Millennium Development Goals – The success of all goals is linked to goal #1!

It is unacceptable that more than 1 billion people still go to bed hungry each night, when access to food is the most basic of human rights and is a question of fundamental justice.

Development and Peace believes that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will go down in history as empty promises if world leaders do not act now to make goal number one a priority, followed by seven other goals which generally seek to reduce the symptoms of poverty.

All eight MDGs may not be reached if we cannot meet goal number one – to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. The success or failure of one goal affects the success of the other seven– like a domino effect. For example, lack of access to food is not only a symptom of severe poverty, but a symptom of the realities that the other seven MDGs seek to tackle.

Read Development and Peace’s statement on MDG’s HERE

Read about each MDG HERE

Everyone is involved in making the MDGs a reality!

For Development and Peace partner organizations in the Global South, hunger is a pressing issue that their governments cannot resolve on their own.

There are many players involved like the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to help with goal number eight, by putting in place new trading and financial policies to enable the poorest countries to reach the Millennium Development Goals, however almost nothing has been done to ensure that world trade rules enable poorer countries to feed their own populations.  Empowering poorer countries to feed their own populations is enabling food sovereignty which is defined as “the right of people to determine their own food and agricultural policies”.

FACT: Hunger is on the rise since 2008, where 64 million more people became extremely impoverished as a result of the recession2, bringing to 1.5 billion the number living in extreme poverty, defined by the United Nations as those living under US$1.25 per day.

To make the MDGs a reality, the right to food must be woven together with the right to food sovereignty.  In order to get on track meet MDG #1 and ensure an end to hunger, Development and Peace calls for:

• Industrialized countries should support small scale national agricultural production in the countries of the Global South, in line with food sovereignty principles
• Wealthier nations must also take steps to meet targets of giving 0.7% of GDP in international aid. Such aid should go to the world’s poorest countries and be determined by development needs rather than geo-political concerns
• Canada and other wealthy nations should promote international trade rules that allow poor countries to prioritize national agricultural production, rather than industrial agricultural production for soy and corn based agrofuels.
• G8 nations should implement a financial transaction tax as a way to control speculation and capital flows in an effort to raise funds for development and avert further financial crises fuelled by uncontrolled speculation and ensuing hikes in food prices.

The Millennium Development Goals will not be met if urgent measures are not taken to tackle world hunger and to ensure that the right to food becomes a reality for all human beings.

by Natalie Lucas, Youth Programs Intern Fall 2010