RIGHT TO FOOD:Philippines

ARSENIO M. BALISACANSecretary of Socioeconomic Planning

Visit of UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to FoodDepartment of Agriculture

20 February 2014

I. Overview State of Food and Nutrition Security: World and the Philippines Selected Philippine Food and Nutrition Security Indicators [1]

II. Legal Basis/Framework International obligations/commitments Relevant Philippine laws

House Bill 3795 “Right to Adequate Food Bill”

III. Right to Food Assessment in the Philippines[2] by APPC for FAO Findings of “Right to Food Assessment”

Policy Recommendations

IV. Philippine Government Efforts

Presentation Outline

STATE OF GLOBAL FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITYGlobal Hunger Index (GHI)

- A tool developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) that is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger globally.

- Countries are ranked using a 100-point scale, with 0 being the best score (no hunger) and 100 being the worst

- Combines three (3) equally weighted indices into one (1) index:1. Undernourishment2. Child underweight3. Child mortality

Overview

STATE OF GLOBAL FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY

• GHI in the Philippines improved for the past years, from 20.1 in 1990, to 13.1 in 2014.

• Global Hunger Index or GHI in 2014: 12.5%

• GHI is highest in South Asian countries and in Sub-Saharan Africa

Source of basic data: GHI 2014 Report

Overview

1990 1995 2000 2005 20140

5

10

15

20

25

GHI in the Philippines

STATE OF GLOBAL FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY

• State of undernourishment in the world has improved, with the decline in the incidence of undernourished people for the past decades at an average of 14.6%.

• Majority of population who are considered hungry live in developing countries, where about 805 million people (11% of world population) are estimated to be chronically undernourished.

• For 2010-2012, highest incidence of undernourishment was recorded at 26.8% for Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by the Caribbean at 17.8%.

• Prevalence of undernourishment in the Philippines decreased from 24.5% (1990-1992) to about 16.2% (2011-2013).

Source: The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012, FAO

Undernourishment

Overview

STATE OF GLOBAL FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY

• Prevalence of underweight in children under 5 y/o has generally been decreasing for the past years.

• Per 2012 MDG report, one in five children (51%) under-five in the developing countries is underweight, with highest incidence noted in Southern Asia.

• Prevalence of underweight in children under 5 years in the Philippines decreased from 29.9% to about 20.2% (2009-2013).

Health status of children under 5

Overview

1988–1992

1993–1997

1998–2002

2003–2007

2009–2013

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Prevalence of underweight in children under five years (%)

BangladeshIndiaSri LankaChinaBrazilPhilippines

Incid

ence

(%)

STATE OF GLOBAL FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY

• Almost whole of Sub-Saharan Africa showed high levels of MMR, with more than 300 deaths per 100,000 live births.

• In the Philippines, 2011 MMR was recorded at 221 per 100,000 livebirths, based on the Family Health Survey.

• Periodic FHS show that MMR in the Philippines have experienced a decline from 1990-2006, but have grew last 2011.

Maternal Health

Mapping of Global Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR, death per 100 000 live births), 2010-2014

Source: WHO

Overview

Subsistence Incidence In The Philippines

• From 2006-2013, subsistence incidence has decreased from 14.2% to 10.7% in families, and 10.8% to 7.7 in population.

2006 2009 2012 20130.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

10.810.0 10.0

7.7

14.213.3 13.4

10.7

Families Population

OverviewSELECTED PHILIPPINE FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY INDICATORS

Trend (%) in the prevalence of underweight-for-age among children, under-five years old using World Health Organization - Child Growth Standard (WHO-CGS): 1990-2011

OverviewSELECTED PHILIPPINE FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY INDICATORS

Prevalence (%) of underweight-for-age children, under five years old by region using WHO-CGS: 2008 and 2011

OverviewSELECTED PHILIPPINE FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY INDICATORS

LEGAL BASIS/FRAMEWORK

a. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

b. Convention on the Rights of the Childc. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination Against Womend. Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions and

Relating to the Protection of Victims of International and Non-International Armed Conflicts

