eliminating child labour?

 

Prevalence of child labour

Children around the world are routinely engaged in paid and unpaid forms of work that are not harmful to them. However, they are classified as child labourers when they are either too young to work, or are involved in hazardous activities that may compromise their physical, mental, social or educational development. In the least developed countries, slightly more than one in four children (ages 5 to 17) are engaged in labour that is considered detrimental to their health and development.

Africa ranks highest among regions both in the percentage of children in child labour — one-fifth — and the absolute number of children in child labour — 72 million. Asia and the Pacific ranks second highest in both these measures — 7% of all children and 62 million in absolute terms are in child labour in this region.The Africa and the Asia and the Pacific regions together account for almost nine out of every ten children in child labour worldwide.

While the percentage of children in child labour is highest in low-income countries, their numbers are actually greater in middle-income countries. 9% all children in lower-middle-income countries, and 7% of all children in upper-middle-income countries, are in child labour. Statistics on the absolute number of children in child labour in each national income grouping indicate that 84 million children in child labour, accounting for 56% of all those in child labour, actually live in middle-income countries, and an additional 2 million live in high-income countries.

Did you know?

• The number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years

• The agriculture sector accounts for 70% of children in child labour, followed by 20% in services and 10% in industry.

• Child labour is more prevalent among boys than girls at every age but when 21 hours per week of household chores are taken into account, the gender gap in child labour narrows.

• Child labour in rural areas stands at 14%, nearly three times higher than the 5% in urban areas.

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World Food Day

Join HEEALS today as we raise awareness of #worldfoodday. There is a misconception of today being about your favourite foods. It’s really all about making us think about our over indulgence and wastage. It’s time for us to reflect on our actions. Especially when there are millions starving around the world and so many others less fortunate. We can do something about hunger together. It is a day about bringing awareness to the rest of mankind and of how much we do waste and to think before we do. The theme this year of #worldfoodday is #grow #nourish #sustain #together. Let’s think about our actions for the future. If you think you can help us at HEEALS achieve this please reach out to us. Covid-19 has had a massive impact on what we are trying to achieve. Please share our video 🙏🏽 Thank you for sharing and for watching 🤗  

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NUTRITION AT SCHOOL

Nutrition is the intake of food, considered in relation to the body's dietary needs and a

balanced diet, together with physical activity, is a cornerstone of good health. The

international organisations are increasingly focusing their efforts on nutrition as they

underscore the importance of it, not only on at the individual level but as an asset for the

sustainable development of a country . As Ban Ki Moon stated: “Nutrition  is both a maker and a marker of development. Improved nutrition is the platform for progress in health,education, employment, empowerment of women and the reduction of poverty and inequality, and can lay the foundation for peaceful, secure and stable societies”. 

Nutrition is therefore a very complex and multifaceted issue as it encompasses a broad range of topics and, taken form a Sustainable Development Goals perspective, can be taken as the focal point from which one can address every one of those. Unfortunately a big share of the world population faces issues related to malnutrition, this being defined by the WHO as the condition related to deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. Whilst many western countries are facing a growing burden of Obesity and overweight individuals, the other side of the coin is represented by those developing countries affected by undernutrition and micronutrient-related malnutrition, with 90 per cent of the developing world’s chronically undernourished (stunted) children living in Asia and Africa. 

Under nutrition is defined as the outcome of insufficient food intake and repeated infectious diseases. It includes being underweight for one’s age, too short for one’s age (stunted), dangerously thin for one’s height (wasted) and deficient in vitamins and minerals (micronutrient malnutrition). According to Unicef, more than one third of the world’s children who are wasted live in India, with the rural communities having the highest rates of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Other nutrition issues faced by many underprivileged communities is Iron-deficiency-Anaemia (IDA), for which India earned by far the world sad record, and Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM). The Indian government recognizes the importance of an adequate nutrition in order to end the vicious circle of poverty and its paramountcy for development, as noted in the national nutrition policy. The same document underlines the importance of nutrition education and the fact that schools are an ideal setting for that. Reason why the Mid-may meal scheme is been designed. Unfortunately, as noted in the previous article the shortcomings about the implementation of the programme are manifest and if we take them from a “nutritional” angle we notice that the programme failed to provide nutritious food as per programme guidelines.Therefore the question is: 

What can be done to remedy to these

shortcomings? The ministry of Human Resource Development highlights the importance of community participation for the successful implementation of the scheme, in order to

ensure an effective monitoring at the local level and underlining the importance of the

participation of NGOs which work at a grassroots level, having a hands-on approach to

such issues and dealing directly with the problems faced by the communities, thus creating a dialogue between those and the government. 

Therefore NGOs such as Heeals can be paramount for the remedying of the government shortcomings regarding the implementation of programmes such as the MDM scheme; tackling issues such as Infrastructure implementation, nutrition education and nutritional balanced meal provision. It is paramount to empower voiceless and unprivileged communities in order to buttress their rights as the issues that their facing are not an accident or a natural outcome of their actions, but they are socio-economical phenomena engendered by asymmetrical power relations and lack of access to the most basic resources and agency. 

As demonstrated by Amartya Sen, hunger and food insecurity are not related to food availability but to the lack of access to it on the part of certain individuals, and if we are to support the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, we have to support and empower those people whom are more in need, making their voices audible as well as endorsing a pragmatic solidarity” approach. As Paul Farmer stated, the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong in the world.

