It is now widely accepted that poverty is currently the principal root cause of food insecurity at the level of households. It is also clear that in several societies, households are not homogeneous entities, since within a household, women and girl children often tend to be relatively more undernourished. Food security at the level of each individual is hence important.
UNDP's Human Development Report for the year 2000, titled "Human Rights and Human Development" chronicles the different kinds of inequities prevalent in contemporary societies. The report points out that "poverty limits human freedoms and deprives a person of dignity". The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration on the Right to Development and a large body of other human rights instruments make this clear. The Vienna Declaration adopted at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights affirms that "extreme poverty and social exclusion constitute a violation of human dignity". This Report stresses that expanding human capabilities and securing human rights can empower poor people to escape poverty.
IFAD's rich and varied experience in poverty eradication and its draft report on "Rural Poverty: Ending it in the 21st Century" (IFAD, Poverty Research Unit at Sussex, June 2000) bring out clearly that there is no single and simple solution to poverty eradication. IFAD has been rightly stressing that quick-fix and patronage approaches do not work. Also, the transaction costs tend to be very high in the case of government-run projects. How then can a strategy be developed characterised by unity of purpose, but multiplicity of approaches and action plans? How can approach this question without violating human dignity?
The lecture discusses generic issues relating to poverty and food insecurity in following three parts:
- Sustainable food security;
- Trade, equity and environment;
- Achieving synergy between political and people power.
