Global South 2011

Lecture 1: September 20,2011

Questions for you

Did you wonder why we start with hunger? Why the ‘lens of hunger’?

What did you learn? What were the surprises? What did you already know? How can we reduce/eliminate/prevent

hunger?

Hunger in the developing world

925 million people do not have enough to eat - more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union;

98 percent of the world's hungry live in developing countries;

Asia and the Pacific region is home to over half the world’s population and nearly two thirds of the world’s hungry people;

Global Hunger

Women make up a little over half of the world's population, but they account for over 60 percent of the world’s hungry.

65 percent  of the world's hungry live in only seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia. 

GTA, 2009-2010

1 million plus 46% are working Canadians 40% adults and 15% of children go

hungry at least once a week

Hunger in Canada

- Number of people assisted by a food bank in March 2009:  794,738- Number helped by food banks for the first time: 72,231 – 9% of the total- Change in food bank use since 2008: + 18 % - the largest year-over-year increase on record 

         

Increase by provinces

- Alberta (+ 61%)          - Nova Scotia (+ 20%)          - Ontario (+ 19%)          - Manitoba (+ 18%)          - British Columbia (+ 15%)          - New Brunswick (+ 14%)

Hunger in the US (USDA data)

In 2008, 49.1 million lived in food-insecure households, including 16.7 million children.

12.1 million adults and 5.2 million children lived in households with very low food security.

In 2008, 1.1 million children (1.5 % of the Nation’s children) lived in households with v. low food security

Hunger in the Golden State

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201003191630/c

11 million, more than 1 in 4 are hungry or food insecure

So, why does hunger exist?

Set I. 1. Not enough food (too many people)2. Not well distributed3. Not ‘targeted’ well-enough 4. Too much greed, too little charity5. People do not earn a ‘living’ wage

Causes (contd)

Set II.1. Food (and hunger) is a source of

profit2. Real food producers have no control

over the production of food

Global South

What is the Global South? Is it different from the “Third World”?

Why or why not? Is it different from the “South”? What exactly does it help us

understand?

Politics & Policy

What is politics? What is policy? Is there a relationship between the

two? What is it?

Development

What is development? What is its relationship to the Global

South? Does it affect me? Or is it merely an

“object of study”? Why should I be interested?

Global South: The Concept Focuses on processes and not on regions Processes which lie beneath phenomena

such as exclusion, immiserization, poverty, inequality etc. which are evident in all regions

The premise of the Global South perspective is that these phenomena visible everywhere and are caused by similar factors – some of which are global, some local, but share some commonalities