campaign guide

Photos: James Akena/ActionAid, Graeme Williams/Panos Pictures/ActionAid, Frederic Courbet/Panos Pictures/ActionAid.

One billion people worldwide go to bed hungry every night. But if we prioritise hunger and rethink the way we grow and distribute food, we can create a HungerFree world.

The seeds of the solution are already on the table – small farmers have sustainable solutions to the hunger crisis. Now we must support them and put their ideas into practice.

The first step is to make our government part of the solution. Take action as part of ActionAid’s HungerFree campaign and help us persuade the Prime Minister that the issue is urgent.

There’s lots of ways to get involved and YOUR role is crucial.

Why are we campaigning? Hunger and malnutrition don’t just mean a few skipped meals: they kill. Almost 10,000 children die of hunger-related causes every day. That’s one child every 10 seconds.

Governments should be on track to meet their global pledge to halve hunger by 2015, but instead things are actually getting worse.

Who’s most affected by hunger?Hunger is largely a rural issue – three quarters of the world’s poor and 70% of hungry people live in rural areas. The poorest, landless and female-headed households are hardest hit. And they’re also the ones with the least ability to change things.

Calorie count: the UN classifies someone as hungry if they eat less than 1,600 to 2,000 calories a day, depending on whether they’re a child or adult. Most hungry people actually eat far fewer calories than this. However, it’s estimated that there’s enough food produced in the world for everyone – 2,803 calories per person each day.

WHO’S PROTECTING THE HARVESTS OF TOMORROW?

Many hungry people only eat one meal a day and can rarely afford ‘luxuries’ like meat or fish. Women and girls often eat last, and least. Poor diets can mean breastfeeding mothers miss out on nutrients such as vitamin A, which can cause blindness in children.

WHO’S PROTECTING

THE HARVESTS

OF

TOMORROW??

“We have learnt to live without meat, oil and other necessary items,” says Ban Van Tuan, 28, a farmer from Hoa Binh in Vietnam, who can’t afford to grow or buy enough food. Ban collects herbs to sell for cash, but he fears his daughters will be forced to drop out of school because of high food prices.

Photo: ActionAid

Are things going to get worse?Yes, if governments don’t recognise the gravity of the situation. They must act NOW to make the eradication of hunger a priority in order to prevent another food crisis.

Some commentators say the world faces a ‘perfect storm’ for global food production. The world’s population is set to rise to nine billion by 2050, and production must double by then to meet rising demand for food and animal feed, and changes in diets towards more meat and dairy.

Climate change impacts – such as drought, floods and storms – are already affecting production and could have a devastating impact on food availability. Scientists say yields from rain-fed farming in some African countries could fall by up to 50% by 2020.

Hunger bites•32% of the total population in sub-Saharan Africa are hungry•3.5 million children die of hunger-related causes each year•2% of land is owned by women worldwide

Sources: FAO, The Lancet

Photos: Mwila Mulumbi

The amount of food US$1 bought before and after prices jumped in Lusaka, Zambia, thanks to the global food crisis.

February 2008 February 2009

Why’s hunger at a record high?Hunger is manmade – and the solutions are in our power. Yet the number of hungry people continues to increase. This is because:

• a worldwide food crisis in 2008 meant local food prices increased significantly, forcing families to choose between food and other costs like healthcare

• the global recession means there is less employment and money from relatives abroad, squeezing the amount of cash available for this higher-priced food

• despite record global harvests, a scandalous amount is going into producing biofuels, rather than feeding people

• floods and droughts caused by climate change are affecting production

• there has been a lack of investment in agriculture over the last 25 year by governments, especially support to small farmers to grow more food.

What can be done? Governments are responsible for ensuring that no one goes hungry, and almost all have signed UN agreements ensuring the right to adequate food for all.

It’s vital that we hold governments to account for their commitments. Some $20 billion was pledged to tackle hunger at the last G8 summit in July 2009, although we’ve looked in detail at the sums and they don’t add up to us, and many others.

The next big political moment is the UN World Summit on Food Security in Rome in November where much more of the detail on how countries are going to be supported, monitored and overseen will play out.

That’s why we’re asking Gordon Brown to join other world leaders and attend this world food summit – to demonstrate his personal commitment on hunger.

The HungerFree campaign so farOur HungerFree campaign is holding governments in 35 countries and international bodies like the UN and World Bank to account for their commitments on tackling hunger.

We work with grassroots groups and partners at the local, national and international levels – from Rio to Rome – to demand a HungerFree world.

