The role of international organizations, governments, and NGOs in combating food insecurity and disease
These organizations often work at the community level to lower costs, increase local participation, and improve livelihoods.
What are NGOs
What are TNCs (transnational corporations)?
TNCs are corporations that operate and produce goods in multiple countries in search of new markets
Examples include McDonald's and Coca Cola
Gender Inequality Index (GII)
What are some non-anthropogenic causes of famine?
extreme weather events: prolonged droughts, severe flooding, and typhoons.
Which SDGs target food insecurity and disease?
there are 2
SDG2: end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and achieve sustainable agriculture
SDG3: ensure healthy lives and promoted well-being for all ages
Why has there been a global shift of manufacturing to developing countries?
Through offshoring and outsourcing, manufacturing is cheaper, has lower costs, and reduced regulations.
How does the pharmaceutical industry play a role in exacerbating the causes of disability for women?
Dosage recommendations are biased in favour of men. Hormonal health , menopause, and postnatal depression remain under-researched, too.
A famine is officially declared when at least this percentage of the population has access to fewer than 2,100 kilocalories per day
20%
The United Nations (UN) is a major global stakeholder in efforts to reduce hunger and combat food insecurity and disease. What are the UN's biggest organisations working on food insecurity and health?
list 3 organizations
What is the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO)
Case Study: What are some of Coca-Cola's marketing strategies?
- build upon the brand being associated with a good feeling
- emphasis on shared happiness
- major advertising budgets
- project connect
Why do women in LICs face significant gaps in health care provisions?
Under development, poor health capacity, and careless neglect of maternal care provision. In many LICs maternal deaths also go unreported highlighting its lack of significance to authorities.
Ex. In Chad, 1 in every 15 women will die due to complications in birth
What is the role of the media in the event of a famine?
raising public awareness, stimulus for appeals by aid agencies, mobilise public support, crowdfunding websites: GoFundMe
Aid Agencies: crowdsourced mapping platforms to help them target the worst affected areas in times of famine. Example: Abaaraha mapping platform (Somalia): allows people on the ground to post problems and aid agencies use them to post where they are working.
List the 5 key priorities of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
1. Eradicate hunger and malnutrition
2. Make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable
3. Reduce rural poverty
4. enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems
5. Increase the resilience of livelihoods from disasters
TNCs largely control global food production, processing, and distribution by making huge calls in controlling the types and choices of food that is made available to consumers. Why have middle-income countries seen the most profound impact on their diets?
changes in economic growth, fully integrated into global markets, and reductions in trade barriers--> efficient supplies of an increased variety of (international) foods all year round. With improved access to markets, western diets are pushed aggressively by TNCs. More globalised crops and food ingredients, such as palm oil, sunflower oil, and soybean, have increased in importance (linked to processed foods)
Examples:
- Asia: increased consumption of packaged dried foods, sauces, condiments and edible oils.
Increased household wealth has led to people eating out more. Younger people are attracted to globalised foods. These types of foods now make up a big part of diets in middle-income countries because they are widely available, cheap, and intensely marketed.
What are examples of societal pressures women face that indirectly impact their health?
Patriarchy, lack of access to land rights, and being more likely to suffer malnutrition and reproductive rights issues. Women also face a shocking level of stigma and marginalisation in some societies. Infertility and ill health can lead to women becoming outcasts.
The continued practise of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
How does bad governance affect the severity of a famine?
Lack of political will to define a policy for agriculture--> inability to build resilient livelihoods at the community level
lack of initiative to declare emergencies and accept international aid
conflict and political instability: civil war, displacement of farmers, destruction of crops and infrastructure
International organizations, governments, and NGOs are involved in delivering food aid. List and describe the 3 broad types of food aid.
Program: Subsidized deliveries of food to a central government that subsequently sells the food and uses the proceeds for whatever purpose (not necessarily food assistance). Program food aid provides budgetary and balance of payments relief for recipient governments
Project: provides support to field-based projects in areas of chronic need through deliveries of food (usually free) to a government or NGO that either uses it directly (e.g., Food For Work and school feeding)
Emergency/Humanitarian: deliveries of free food to GO/NGO agencies responding to crises due to natural disasters or conflict
Food production is still dominated by small-scale farmers. What is the trend of small-scale farmers in LICs and HICs? Explain your reasoning.
Over 2.5 billion people rely on farming for their livelihoods, and, due to population pressure, this is increasing in Asia and Africa, with farm sizes shrinking. The opposite is true in HICs: Europe and North America, where small farmers are disappearing and are unable to compete with the industrial-scale farms and large agribusiness units.
Industrial farms have lowered food prices through mass production and specialisation of a smaller and smaller group of high yield food types.
How do lack of land rights, limited access to credit, and discriminatory inheritance laws contribute to continued and consistently higher rates of food insecurity among women in LICs?
This results in reduced economic independence, inability to invest in agriculture, increased poverty among female-headed households, and higher malnutrition rates for women and girls. Women in LICs have less decision-making power in households due to customs/traditions and social norms. They often have less opportunities for income-generating activities and are expected to uphold a specific role.
Example: In rural Bangladesh, malnutrition is more prevalent in girls than boys.
Weight-for-age standard: 14.4% of girls were classified as severely malnourished, compared with only 5.1% of boys.
Case Study: South Sudan
How were conflict/war, bad governance, and economic crisis driving factors in the South Sudan Famine?
The 2013 war caused millions to be displaced and to live in makeshift camps.
Economic Crisis: the economy collapsed due to a fall in oil production and a massive drop in oil prices. 2016: inflation rates reached 50% in a month and loss of value in local currency contributed to food insecurity.
Governance: Lost money held back agricultural development in the country. Conflict between the government and civilians, attacks on areas where agricultural production traditionally fed large parts of South Sudan, resulting in displacement and loss of local grain production.
There was also a struggle between the government and NGOs to build long-term humanitarian programmes.