Preface

MAC/WFY

Page-x

0230_553559_04_prexx

Preface

It is an appalling fact that in this globalizing world of increasing prosperity, in
which the richest tenth own 85 per cent of the world's assets, just under one billion
people subsist on less than one dollar a day, 2.8 billion on less than two dollars
a day, and 850 million suffer from undernourishment in dehumanizing, abject
poverty. Almost 200 million children under five years of age are underweight
due to lack of food and one child dies every 5 seconds from hunger and related
causes. Hunger and malnutrition kill more people every year than AIDS, malaria
and tuberculosis combined, and more people die from hunger than in wars. At
the centre of this human tragedy is food insecurity, inability to access the safe and
nutritious food necessary for a healthy and active life. World leaders and inter-
national bodies have many times made a commitment, and have acknowledged
that there are sufficient resources and know-how, to end hunger and poverty. This
scourge is not only morally unacceptable but is a serious impediment to equit-
able and sustainable economic and social development, and to world peace. This
history is about what attempts have been made over the past sixty years to address
this problem in what I have come to call `the graveyard of aspirations'.

My interest in the concept of food security, and of the consequences of its

antithesis, food insecurity that dominate the lives and livelihoods of hungry poor
people and households was kindled during my undergraduate and post-graduate
field research in such diverse places as Western Ireland, Morocco, Bosnia and
Croatia. It continued during my time as senior lecturer in rural economy at the
University of Khartoum, Sudan (195966), when I was also a consultant to the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Bank
and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). This involved visits to a
number of countries in North Africa and the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.
My interest and concern were strengthened further when I was employed by WFP
at its headquarters in Rome, Italy (196794) first as senior evaluation officer, then
as senior economist and head of the Policy Unit in the Office of the Executive
Director, then as economic adviser, and finally as chief of WFP's Policy Affairs
Service. During this time, I visited many countries in Asia and Africa and liaised
with a number of the UN organizations concerned with issues related to food
security. Located WFP's headquarters in Rome, I was also able to consult the
papers and documents on the early pioneering work of FAO on food and nutrition
security in its archives and library, many of which have long been forgotten, and
follow closely discussions in FAO's principal committees.

This rich experience convinced me of the need for an historical account of

attempts to set up some form of world food security arrangement since the Second
World War (193945) and the establishment of FAO as the first United Nations
specialized agency after the war ended. This is the first comprehensive account of

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Useful links	Preface MAC/WFY Page-x 0230_553559_04_prexx Preface It is an appalling fact that in this globalizing world of increasing prosperity, in which the richest tenth own 85 per cent of the world's assets, just under one billion people subsist on less than one dollar a day, 2.8 billion on less than two dollars a day, and 850 million suffer from undernourishment in dehumanizing, abject poverty. Almost 200 million children under five years of age are underweight due to lack of food and one child dies every 5 seconds from hunger and related causes. Hunger and malnutrition kill more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, and more people die from hunger than in wars. At the centre of this human tragedy is food insecurity, inability to access the safe and nutritious food necessary for a healthy and active life. World leaders and inter- national bodies have many times made a commitment, and have acknowledged that there are sufficient resources and know-how, to end hunger and poverty. This scourge is not only morally unacceptable but is a serious impediment to equit- able and sustainable economic and social development, and to world peace. This history is about what attempts have been made over the past sixty years to address this problem in what I have come to call `the graveyard of aspirations'. My interest in the concept of food security, and of the consequences of its antithesis, food insecurity that dominate the lives and livelihoods of hungry poor people and households was kindled during my undergraduate and post-graduate field research in such diverse places as Western Ireland, Morocco, Bosnia and Croatia. It continued during my time as senior lecturer in rural economy at the University of Khartoum, Sudan (195966), when I was also a consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Bank and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). This involved visits to a number of countries in North Africa and the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. My interest and concern were strengthened further when I was employed by WFP at its headquarters in Rome, Italy (196794) first as senior evaluation officer, then as senior economist and head of the Policy Unit in the Office of the Executive Director, then as economic adviser, and finally as chief of WFP's Policy Affairs Service. During this time, I visited many countries in Asia and Africa and liaised with a number of the UN organizations concerned with issues related to food security. Located WFP's headquarters in Rome, I was also able to consult the papers and documents on the early pioneering work of FAO on food and nutrition security in its archives and library, many of which have long been forgotten, and follow closely discussions in FAO's principal committees. This rich experience convinced me of the need for an historical account of attempts to set up some form of world food security arrangement since the Second World War (193945) and the establishment of FAO as the first United Nations specialized agency after the war ended. This is the first comprehensive account of x back to top Next page
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