Philippines Human Rights Treaties relevant to the Right to Food

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights• The Declaration on the Rights of the Child• The Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and

Malnutrition• The Declaration on Protection of Women and Children in Emergency

and Armed Conflicts• The Code of Ethics for International Trade• The Declaration on the Right to Development• The Rome Declaration on World Food Security• The Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of

the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security • High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of

Climate Change and Bioenergy

Other human rights instruments

Philippine laws and related jurisprudence focussing on normative entitlements to food

Relevant Philippine laws

47 -

Food Availability ; 17

Food Accessibility ; 25

Food Safety ; 10

House Bill 3795 “Right to Adequate Food Bill”

• Introduced by Reps. Ibarra Gutierrez III and Walden Bello of Akbayan Partylist, Rep. Arlene Bag-ao of Dinagat Islands, and Rep. Jose Christopher Belmonte of Quezon City in February 2014

• Takes off from Philippine commitments as a state-party to ICESCR and the FAO’s Right to Food Guidelines adopted in 2004; and Article II of the Philippine Constitution

House Bill 3795“Right to Adequate Food Bill”

Government Obligations

• States that the government has a duty to respect, protect, and fulfil the right to adequate food.

Salient Provisions:Targets• Reduce the incidence of hunger from current levels by 25% every

2.5 years• increase of land devoted to food production to 50% within 10 years

Institutional Changes• Creates the Commission on the Right to Adequate Food, attached

to the Commission on Human Rights• Creates the Inter-Agency Council on the Right to Adequate Food• Includes a provision mandating the rationalization of existing laws,

in accordance with the right to adequate food

House Bill 3795“Right to Adequate Food Bill”

RIGHT TO FOOD ASSESSMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES[1]

Assessment of the Philippine Legal Framework Governing the Right to Food

• Despite the surfeit of laws, the Philippine legal framework governing the right to food falls short of the imperatives for realizing the right to food.

• Recourse mechanisms to seek state protection due to violation of an individual’s right to food are in place but this may be negated by other barriers such as the costs of litigation and access to advocates.

• The legal framework is neither coherent nor complementary.

Assessment of the Philippine Legal Framework Governing the Right to Food

• The weaknesses of the Philippine legal framework governing the right to food can be traced to: – the lack of explicit recognition of the right to food by the

country’s fundamental law; and – the lack of a national food policy.

Policy Recommendations of the Study

• Adoption of a national food policy, with the full and active participation of all actors in the public and private spheres.

• Rationalization of the food legal framework.

PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT EFFORTS

PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT EFFORTSPDP Strategies on Food Security (2013-2016)

1. Raise productivity and incomes of agriculture and fishery-based households and enterprises

• Diversify production

• Complete the delineation of municipal waters

• Improve rural infra and facilities

• Develop markets and sharpen regulatory competency

• Strengthen RD&E

• Improve sector’s credit access

• Secure food availability and accessibility

PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT EFFORTSPDP Strategies on Food Security (2013-2016)

2. Increase investments and employment across and efficient value chain

• Create job opportunities

• Localize agricultural promotion and development

• Promote value-adding

• Promote vertical and horizontal integration

• Strengthen country’s agricultural exports

• Expand investments in aquaculture and other food production areas

3. Transform ARBs into viable entrepreneurs

PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT EFFORTSPDP Strategies on Nutrition Security (2013-2016)

1. Reduce disparities in nutrition by focusing on population groups and areas highly affected by or at risk of malnutrition

2. Devote more resources to interventions with a greater impact on undernutrition among children under–five

3. Revive, identify, adopt, and propagate good practices and models for nutrition improvement

4. Increase food supply at the community level through food production programs and development and the maintenance of facilities

5. Improve access to food by generating employment and building capacities for higher employability

6. Protect the vulnerable from food insecurity through food-based safety nets, e.g. direct distribution of rice, emergency employment

7. Strengthen and nurture interagency structures for integrated and coordinated implementation of nutrition and related services at national and local levels

RIGHT TO FOOD:Philippines

ARSENIO M. BALISACANSecretary of Socioeconomic Planning

Visit of UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to FoodDepartment of Agriculture

20 February 2014