Will the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) show the world how to tackle extreme hunger?
Shae Spry, Roaming Reporter for CHOGM
On my way from the airport to inner city Perth I saw a flashing road sign that declared “CHOGM, Plan Ahead.” Its purpose was to warn of traffic delays, but to my mind it is an important message to send the Heads Of Government – or the “Head CHOGs” as I call them – as they arrive.
I’m honoured to be here with ActionAid Australia, an organisation that addresses the root causes of poverty from a human rights perspective. And why is the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting something we are interested in? Well friends, allow me to tell you...
This year’s CHOGM theme is “Building National Resilience, Building Global Resilience.” What better segway could there be into ActionAid’s top priority of increasing food security in developing countries?! Considering that many Commonwealth countries are currently experiencing food crises, we want to make food security rates highly on the CHOGM agenda.
Right now, in East Africa alone, there are 750,000 people verging on starvation. Billions of emergency aid dollars are being spent in attempting to keep these people alive until the next successful harvest. According to ActionAid, the situation would not have been so drastic had the governments in the crisis affected countries been supported by aid donors to take preventative action to boost agricultural yields.
Food crises are slow-onset disasters; we see them coming long before the media headlines hit. Food crisis happens because, as a global collective, we fail to take appropriate preventive measures.
CHOGM, Plan Ahead!
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and AusAID* agree that prevention is cheaper than humanitarian aid. Statistical analysis and policies mean little, however, unless they are followed with action.
The Australian Government has the opportunity to show leadership on the issue of food security at CHOGM by committing to increasing their support of those who produce the majority of food for consumption in developing countries: women smallholder farmers.
Yesterday The Australian reported that Prime Minister Julia Gillard called on the rest of the world to match the Australian Government’s promise to guarantee poor countries open access to trade markets.
This is putting great faith in trade liberalisation and the ‘free market’ as a way out of poverty, and it scares me!
As ActionAid’s Fertile Ground Campaign assesses, these types of approaches that ‘put all hope in the free-market and ignore the role of smallholder farmers [have] left close to a billion people chronically malnourished.’***
To see an end to food security issues in poor countries, the Australian Government must support women smallholder farmers and encourage other governments to do so as well.
You can lend your voice to this call by checking out www.lastfamine.org.au and sending Prime Minister Gillard an e-mail.