{"id":4527,"date":"2015-11-17T10:08:12","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T15:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=4527"},"modified":"2016-03-25T21:06:25","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T01:06:25","slug":"latin-american-legislators-a-battering-ram-in-the-fight-against-hunger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=4527","title":{"rendered":"Latin American Legislators, a Battering Ram in the Fight Against Hunger"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

…. HUMAN RIGHTS ….<\/p>\n

An article by Marianela Jarroud, Inter Press Service News Agency<\/a> (reprinted by permission)<\/p>\n

Lawmakers in Latin America are joining forces to strengthen institutional frameworks that sustain the fight against hunger in a region that, despite being dubbed \u201cthe next global breadbasket\u201d, still has more than 34 million undernourished people. The legislators, grouped in national fronts, \u201care political leaders and orient public opinion, legislate, and sustain and promote public policies for food security and the right to food,\u201d said Ricardo Rapallo, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Food Security Officer in this region.<\/p>\n

\"hunger\"<\/a>
\nA girl in traditional festive dress from Bolivia\u2019s highlands region displays a basket of fruit during a fair in her school in central La Paz. F Credit: Franz Ch\u00e1vez\/IPS<\/center><\/p>\n

The members of the Parliamentary Front Against Hunger<\/a> also \u201callot budget funds, monitor, oversee and follow up on government policies,\u201d Rapallo told IPS at FAO regional headquarters in Santiago, Chile.<\/p>\n

A series of successful public policies based on a broad cross-cutting accord between civil society, governments and legislatures enabled Latin America and the Caribbean to teach the world a lesson by cutting in half the proportion of hungry people in the region between 1990 and 2015.<\/p>\n

But the 34.3 million people still hungry in this region of 605 million are in need of a greater effort, in order for Latin America to live up to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development<\/a>, which is aimed at achieving zero hunger in the world.<\/p>\n

The Sixth Forum of the Parliamentary Front Against Hunger (PFH), to be held in Lima Nov. 15-17, will seek to forge ahead in the implementation of the \u201cplan for food security, nutrition and hunger eradication in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) by 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan, which sets targets for 2025, is designed to strengthen institutional legal frameworks for food and nutritional security, raising the human right to food to the highest legal status, among other measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Parliamentary Front Against Hunger is a key actor in the implementation of CELAC\u2019s Food Security Plan, for the construction of public systems that recognise the right to food,\u201d the regional director of FAO, Ra\u00fal Ben\u00edtez, told IPS.<\/p>\n

The PFH was created in 2009 with the participation of three countries. Six years later, \u201cthere are 15 countries that have a strong national parliamentary front recognised by the national Congress of the country, which involves parliamentarians of different political stripes, all of whom are committed to the fight against hunger,\u201d Rapallo said.<\/p>\n

As a result, \u201claws on family farming have been passed, in Argentina and Peru, and in the Dominican Republic there are draft laws set to be approved. To these is added the food labeling law in Ecuador,\u201d the expert said, to illustrate.<\/p>\n

Bolivia sets an example<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Bolivia, the School Feeding Law in the Framework of Food Security and the Plural Economy<\/a>, passed in December 2014, is at the centre of the fight against poverty in an integral fashion, Fernando Ferreira, the head of the national Parliamentary Front for Food Sovereignty and Good Living<\/a>, told IPS in La Paz.<\/p>\n

This model, which draws on the successful programme that has served school breakfasts based on natural local products in La Paz since 2000, is now being implemented in the country\u2019s 347 municipalities.<\/p>\n

The farmer \u201cproduces natural foods, sells part to the municipal government for distribution in school breakfasts, and sells the rest in the local community,\u201d said Ferreira, describing the cycle that combines productive activity, employment, nutrition and family income generation.<\/p>\n

The school breakfast programme has broad support among teachers because it boosts student performance and participation in class, Germ\u00e1n Silvetti, the principal of the Rep\u00fablica de Cuba primary school in the centre of La Paz, told IPS.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t used to care, but now they demand their meals,\u201d Silvetti said. \u201cSome kids come to school without eating breakfast, so the meal we serve is important for their nutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Article continued on right side of page.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

