PHM-Exch> From hand-outs to rights – breaking the cycle of perpetual food insecurity in Malawi

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Bahram Ghazi <bghazi at ohchr.org>


 *From hand-outs to rights – breaking the cycle of perpetual food
insecurity in Malawi*

LILONGWE/GENEVA (22 July 2013) – “Recent high-profiled food security
policies have failed to rid Malawi of chronic food insecurity and
malnutrition,” said Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the
right to food, as he concluded his eleven-day mission to the Republic of
Malawi.

More than 50% of the country remains mired in poverty, with one quarter of
‘ultra poor’ Malawians earning less than the estimated costs of a diet
providing minimum recommended calorie intake, and about half of all
children suffering from acute or severe malnutrition.

“Malawi is often held up as an example of how hunger can be tackled by
subsidizing inputs for farmers. However, considerable challenges remain.
Opportunities can be missed when too little is done to empower the poor and
break cycles of dependency – on chemical fertilizer, on low-paying
plantation work, and on tobacco.”

“Malawians need a durable agricultural resource base and living wages – and
currently they are getting neither,” the UN expert stated, adding: “It is
particularly important to redress the balance at a time when Malawi is
about to absorb a new wave of agricultural investment under the G8's New
Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.”

Through its Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) more than a million
beneficiaries have gained access to discounted fertilizers and seeds,
allowing the country to raise yields. Yet, again this year, the country
will need to import maize for humanitarian food aid to Malawian farmers who
are unable to feed themselves.

There is a need to reassess whether FISP is the most effective use of
available resources to protect the right to adequate food for all
Malawians. FISP – dependent on costly fertilizer imports – takes up more
than 50% of Malawi's agricultural budget and crowds out other priorities
such as extension services and social protection.

“It is time for Malawi to move beyond the fertilizer-led “green revolution”
and invest in the *Brown* and *Blue* *Revolutions* needed to rebuild soil
fertility and water retention,” the Special Rapporteur urged. He noted that
the integration of legumes in cropping systems and agroforestry systems in
Malawi are yielding more food than fertilizer-driven systems while rapidly
restoring soil fertility. They are the foundations of sustainable food
security. He emphasized the need to move away from the maize economy, and
to link agricultural development to nutritional needs, an indispensable
condition for lasting victories over malnutrition.

The Special Rapporteur also identified wage and taxation policies as a
major driver of poverty and hunger.

The Malawian minimum wage, currently fixed at around US$ 1.12 per day, is
one of the lowest in the world, and 300,000 tenant families on tobacco
plantations – where 78,000 child labourers are employed – are only paid
depending on the quantity and quality of tobacco sold to landlords. “The
policy of providing abundant, cheap and non-unionized labour to plantation
owners must be consigned to the past,” De Schutter stated.

Meanwhile Malawi has lost over 10 percent of GDP to illicit outflows over
the period 1980-2009, with mining companies exempted from customs duty,
excise duty, VAT on mining machinery, plant and equipment. The UN expert
warned: “Malawi's poor pay twice for the red carpet treatment given to
multinational investors – in the suppression of their wages, and in the
services deprived them by corporate tax exemptions.”

He outlined a series of steps must be taken to redress the balance: Malawi
must enforce a living wage, reserve open public tenders to companies paying
it, allow workers to bargain collectively in all sectors, sign up to the
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and work coherently
across Government to negotiate fair taxation arrangements for investors.

The UN expert concluded: “The country urgently needs a national food
security strategy, underpinned by a Right to Food Framework Law, to hold
policies to account when they do not yield benefits for the most food
insecure and to ensure a coherent approach across sectors. By improving
participation and accountability in the design and implementation of food
security policies, Malawi can ensure that public investment will truly
reach the poorest within the population.”

De Schutter welcomed the wide support and inclusive discussions around a
Draft Food Security Bill that could help to ground food entitlements in
law. Noting that a trust fund could be established under the draft bill, De
Schutter recommended seizing the opportunity of the investments attracted
by the New Alliance, as well as the expected boom in the extractive
industry, to fund urgently needed social policies and a new deal for
agriculture. “It is essential that the country does not pursue investment
for investment’s sake, but uses it as an opportunity to engage corporations
in a genuine commitment to help improve the situation of Malawi’s poor and
food insecure."

*(*)* Check the full statement:
*
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13567&LangID=E
*<http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13567&LangID=E>
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