Enough food for everyone IF….

Originally posted on the Agriculture for Impact blog.

One in eight women, men and children go to bed hungry every night and by 2025 nearly a billion young people will face poverty because of the damage done to them now through hunger and malnutrition. These are just some of the startling statistics that have led over 100 organisations to combine under a new campaign.

“Enough food for everyone if…” is the slogan of this UK campaign launched on the 23^rd January 2013. Backed by Desmond Tutu and Bill Gates, the campaign aims to reach 20 million people in the UK and get 5 million people involved with the ultimate goal of petitioning David Cameron to lead on hunger at the G8, which the UK have presidency over for 2013. With his leadership, the campaign hopes to ensure global leaders, meeting at the G8 summit in June, act on the underlying causes of hunger.

Namely that there can be ENOUGH FOOD FOR EVERYONE:

• IF we give enough aid to stop children dying from hunger and help the poorest families feed themselves
• IF governments stop big companies dodging tax in poor countries, so that millions of people can free themselves from hunger
• IF we stop poor farmers being forced off their land and we grow crops to feed people not fuel cars
• IF governments and big companies are honest and open about their actions that stop people getting enough food

Likened to the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign of 2005 due to the size of its NGO backing, the IF campaign is attempting to tackle complex policy issues alongside monetary. Some believe this along with the global recession and so called aid fatigue means its ‘asks’ will be harder to achieve while others view the campaign as a way of instigating in-depth discussions around aid. Although topics such as food waste, social protection, and food price volatility are missing there is no doubt that those issues the campaign does raise are critical to future food security. David Cameron welcomed the campaign promising to “drive forward progress on the G8 New Alliance on Food Security and Nutrition.” We’ll have to wait and see how the growing support for IF translates into action at the international policy level and within the NGOs themselves.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the campaign. You can read more about the campaign as well as how to get involved here and follow the campaign on Twitter #IF.