Discuss the role of international organizations in their effort to combat food insecurity Flashcards
Intro & definitions
Paragraphs
- Improving access to food
- Food safety
- Empowering people to improve their communities
- Can be detrimental to the recipient country
Improving access to food- examples
A number of NGOs help deliver food to those with insufficient access to food.
Many of these are in low-income and middle-income countries, such as Operation Hunger in South Africa, but others operate in high-income countries such as the food banks in the UK.
Improving access to food- explanation
This alleviates the problem of FED (food entitlement deficiency)- the food is there but people are not entitled to it.
By bringing food to low-income communities, organizations reduce food insecurity for these people.
Food safety- example
In Khulna, Bangladesh, the FAO operated a project to improve food safety among urban street vendors with the aim of minimizing food contamination during preparation.
As a result of the success of this scheme, the project was extended to the capital city of Dhaka.
Food safety- explanation
Even though the food might be there, it might not be nutritious enough or it might be inadequately prepared, meaning that it is not fit for consumption.
Empowering people to improve their communities- example
The FAO set up a project in rural Honduras to promote
entrepreneurship among rural youth.
-They were trained in agricultural and business skills and were supported in accessing credit and seed funds to launch and grow their microenterprises.
The result was more than 1,500 successful microenterprises.
Empowering people to improve their communities- explanation
This improves food security in the long term as by providing communities with the tools they need to provide for themselves, their reliance on external organizations is reduced, thus empowering them.
Can be detrimental to the recipient country- example
The USA continues to send the vast majority of its food aid support through shipped aid from the US.
Shipment orders typically take 3-5 months.
The food is generally low quality and has low nutritional value.
Can be detrimental to the recipient country- explanation
Large shipments of food aid rather than supporting local economies can actually undermine it.
Local farmers are undercut by cheaper US imports and so actually suffer increased food insecurity of their own.
This is referred to as ‘food dumping’.
