Ireland's Michael Higgins calls for land deal rules to tackle hunger
In a hard-hitting speech, Ireland's president calls for international
framework to regulate land acquisitions in developing countries
* Mark Tran <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/marktran>
* <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/> guardian.co.uk, Monday 15 April 2013
17.36 BST
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ireland> Ireland's president has called
for a strong regulatory framework to cover land deals, the transfer of water
and speculation on food commodities to address global
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/hunger> hunger.
In a
<
http://www.president.ie/uncategorized/global-hunger-the-grossest-of-human-r
ights-violations/> hard-hitting speech at an international conference in
Dublin, Ireland, on hunger, nutrition and climate justice, Michael Higgins
said global hunger represents the "grossest of human rights violations, and
the greatest ethical challenge facing the global community".
Higgins expressed support for international regulation of land acquisitions
in developing countries by rich investors. "What is required is a robust
regulatory framework which protects our fragile and threatened environment
and which respects the right of small landholders to remain on their land
and retain
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jun/12/africa-land-deals-
water-giveaway> access to water sources," he told the conference co-hosted
by the Irish government and the <
http://www.mrfcj.org/> Mary Robinson
Foundation.
Citing sub-Saharan Africa as an example of land acquisitions and the
transfer of water rights to investors, Higgins said: "The lack of any
supranational regulating or monitoring mechanism for land acquisitions has
enabled the acreage of transnational land acquisitions to rise from 15m-20m
hectares in 2009 to more than 70m in 2012."
Higgins blamed worldwide food speculation for contributing to the dramatic
increase in the price of food in the developing world and he drew attention
to how large corporations increasingly dominate the food sector, with five
companies controlling 90% of the world's grain trade and three companies
controlling 85% of the tea market.
A
<
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9f6f541e-a397-11e2-ac00-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2QX
IUGyWZ> report in Monday's Financial Times (paywall) said the world's top
commodities traders, such as Glencore and Trafigura, made nearly $250bn over
the past decade. The net income of the largest trading houses since 2003,
the FT reported, surpasses that of the combination of Wall Street banks
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.
Though Higgins welcomed the introduction of an
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/jun/23/g20-action-plan-to
-curb-food-prices> agriculture markets information system by the G20 group
of countries to provide transparency in key commodity markets, he emphasised
that there are urgent moral and ethical issues in relation to food
speculation, particularly at times of famine.
"We must not lose the opportunity to put the stamp of our shared humanity on
these challenges," he said. "The institutional and structural reforms that
are necessary are now more urgent than ever. We need both bottom-up and
top-down processes to create an enabling environment where marginalised
groups have the capacity to claim their rights. This means overcoming
perceived constraints and ensuring that political processes towards the
solutions are accountable, participative and courageous."
Meanwhile, the UN agency for children (Unicef)
<
http://www.unicef.org/media/files/nutrition_report_2013.pdf> released a
report highlighting successful examples from 11 countries of tackling
malnutrition (pdf). The report said more and more countries are scaling up
their nutrition programmes to reach children during the critical period from
pregnancy to two years old. These programmes are working, says Unicef, as
countries that are reaching mothers and children with effective nutrition
during the first 1,000 days are achieving results.
"Stunting can kill opportunities in life for a child and kill opportunities
for development of a nation," Anthony Lake, Unicef's executive director,
said. "Our evidence of the progress that is being achieved shows that now is
the time to accelerate it."
One in four of all under-five children - 165 million children - is stunted
because of chronic undernutrition in crucial periods of life. An estimated
80% of the world's stunted children live in only 14 countries. The damage
done to a child's body by stunting is irreversible. It drags down
performance at school and future earnings. Stunted children are also at a
higher risk of dying from infectious diseases than other children.
The report highlights successes in Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Nepal, Peru,
Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan,
Tanzania and Vietnam. In DRC, a community-based approach is significantly
increasing the number of children receiving treatment for severe acute
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/malnutrition> malnutrition.
Kyrgyzstan, one of the poorest countries in Europe and central Asia, has
pioneered the distribution of sachets of nutrients to infants to combat
anaemia. Vietnam last year passed legislation extending maternity leave and
banning advertising of
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/feb/17/formula-milk-firms
-mother-breastfeeding> breastmilk substitutes for children up to 24 months.
In Maharashtra, India's wealthiest state and second most populous, 39% of
children under two were stunted in 2005-06. That dropped to 23% by 2012,
according to a state-wide nutritional survey, largely by the efforts of
frontline workers improving child nutrition. In Peru, stunting fell by a
third between 2006 and 2011 following an initiative that lobbied political
candidates to sign a "5 by 5 by 5" commitment to reduce stunting in children
under five by 5% in five years and to lessen inequities between urban and
rural areas.
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Received on Mon Apr 15 2013 - 15:30:28 EDT
