OF FOOD SECURITY, HUNGER AND PASTORALISM

A POSITIVEOUTCOMES FEATURE© June 2007
"The State Parties to the present covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international cooperation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed: (a) To improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making full use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the principles of nutrition and by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources; (b) Taking into account the problems of both food-importing and food-exporting countries, to ensure an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need.”
1. Article II of the UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UNICESCR).
Food is a right to all. Apparently this is not the case.
Each and every time an issue pertaining to food scarcity springs up, pastoralists come to mind. There is sparse information on pastoral commons and even their food security mechanisms. In the last decade Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has endured numerous drought spells, which have in turn impacted negatively on the countries in the region. The worst hit areas have been those in the arid and semi arid lands (ASALs) of Sub Saharan Africa.
These regions, which are mostly inhabited, by pastoralists and agro-pastoralists are disaster zones at any given time. Owing to unpredictable weather patterns – less and sporadic rainfall – these areas experience much suffering as pastoralists with their cattle traverse vast regions and even cross borders in search of both pasture and water for themselves and their livestock. This migrant behaviour by pastoral communities has bred a unique geo-political co-existence mechanism in the region. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti are all encapsulated in this set-up. This migratory facet of pastoralists has least been recognised in the region. If anything all the governments in the region see migration as a pariah and archaic behaviour. But is it?
But while in most instances the weather and in some occasion locusts are the main culprits for food scarcity, there is another side of the coin. Poor political leadership, bureaucracy, and misgovernance are all major reasons affecting Africa’s pastoral people and their way of life. In the 1980s the Ethiopian drought debacle was a classic tale of bad political leadership. One is inclined to wonder why drought and hunger prevails in East and central Africa yet the region has a highly advanced weather and disaster prediction service? In other words, a proper, early warning system, which is capable of giving timely and adequate predictions for proper and well coordinated preparations to deal firmly with such disasters seems to be “absent”.
Development economist and Nobel laureate Dr Amartya Sen reckons: “No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy.” This remark cannot be further from the truth when one considers the daily travails of pastoral communities, in this region. Owing to neglect, lack of representation in the central government and the perennial “policy formulation – policy implementation” disconnect, these communities are overlooked in terms of national resource mobilization, allocation and infrastructure rollout. In other words they are less of a national priority. The media and even politicians have portrayed them alike as ‘conflict-loving communities’ among other demeaning epithets. Derogatory remarks are what these unique people with a culture that has survived eons have been subjected to. In fact pastoralists despite their contribution to the national economy ascertained by their livestock are hardly factored in when it comes to reaping benefits accruing from the national government.
To fully grasp the strategic importance of arid lands, picture these: Arid lands cover 80% of the Kenya’s total land surface area and 25% of the human population: Over 50% of the country’s livestock is to be found in these areas: 80% of Kenya’s eco-tourism facilities are in these areas. According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) dryland ecosystems are extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation and inappropriate land uses. Few administrators and policy makers are yet to reckon with this fact (and the environmental hazards it portends), hence the total neglect of pastoralists. In fact government officers seconded to the region see their postings as less influential and ‘acts of demotion’. With such a warped, misguided and ignorant mindset it is no wonder then, they are amply abandoned. The Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), estimates that there are over 800 million people in the world today, faced with starvation in the third world. The bulk of these 800 million people are drawn from pastoral communities. These are alarming statistics, considering that a binding international covenant (UNICESCR) exists to ward off hunger by ensuring the availability of food and its distribution to everyone.
Africa’s recent history with famine – Niger, Kenya and the Horn of Africa - indicate rather clearly the facet that food insecurity, which can lead to political instability, is an ever-present threat to the third world. As research has shown famine is not confined to climatic conditions per se, it is also linked to political decisions. While there exists comprehensive policies, addressing food security, the implementation of these policies and other laid down interventions mechanisms are more often bogged down by unwise political decisions and the tomfoolery of government bureaucrats. Kenya is an excellent case study for this:
“The central objective of national food security policy is to ensure that an adequate supply of nutritionally balanced foods is available in all parts of the country at all times. Given current resource constraints, the immediate aims of food security policy will be to obtain a calculated degree of security at the lowest cost. This will be achieved through: increasing food production in all areas of the country; emphasizing drought resistant crops such as sorghum and millet in dry land areas; the establishment of a food commodity monitoring and forecasting of weather conditions in the main agricultural zones and wider dissemination of information on expected weather trends; regulation of food exports to maintain domestic supplies and importation of food as necessary to meet nutritional requirements; and accumulation of a multi-commodity strategic food reserve from domestic surpluses and grain supplied on concessional terms to be used during periods of crop failure or other emergency situations.”
This is what Sessional Paper No 4 of 1981 on Kenya’s National Food Policy says. While on paper the policy seeks to ameliorate food scarcity, ward off hunger and check famine, the reality is that bureaucracy has prevented the full implementation of the policy which was passed a quarter of a century ago! This is pure chicanery. The worst affected are of course pastoral communities whose livelihoods are hampered due to inadequate food supply and severed food chain links owing to poor and sometimes non-existent infrastructure. In a speech he read at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Dr. Jacques Diouf FAO Director General revealed the underlying paradigms that are caused by political immaturity. He said:
“Food is absolutely fundamental to human existence. One of the great successes of the 20th century was a rate of growth in food output that considerably surpassed the unprecedented rate of population growth. Today we can pride ourselves on the fact that we have the capacity to produce enough food for everyone on the planet to be adequately fed. If all food produced in the world were to be divided equally among its inhabitants, every woman, man and child would consume almost 2800 calories per day, which is 17% more calories than 30 years ago, despite the fact that the population has grown by 70% over the last 30 years. In the midst of all this abundance, however, there are still 800 million people in the developing world who do not have enough to eat. Undernourishment takes a heavy toll on health and productivity of individuals, communities and nations. About six million children under five years of age die every year as a result of hunger and undernutrition. Many of them die from disease such as diarrhoea, malaria and measles but could survive if they were better nourished. Vitamin A deficiency is responsible for blindness in 250,000 to 500,000 children each year. Twenty million people worldwide are mentally handicapped as a result of iodine deficiency, and each year 100,000 babies are born with irreversible brain damage as a result of maternal iodine inefficiency. FAO has estimated that developing countries have lost on average one percentage point from their economic growth each year as a result of insufficient energy intake.
“In an overall context of affluence, the fact that so many of our fellow beings are not adequately fed – and therefore not able to lead a full life – suggests that that there is something fundamentally flawed about the way in which our world is being managed. The world hunger problem is clearly political, not technical.”
With such candid words coming from the head of FAO, one begins to appreciate the insurmountable difficulties faced by pastoralists. Being vulnerable and belonging to minority communities is another disadvantage to pastoralists. Sadly this has been a historical problem. Right from the biblical times pastoralists have been inured with conflict. 66% of Africa is drylands. This fact alone emphasizes the width and breadth covered by these herding communities.
Conservation, agriculture and tough immigration laws are emerging factors hampering the enhancement of lives of these inimitable people. The influx of small weapons and other light artillery to herding communities by conflict merchants has led to the rise in flare-ups. The scarcity of pasture and watering points has been the most cited reason fuelling these conflicts. The only way to alter the situation for the better is to implement in full what is on paper and legally binds the government. In their classic song, Peter, Paul and Mary uttered the all time reminder, “…the answer my friend is blowing in the wind.” [END]
EDITOR’S NOTE: “Your views and comments on this issue are welcome. Is the region secure in terms of food supply? How robust are the food security policies of the region? Have your say.”