Hunger and Health: 2007

Description

Hunger and Health explores the multiple relationships between hunger and poor health, and how they affect the growth of individuals, physiologically and psychologically, constraining the development of nations both socially and economically. Examining the profound effect that hunger has on health, including disease prevention and treatment, it gives special attention to access to quality food and healthcare, in particular for the marginalized and poor. It also identifies critical junctures in the human life cycle when the benefits of reducing hunger and improving poor health have a profound impact. It demonstrates how aligning of hunger and health interventions can offer proven solutions that reach those most in need, and contains compelling evidence which confirms that hunger and poor health are solvable problems today. It encourages those involved in policy, programming and advocacy to take action to address some of the most urgent hunger and health problems. Essential reading for anyone concerned about eliminating hunger. Published with the UN World Food Programme.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) was set up over 40 years ago to provide emergency food aid, to stop hunger and thus help break the cycle of poverty. In 2006, WFP food aid reached 90 million people in 78 countries.

'Hunger and Health draws on decades of pragmatic experience in alleviating 'food emergencies' and seeking to break the cycle of poverty and disease, and provides sound policy recommendations for nations and international standard-setting bodies seeking to meet the Millennium Development Goals.' Paul Farmer, MD, Harvard Medical School and Partners in Health 'Globalization brings with it unprecedented opportunities for wealth but also fuels the gap between those who enjoy the full right to life with dignity and those who do not. WFP has more workers on the ground in more crisis areas of the world than any other organization. Written from direct field experience, this report demonstrates unequivocally the direct connections between hunger, poor health and poverty, and, more importantly, goes on to show that there are practical solutions to this unacceptable face of development. This should be essential reading for everyone who works with marginal communities, whether in the inner cities of the north or the conflict zones of the south.' Peter Walker, Irwin H. Rosenberg Professor of Nutrition and Human Security, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University 'Hunger and Health draws on decades of pragmatic experience in alleviating 'food emergencies' and seeking to break the cycle of poverty and disease, and provides sound policy recommendations for nations and international standard-setting bodies seeking to meet the Millennium Development Goals. We are deeply in debt to those who have written and contributed to Hunger and Health. Let this report, and written commitments to fair trade, land reform and improved agricultural practices, serve as the roadmap that we must all follow to make hunger in the 21st century be seen, first, as obscene and, second, as a global sickness for which we have, already, the cure.' Paul Farmer, MD, Harvard Medical School and Partners in Health