HungerFree campaigns worldwide – whether it’s a mass rally of small farmers in Haiti, a campaign ‘caravan tour’ in the Gambia, a HungerFree concert in Vietnam, a public debate with farmers and politicians in Brazil, a people’s summit in India, or a women’s land march in Nepal.

We’ve had some great successes – like the 5,000 tribal women who now have land as a result of campaigning in India, or the women nut-breakers in Brazil who have won their right to harvest babassu nut trees on forest lands.

So please join all these others calling for a HungerFree world through your support in the UK.

Photo: Charles Eckert/ActionAidHaiti HungerFree farmers’ rally

We also support women on the ground like Thabo Chidimba from Gongona in Malawi who’s beating hunger by using sustainable agriculture techniques to grow maize and tomatoes.

She joined a local partner group, the Coalition of Women’s Farmers, and subsequently gained access to land and water, and learnt how to use organic compost.

“The compost helps me produce good results – in fact, 7.5 tonnes of maize,” she says.

Ask your friends and family to take action

Spread the message by using

our plant labels

Sow the seed online

Get them to send off the action card today and plant a seed in the Prime Minister’s head.

Order our new HungerFree plant labels and put them in your garden, allotment, in a plant pot at home or work, or in a public space.

Blog, Tweet or create a Facebook group and ask people to plant a seed in the Prime Minister’s head. Send or upload a picture of your plants with their HungerFree labels.

WHO’S PROTECTING

THE HARVESTS

OF TOMORROW??

HungerFree is making great progress, but we must put more pressure on world leaders and powerful policy makers.

What do we want? We want you to plant a seed in the Prime Minister’s mind. A seed called Thabo Chidimba.

We want Gordon Brown to take the first step in tackling hunger by supporting women like Thabo who are fighting for a HungerFree world. We want leaders to make ending global hunger a global priority, starting with attending the UN World Summit on Food Security in Rome in November.

At the summit we want leaders to support a UN-led drive to end hunger which is based on the right to food and puts women and sustainable agriculture at its heart

Thabo Chidimba farms sustainably in Malawi

Photo: Graeme Williams/Panos/ActionAid

What can you do today?

PLAnT A Seed in Gordon Brown’S HeAd

How do I explain the campaign?You may need to explain the campaign to friends and family. This may help you.

Hunger is at an all time high. Last year the food crisis was all over the news, but just because we’ve stopped hearing about it, it doesn’t mean that people aren’t still badly affected. One in six people in the world are going hungry, despite there being enough food for everyone, and world leaders need to know we want them to act.

We know how to tackle hunger, supporting sustainable agriculture means soils aren’t exhausted and supporting small farmers and women, who are hardest hit, will get right to the heart of the issue. People all over the world are calling for this, in Haiti the first ever farmers rally the country has seen took place, and in India a people’s summit was held.

We can all help by writing to Gordon Brown to make sure he attends the World Summit on Food Security in Rome and supports small farmers and sustainable agriculture. Still want to do more?If you’d like to do more to support the campaign, please write to your MP. Ask them to support ActionAid’s HungerFree campaign and urge the Prime Minister to make tackling hunger a priority. You could also enclose one of our HungerFree plant labels and ask your MP to keep it on their desk at Parliament.

Feel free to use the template below, but remember to personalise it for greater impact. You can find the name of your MP at www.theyworkforyou.com or by calling the House of Commons Information Office on 020 7219 4272.

Dear .....................MP, (insert your MP’s name here)

I’m appalled that there are now a billion people going hungry in the world.

I support ActionAid’s HungerFree campaign and believe it doesn’t have to be this way.

A key solution to hunger is supporting poor women farmers like Thabo Chidimba, who

practices sustainable agriculture in Malawi and is overcoming poverty and hunger.

With the Millennium Development Goal commitment to halve hunger just 5 years away,

the UK government must make an ambitious commitment to ending global hunger.

Please urge the Prime Minister to show global leadership on the issue by:

• attending the UN World Summit on Food Security in Rome in November

• supporting a UN-led drive to end hunger which is based on the right to food

for all and puts women and sustainable agriculture at its heart

Please sign Early Day Motion 1984 and help make ending hunger a political priority for

the Prime Minister. Yours sincerely

[insert your name and address]

Please let us know if you receive a response from Gordon Brown or your MP. You can contact us on 01460 23 8047 or email tradeandcorporates@actionaid.org

To take action online visit: www.actionaid.org.uk/hungerfree Or follow our campaigning on Twitter at www.twitter.com/actionaidliz

THAnK YoU And HAPPY CAMPAiGninG!ActionAid is a registered charity no.274467