Breaking the vicious circle of hunger

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that 923 million people worldwide, almost 150 million of them children, are chronically malnourished today. Many people do not have access to the nutrition they need to lead healthy and active lives. Increasing food prices and hunger uprisings in some poor countries draw the attention of the international community. But awareness of the problem is not enough: Much more must be done to ensure tangible improvements for the world’s hungry and to reach the Millennium Goal set by the United Nations (UN) of reducing their numbers by half.
Fighting hunger and malnutrition is the responsibility of the governments of those countries affected, who need support from the international community to reach their goals. In many states, the process of governance has to be improved to guarantee that food security is made a priority. Partner countries must help set plans and measures in motion. The hunger problem is multifaceted and requires complex concepts and decisive steps to break the vicious circle of poverty, underdevelopment and malnutrition. Each and every available resource must be used efficiently to ensure that the fundamental human right of access to adequate food is upheld.

InWEnt has been active in this field for many years with a variety of programmes. Many of our initiatives to combat hunger are directed at rural development or the water supply; others use an integrated approach to increase food security. Since 2000, the international "Food and Nutrition Security - Assessment Instruments and Intervention Strategies" training workshop has been held at Inwent’s Training Centre in Feldafing. Inwent designed the course in cooperation with the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (German Society for Technical Cooperation, GTZ) and the Deutschen Welthungerhilfe (German World Hunger Organisation, DWHH). The GTZ and DWHH use it to train both in-house personnel and people from their partner organisations.
Inwent is also involved in international policy dialogue. More than 500 participants from 50 countries attended the international “Assuring Food and Nutrition Security in Africa by 2020” conference held in Kampala/Uganda in 2004 to analyse the current situation and discuss appropriate measures and action. Inwent was also involved in organising the “International Food Aid Conference” held by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in 2007 as part of Germany’s EU presidency. The conference set out the topics to be renegotiated in the Food Aid Convention and discussed all the key issues and relevant active parties. Within the framework of “Policies Against Hunger”, an annual series of events organised by the German federal government, Inwent supports participative political dialogue on legal and nutritional issues in particular.

D + C online: An opportunity in crisis 

Alumnus Samuel Muhunyu, Kenya, Country Coordinator for the Network for Ecofarming in Africa (NECOFA)