(Article continued from left side of page.)<\/p>\n

In the past, students didn\u2019t like Andean grains like quinoa. But Mar\u00eda In\u00e9s Flores, a teacher, told IPS she managed to persuade them with an interesting anecdote: \u201castronauts who go to the moon eat quinoa \u2013 and if we follow their example we\u2019ll make it to space,\u201d she said to the children, who now eat it with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

Appealing to the appetites of the 145,000 students served by the school breakfast programme is a daily challenge, but one that has had satisfactory results, such as the reduction of anemia from 37 to two percent in the last 15 years, Gabriela Aro, one of the creators of the programme and the head of the municipal government\u2019s Nutrition Unit, told IPS.<\/p>\n

Authorities in Bolivia say the government\u2019s \u201cVivir Bien\u201d or \u201cGood Living\u201d programme will reduce the proportion of people in extreme poverty which, according to estimates from different national and international institutions, stands at 18 percent of the country\u2019s 11 million people.<\/p>\n

Mexico, another case<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Mexico, a nation of 124 million people, meanwhile, poverty has grown in the last three years, revealing shortcomings in the strategies against hunger, which legislators are trying to influence, with limited results.<\/p>\n

\u201cLegislators must be more involved in following up on this, one of the most basic issues,\u201d Senator Ang\u00e9lica de la Pe\u00f1a, coordinator of the Mexican chapter of the Parliamentary Front Against Hunger, told IPS in Mexico City. \u201cEven if we define budgets and programmes, they continue to be resistant to making this a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are 55.3 million people in poverty in Mexico, according to official figures from this year, and over 27 million malnourished people.<\/p>\n

The increase in poverty reflects the weaknesses of the National Crusade Against Hunger<\/a>, the flagship initiative of conservative President Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto, which targets undernourished people living in extreme poverty.<\/p>\n

The Crusade is concentrated in 400 of Mexico\u2019s 2,438 municipalities, involves 70 federal programmes, and hopes to reach 7.4 million hungry people \u2013 3.7 million in urban areas and the rest in the countryside.<\/p>\n

The Senate has not yet approved a \u201cgeneral law on the human right to adequate food<\/a>\u201d, which was put in motion by the Parliamentary Front and involves the implementation of a novel constitutional reform, which established in 2011 that \u201ceveryone has a right to sufficient nutritional, quality food, to be guaranteed by the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The draft law will create a National Food Policy and National Food Programme, besides providing for emergency food aid.<\/p>\n

But in spite of the limitations, Mexico\u2019s social assistance programmes do make a difference, albeit small, for millions of people.<\/p>\n

Since February, Blanca P\u00e9rez has received 62 dollars every two months, granted by the Pension Programme for the elderly (65 and older), which forms part of the National Crusade Against Hunger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps me buy medicines and cover other expenses. But it is a small amount for people our age \u2013 it would be better if it was every month,\u201d this mother of seven told IPS. She lives in the town of Amecameca, 58 km southeast of Mexico City, where half of the 48,000 inhabitants live in poverty.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez, who helps her daughter out in a small grocery store, is also covered by the Popular Insurance scheme, a federal government programme that provides free, universal healthcare. \u201cThese programmes are good, but they should give more support to people like me, who struggle so much,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Two urgent regional needs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Above and beyond the progress made, Rapallo said Latin America today has two urgent needs: reduce the number of hungry people in the region to zero while confronting the problem of overnutrition \u2013 another form of malnutrition.<\/p>\n

Overweight and obesity \u201care a public health challenge, a hurdle to national development, and a moral requisite that we must address,\u201d said Rapallo.<\/p>\n

In that sense, he added, \u201cparliamentarians are essential\u201d to bring about public policies that contribute to good nutrition of the population and their growing demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are parliamentarians that are real leaders in their respective countries. But if all of this were not backed by a strong civil society that puts the issue firmly on the agenda, we wouldn\u2019t be able to talk about results,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.)\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…. HUMAN RIGHTS …. An article by Marianela Jarroud, Inter Press Service News Agency (reprinted by permission) Lawmakers in Latin America are joining forces to strengthen institutional frameworks that sustain the fight against hunger in a region that, despite being dubbed \u201cthe next global breadbasket\u201d, still has more than 34 million undernourished people. The legislators, … Continue reading Latin American Legislators, a Battering Ram in the Fight Against Hunger<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,77],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-4527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","category-latin-america","tag-latin-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}