The FAO campaign One Billion Hunger was launched in one dozen of capitals all across the world yesterday. I went to the one in Paris that took place at Trocadero Square, in front of the Eiffel Tower. Around fifty people went to the kick-off event and they made a lot of noise. Well-equipped with catcalls and wearing t-shirts where it was written, “I am mad as hell” – the motto of this campaign - the demonstrators whistled to urge leaders on this issue.
Below, you’ll find a video that I made at this event in which the French FAO representative explains the principles of this campaign.
Indeed, the FAO campaign urges world leaders to take on hunger, to fight against this terrible scourge that kills the equivalent of five million of children every year. The campaign will run until October 16 which is World Food Day.
There should be many events worldwide in the coming months. It is useful to remind you world hunger increased in 2009, breaking a sad record. Around 1020 million people are hungry everyday across the Earth. It can be explained by several factors. One of them is the consequence of the economic crisis with lower incomes and increased unemployment.
Let’s keep these facts in mind:
• More than 70 percent of the world’s 146 million underweight children under age five years live in just ten countries
• The cost of undernutrition to national economic development is estimated at US $20-30 billion per annum.
• One out of four children – roughly 146 million – in developing countries is underweight.
Of course, I am not going to bother you with too many statistics. Just a quick reminder: every six seconds a child dies from starvation. Since you have started to read this short post, probably five of them have already died in the world...
So, there is a petition to sign. It is on the website onebillionhungry.org. I strongly recommend to you to sign it but also to copy the link of this petition to your Facebook status. There is also a Facebook Group entitled “The One Billion Hungry project”. It is a detail that can be seen as illusory but social networks have shown how effective they can be.
A video was made on the campaign. It shows some images of the kick-off event yesterday in Paris and it features the British actor Jeremy Irons. I like particularly this little promotional video where he explains why he is “mad as hell” and asks you to feel the same.
The goal of this petition is to reach at least one million signatures. So that the FAO General – Director, Jacques Diouf (who wrote an op-ed on the issue, available here) will go to the MDGs Summit in September with more credit.
Obviously, it is probably too idealistic to think that this Millennium Development Goal will be achieved by 2015. In addition, it is easy to think it is just another campaign, one of many that hasn’t shown positive effects yet.
As my colleague and fellow blogger Carmen Paun points out: “How about we do more than just a click on an online petition?” Yes, that is the question. Unfortunately, I don’t have the proper answer. But, I think, as usual, it depends on the political will, only the political will…
Hopefully, in September in New York, we won’t see a Copenhagen scenario again!
Great videos, Pierre-Anthony. But I think the campaign should aim for more than just people signing a petition.I could do it right now. My name would be on a list in September at the UN GA in New York. And? That’s not going to stop hunger and will not feed even one of the 1 billion hungry people in the world. How about we do more than just a click on an online petition?
Great videos! But why is it too idealistic to think that this Millennium Development Goal will be achieved by 2015? When it was conceived and agreed to people were committed and believed in it.
I am not so sure people were so committed to the MDG even when they were launched, Lara. I really believe it’s unrealistic to think that such huge changes can happen in 15 years. Just as it was unrealistic to believe that the European Union would become in 10 years the biggest knowledge-based economy in the world. From my point of view, the year 2000 was a year of dreaming and thinking big, but unfortunately with no real backup.
I take your point, Carmen. However, they were first dreamed up back in the 70s so it was by no means a last minute, rush thing. If we accept that they aren’t on target for 2015, what happens then? Do we abandon them? Go with them and revise the targets themselves or extend the deadline? What happens post 2015, post MDG era, I wonder?
If I continue my comparison with the Lisbon Strategy of the EU, I would say the would probably be just transformed, renamed and their deadline postponed. Just like the EU has now the 2020 strategy. I am not saying we should forget about the MDG, all I saying is that they were very optimistic and most likely didn’t even envisage some worst case scenarios, just like the one we are living right now due to the worldwide economic crisis.
Hi there,
Thanks for your comments ! Laura, regarding what have been achieved in ten years for reducing hunger, I think the goal was ambitious and the political will has not been strong enough.
Of course, efforts and progress have been made fortunately. But according to many experts, this first MDG will not be achieved at all. As I said in my post, hunger increased last year. The “worldwide economic crisis”, as mentionned by Carmen has had a terrible impact. In addition, I agree with the idea that world leaders might probably rename the goals and extend the deadline;