Transcript HSS4331 – International Health Theory

HSS4331 – International Health Theory
March 23, 2009 – Hunger (Special
Focus on South Asia)
Millennium
Development Goal
#1
"To eradicate
extreme poverty
and hunger"
Target 1: To halve the
proportion of people
who suffer from hunger
by 2015
Food: The State of the World
• Last year, Canadian news reported food riots in Haiti
and parts of Africa
• Food shortages are continuing in all parts of the
developing world
• In the past year, global dairy prices have increased 50%
• The NY Times reports that wheat prices are the highest
they’ve been in 28 years
• The global price of food has risen sharply in that last 18
months
• Cereal prices have doubled
• Sugar has almost doubled
Let’s Look at Some Global Factors
• Global food crisis:
– Rice at highest price in 20 years
– Global supply of wheat lowest in 50 years (only 5
weeks worth of global reserve is on hand)
– Producers (e.g., Khazakstan) restricting exports to
ensure supply for domestic populations
– Speculators, sensing food shortage, are investing
in commodities, causing food prices to soar
– Climate change is reducing all staple crops
– Credit crisis reducing budget of donor agencies
Global Factors
• Historic trend of living on arable land
• Increasing price of oil has made importing
food more expensive
South Asia
India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
Nepal, Bhutan,
Maldives, and British
Indian Ocean Territory
Percentage of World’s Poor Living in Asia
Nation
China
India
-Rest of South Asia
1990
38%
24%
8%
2005
15%
32%
43%
(Uses World Bank definitions of poor = living on <$1.25/day)
Source: “Renewed Policy Action for the Poorest and Hungry in South Asia”, Dec 2, 2008, IFPRI
www.ifpri.org
Food Case Study: The State of India
• The International food policy Research Institute
projects that in the next 20 years, India alone will
increase its demand for:
– meat by 176%
– milk and vegetables by 70%
– grain by 27%
• But India is the world’s 2nd biggest producer of
wheat
Meanwhile the total global supply of grains and cereals
has actually decreased by 40% over the last 7 years
Some Key Indicators for Selected Nations
(source: World Food Programme)
Indicator
Ag. Prod
(%GDP)
HDI
% Underwt
kids <5
% pop low cal
GHI
Inf mort rate
(/1000 births)
Percentage of GDP dedicated to producing crops
Human Development Index = health, knowledge,
and standard of living. Collected by UNDP. Closer
to 1.000 the better.
Percentage of children under 5 years who are underweight
Percentage of the total population considered to be
undernourished
Global Hunger Index = level of child malnutrition,
rates of child mortality, and the proportion of
people who are calorie deficient
Infant mortality rate per 1000 live births
A Note About GHI
Some Key Indicators for Selected South Asian Nations
(source: World Food Programme)
Indicator
Ag. Prod
(%GDP)
HDI
% Underwt
kids <5
% pop low cal
GHI
Inf mort rate
(/1000 births)
Bangladesh
India
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Nepal
Some Key Indicators for Selected South Asian Nations
(source: World Food Programme)
Indicator
Bangladesh
India
CANADA
Ag. Prod
(%GDP)
2
HDI
0.967
% Underwt
kids <5
<1
% pop low cal
<1
GHI
n/a
Inf mort rate
(/1000 births)
5
SAUDI ARABIA Nepal
<5
Some Key Indicators for Selected South Asian Nations
(source: World Food Programme)
Indicator
Bangladesh
India
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Nepal
Ag. Prod
(%GDP)
32%
60
20
11.7
43
HDI
0.547
0.619
0.551
0.743
0.534
% Underwt
kids <5
48%
47
38
29
48
% pop low cal
30%
20
24
22
17
GHI
25.2
23.7
21.7
15
20.6
Inf mort rate
(/1000 births)
54
56
79
12
56
What is “Food Security”
• “Food security refers to the availability of food
and one's access to it. A household is
considered food secure when its occupants do
not live in hunger or fear of starvation.”
– Wikipedia
What Is The Role of Gender Here?
• Women manage household economics
• Women do not manage incoming cash
“Giving women the same access to physical
and human resources as men could increase
agricultural productivity, just as increases in
women’s education and improvements in
women’s status over the past quarter century
have contributed to more than half of the
reduction in the rate of child malnutrition.”
-Uisumbing & Meinzen-Dick, “Empowering
Women to Achieve Food Security”
“the low status of women
…and their lack of nutritional
knowledge are important
determinants of high
prevalence of underweight
children…“
-UNICEF, 2006
Household Economy
• A typical family in Bangladesh:
– Five people per household, each earning $1/day
– -> $5/household/day
Household Economy
• Household energy
– Heating, cooking,
etc
• Food
• Everything else
– Clothes, books,
education,
medicine, rent, etc
• 50 cents
• $3
• $1.50
Household Economy
Global prices of
oil, rent, food go
up
Medical
expenditures
go down
Poor health
Food
consumption
goes down
So What Can Be Done?
•
•
•
•
•
•
World Food Programme’s Official Plan for South Asia
Combat malnutrition and invest in human resources;
Help improve immediate food security for selected
target groups;
Maximize the active participation of women in
projects;
Advocate joint forest management;
Help strengthen distribution channels for locallyproduced food grains;
Increase agricultural production and create
employment.
So What Can Be Done?
International Food Policy Research Institute’s
Official Recommendations for South Asia
• expand emergency responses and humanitarian assistance
to food-insecure people
• eliminate agricultural export bans and export restrictions
• undertake fast-impact food production programs in key
areas
• change biofuel policies
• calm markets with the use of market-oriented regulation of
speculation, shared public grain stocks, strengthened foodimport financing, and reliable food aid
• invest in social protection
• scale up investments for sustained agricultural growth
Other Recommendations?
• Letter from Prashant Goyal,Secretary to Government Chief
Secretariat, Pondicherry, to The Hindu (newspaper)
– Promote crop insurance schemes, with government as insurer
– Increase inter-state free trade
– food security need can be productively linked to increased enrolment
in schools
– Food for work
– Community grain storage banks (decentralized)
– investment in new agriculture infrastructure, credit linkages and
encouraging latest technologies (GM foods?
– “The focus on accelerated foodgrains production on a sustainable
basis and free trade in grains would help create massive employment
and reduce the incidence of poverty in rural areas. This will lead to
faster economic growth and give purchasing power to the people”
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