* For a World Food Assembly collective
J. of Trop. Pediatrics, Vol.31, Dec.1985.
CLAUDIO SCHUFTAN
schuftan@gmail.com
The outlook for changes in the hunger and malnutrition issue in the Third World given the present conditions – appears to be limited though not hopeless.
The space left for action has shrunk due to the overt and covert repression mechanisms at play in most of the countries where hunger and malnutrition are rampant.
Over 10 years have passed since the 1974 World Food Conference in Rome and its wishful declarations. National and international strategies were developed that have not succeeded or have even entirely failed to resolve the problems of hunger in the world. Actually, there is a greater sense of urgency today than there was 10 years ago in terms of the gravity of this problem, i.e. the rising number of malnourished women and children around the world. This has come about despite the good intentions and efforts poured into the resolution of these problems by many individuals and organizations.
The question then arises concerning what can and needs to be done to launch (an) alternative solution(s). Whatever course of action is chosen in any particular country, specific actions will have to be integrated into a larger frame of reference based on understanding the real underlying determinants of the forces generating and perpetuating malnutrition. Everybody involved in these issues should use his, her own field of professional expertise to gain a point of access to the underlying structural determinants of poverty. Food per se should not be the center of our interest and actions, but rather the liberating issues around the food issue should become our leitmotiv.
Changes are occurring everyday in the field of hunger and malnutrition and these changes are the result of the constant confrontation of the different actors in this struggle, be it at the local, regional. national or international levels. These actors have different weights and power in each specific context and include such dissimilar groups as the organized peasants or workers, the bureaucracy representing government interests, the bourgeoisie, the church, the transnational corporations, the armed forces or yet other groups.
Any proposed action to tackle hunger and malnutrition requires a correct analysis of the correlation of forces at the various levels, their roles and their underlying interests as they shape the present, concrete situation. Only this will enable us to actually strengthen and help all those sectors deprived of an access to food in their struggle to promote or precipitate the structural changes needed to ensure a more permanent access to food. This effort includes the critical analysis of the existing measures to combat hunger that are actually perpetuating the problem and also contributing to demobilize the poor through the use of populist rhetoric and programs which leave the exploitative structures intact.
What realistic possibilities of action exist, then. given the existing space and constraints to an alternative path of development tackling hunger and malnutrition at its root? How can we strengthen the positive forces and neutralize the negative forces amongst all the actors shaping the existing conditions? Only in the measure that we embark on this task will we succeed in expanding the space for concrete actions that go to the heart of the problem.
It is necessary, here, to sound a warning note on at least two additional issues: (1) National food security or self-sufficiency is meaningless without equal access to food and to the resources to produce or procure it. In this sense, productivistic approaches to the solution of hunger and malnutrition are obsolete and outright erroneous. (2) The special needs of women. who produce a sizeable proportion of the food consumed in the world and are at the same time deprived of it to an even greater extent, need to be addressed explicitly in any alternative food strategy to assure the breaking of the vicious circle of maternal and child malnutrition. (In this context, the needs of indigenous people will have to be addressed explicitly as well.)
Actions in the field to achieve all the above will have to progressively pass through a series of steps in order to really empower the sufferers of these deprivations to take their own destiny in their hands. These steps are the following:
ORGANIZATION (or strengthening of existing organization)
PARTICIPATION (or deepening of existing participation)
The degree to which each of us as individuals or organizations will be able to get involved in these progressive steps will depend on the specific local conjunctures and cannot thus be generalized.
The contents or grievances around which this process should be carried out are not for us to decide, but for the affected people themselves. The same is true for the rate of progression in this sequence. If the poor can organize themselves, no political party or faction can ignore them.
Be that as it may, one should always start by identifying the FELT NEEDS of the people in the context of their access to food, both in relation to the rural, as well as the urban poor; also, a closer look at the interrelationships between access to food in the countryside and in the cities is essential. Once these felt needs are identified, the challenge is to translate them into SPECIFIC EFFECTIVE DEMANDS that can then begin pushing people into (so badly needed) action. A need only represents a sense of want; a demand carries this sense a step forward; it implies a willingness to give up certain resources for a service (be they human, financial, physical facilities or other). An effective demand, on the other hand. is the resulting action in which the above resources are actually invested or put to work.
Changes will only occur if each of us promotes or participates in steps leading to such an active engagement. Passivity makes us accomplices of the status quo. Many of us, with an academic approach to change, should not forget this.
Claudio Schuftan
Saigon, Vietnam.
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