PHM-Exch> FIAN Press Release: One billion people go hungry - Who controls governance of World Food System?/ 1000 millones de personas padecen de hambre - ¿Quién controla gobernanza del sistema alimentario mundial?

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Wilma Strothenke Strothenke at fian.org

* *

*One billion people go hungry - Who controls governance of World Food
System?*

**

*Heidelberg, 12/10/09 - *Failure by national governments and international
institutions to ensure the right to food has led to rising numbers of
malnourished and starving people, as documented in the *Right to Food and
Nutrition Watch 2009. *The report which is being launched this week on the
occasion of World Food Day in twelve countries worldwide, is a common
endeavor of a Consortium of human rights organizations, social movements and
development agencies, among them Brot für die Welt, the Interchurch
Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO) and FIAN International.

 The 2009 report focuses on the question of “Who controls the governance of
the world food system?” – a burning issue in light of the current World Food
Crisis. For the first time in history, the number of undernourished people
in the world has surpassed the tragic figure of 1 billion. The gap between
promises and reality is increasing as the international community and
national governments are painfully far from realising the World Food Summit
targets to halve the proportion of chronically hungry people in the world by
the year 2015. It is clear that the global governance of the World Food
System needs to be remodelled in order to effectively overcome hunger and
its causes.

 As an evidence-providing monitoring tool, the WATCH pursues two aims: to
put public pressure on policy makers at the national and international level
to take the human right to food serious, and to provide a systematic
compilation of best practices for the realisation of the right to food,
while documenting where violations take place.

 In the thematic part of the WATCH, contributors such as UN Special
Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, focus on Governing
World Food Security and necessary changes to related international bodies,
as well as on other burning right-to-food issues of the present. The
national and regional part of the WATCH highlights how the right to food and
nutrition are connected to agro-fuel production, poverty or the right to
land in countries such as Brazil, India or Kenya. From Benin to Zambia, the
WATCH presents reports on the state of the implementation of the right to
food and nutrition as well as initiatives such as the Zero Hunger Program in
Nicaragua.

 As an annual publication, the WATCH seeks to provide a platform for human
rights experts, civil society activists, social movements, media and
scholars to exchange experiences, to learn from each other how best to carry
out right-to-food work in different settings, and to  advocate and lobby for
this right.

 *Further information:*

   - Published at
   http://www.fian.org/resources/documents/rtfn-watch/right-to-food-and-nutrition-watch-2009
   - The Consortium for the WATCH 2009 is composed by Brot für die Welt, the
   Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO) and FIAN
   International as publishers; and World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action
   (WABA), People’s Health Movement (PHM), Habitat International Coalition
   (HIC), World Organisation against Torture (OMCT), DanChurchAid, Rights and
   Democracy, Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos Democracia y
   Desarrollo (PIDHDD), and African Right to Food Network as partners.

 Public presentations of the WATCH will be held in the week from 12-16
October 2009 in the following 12 cities and countries: Asunción, Paraguay;
Berlin, Germany; Brasilia, Brazil; Copenhagen, Denmark; Davengere, India;
Geneva, Switzerland; Oslo, Norway; Paris, France; Rome, Italy; Stockholm,
Sweden; Utrecht, Holland; Vienna, Austria.

 Available in English, Spanish, French, 72 pages, CD enclosed

·         Contact at *FIAN International:* Wilma Strothenke,
Strothenke at fian.org, +49-6221-65300-30.
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