-        By -Andrea Angeli

WASH Intern Coordinator

Source

1 Global Panel on Agriculture and Food systems fo Nutrition; http://glopan.org/sites/default/files/

SDGPolicyBrief.pdf

2http://ucx3x320eshgjxppibt1rqg0.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/SUNMovement-

Strategy-and-Roadmap-Ban-Ki-moon-message.pdf

3 UNSCN; http://glopan.org/sites/default/files/Downloads/SDGPolicyBriefSummary.pdf

4 WHO; https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malnutrition

5 UNICEF; https://unicef.in/Story/1124/Nutrition

6 UNICEF; https://www.unicef.org/progressforchildren/2006n4/undernutritiondefinition.html

7 UNICEF; https://unicef.in/Story/1124/Nutrition

8 WHO; http://www.who-seajph.org/article.asp?

issn=2224-3151;year=2018;volume=7;issue=1;spage=18;epage=23;aulast=Rai ; https://

www.hospitalmanagement.net/comment/anemia-prevalence-nears-40-india/; https://

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/51-of-indian-women-aged-15-49-anaemic-most-in-world-study/

articleshow/61538152.cms

9https://wcd.nic.in/sites/default/files/nnp_0.pdf

10 see “Food and Hygiene” article.

11Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development; https://

elementaryeducation.tripura.gov.in/mid-day-meal; see “Food Hygiene” article.

12 Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School

Education and Literacy; http://mdm.nic.in/mdm_website/Files/Guidelines/

3.MDM1%2021.09.2010.pdf

13 Amartya Sen, “Poverty and famines”, 1981, Oxford India Paperbacks

14ICESCR

15 For the concept of “pragmatic

Fighting hunger and malnutrition: Is the Midday meal scheme really effective?

In the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which India is a party, India has committed to yielding “adequate nutritious foods" for children. Proper nutritional support is fundamental for children from their birth through adolescence, as it has a profound impact on their ability to grow, learn, and thrive. It is a well-documented fact that chronic malnutrition impairs the physical as well as cognitive development in growing children. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme is a school meal program implemented in 2001 by the Government of India. It was an improvement over the existing nutrition program which guaranteed food grains to children enrolled in Government and Government-aided schools. It has been initiated to address the issue of classroom hunger in school-aged children by providing a cooked meal every day. It is designed to improve the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide.The program supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government, government aided, local body and alternate innovative education centers. 

One of the first surveys on the Mid-Day Meal, by Dreze and Goyal (2003), highlighted several good consequences of the scheme, such as improved attendance rate, child nutrition and social equality. Interviews revealed that the introduction of the MDMS improved not only the attendance of children, but also made them more likely to stay after the lunch break; it has also proved helpful in eradicating hunger. In areas where hunger is endemic, the Mid-Day Meal might be the only thing saving children from chronic malnutrition.The Mid-Day Meal Scheme has played an important role enhancing enrollment, attendance in schools, and in improving socialization among classes. To that effect, it has surely done its part in helping eradicate hunger. Moreover, it gave women the chance to get employed. 

The program has undergone many changes since its launch. With the enactment of the National Food Security Act in 2013, the nutritional content of food (calorie and protein content requirement has since been increased for MDMS) has become an integral part of the right to food in the country. Moreover, from the year 2009 onwards the following changes have been made to improve the implementation of the scheme: I. Food norms have been revised to ensure balanced and nutritious diet to children of upper primary group by increasing the quantity of nutritional ingredients II. Cooking cost (excluding the labour and administrative charges) has been revised III.The honorarium for cooks and helpers was paid from the labour and other administrative charges per child per day provided under the cooking cost. Moreover, specific norms for engagement of cookcum-helper have been made.This shows that the scheme is muddled in the game of numbers rather than going into the qualitative aspects of the food served. 

Even if the Mid-Day Meal Scheme is an innovative scheme to get children from poor socioeconomic status to enroll for elementary education it has been facing serious problems. This is mainly due to the poor quality of food served because of inadequate infrastructure and adverse impact on children’s health & subsequent. Secondly, the government’s focus is on reach not on quality but quantity. The government only concentrates on statistics as to how many number of schools they are able to cover and provide food. They don't give importance to quality. In fact, most of the children who study in village government schools are very poor and end up eating this as their only meal for the day. There is no one to inspect the quality of the food being served to them. 

In Bihar on July 16 20013 23 children lost their lives after eating their Mid-Day Meal due to poisoning because the oil used for cooking was kept in was previously used to store pesticide. There are many such unreported cases where students who eat this meal have reported of dysentery and ill health. So parents and children fearing safety have declined to have food served in these Mid-Day Meals . The MDMS guidelines dictate that the meal should be of good quality, nutritious, tasty, digestible, and varying from day to day to ensure variety in the menu. Moreover, high standards of hygiene and cleanliness are expected to be maintained during the cooking and serving of the meal, along with transparency in accounts. Additionally, states having indulged in diversion of funds meant for the scheme, for instance providing less rice to schools. Another problem related to the Mid-Day Meal Scheme is afflicted with large-scale caste and gender-based discrimination. In some places the upper caste children refuse to eat food cooked by lower class women and backward classes students are made to sit separately from the others. 

Lastly, it emerged during the study that though 99 per cent of the schools had facilities for operation of the MDMS, and 97 per cent of them provide cooked meal during most the days, yet in about 11 per cent of the villages, the food was served only a few days a week, while in 2 per cent of the cases, it was served very rarely. In 38 per cent of the cases, the prescribed menu was not followed and the quality of food was also allegedly poor. 

HEEALS is directly involved in implementing hand washing with soap in the Mid Day scheme in children’s daily routine. It is working on WASH (water, sanitation and Hygiene) projects in seven states works in slum schools, schools in unauthorized colonies, orphanages and refugee camps. Through spreading education on sanitation and personal hygiene and delivering basic hand washing material, HEEALS is working to increase the attendance rates of pupils in schools, reduce the number of diseases and deaths and improve the health of people across Indian society. Moreover, another HEEALS commitment is to promote children cooperation between genders and castes.

-Bene 

WASH & MH Intern Coordinator 

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