ActionAid to Fight Hunger

from All Africa

The Monitor (Kampala)

By Evelyn Lirri & Jane Nafula
Kampala

ACTIONAID International, yesterday launched a five year campaign to end hunger with a call to government to deliver on commitments to half the number of people who suffer from extreme hunger by 2015.

In 2000, world countries agreed through the Millennium Development Goals, to eradicate extreme poverty by reducing the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and those who suffer from extreme hunger.

Tagged Hunger Free, the programme is part of a global campaign launched in over 30 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia. The Director of Programmes for Actionaid, Ms Specioza Kiwanuka said the purpose of the campaign is to raise the profile of hunger related policy issues.

Ms Kiwanuka said the campaign focuses on three policy issues that came out of the hunger assessments that were undertaken by Actionaid International Uganda in 2007.

These key issues include, access to land by women, market access for small-scale farmers, and access to inputs like seeds.

She said if these issues are handled by policy makers at all levels, the countries would be able to achieve the millennium development goal on hunger. "If poor people are able to access land, seeds and markets, we can ensure sustainable food security for everyone," Ms Kiwanuka said.

Women's ownership and access to land is still very low yet they do most of the farming to fend for families. Ms Kiwanuka called on governments to develop and implement laws that deliver the right to food and bringing an immediate end to all deaths from hunger .

She said although the UN Convention on Human Rights and Uganda's Constitution, consider food as a human right, the government policies are seen to be responsible for most of the problems of escalating hunger in the country.