JOHUD is a
leading member of the Jordanian Alliance
Against Hunger (JAAH) which brings together organisations (national and
international) united with a common aim: to end hunger in Jordan. JAAH was established in 2004, the first Arab region chapter of the International Alliance Against Hunger (IAH)
In 2007, supported by IAH, the Jordanian Alliance Against Hunger organized the Regional
Forum to Promote National Alliances Against Hunger in the Near East Region.
This was the first conference in the region to bring together representatives
of government, the private sector, and all aspects of civil society in order to
explore ways to work together to end hunger.
The Forum was hosted by the Jordanian Alliance's
chair, Her Royal Highness Princess Basma bint Talal. The Forum took place in Amman, Jordan,
in December 2007, with representatives from throughout the Near
East. Delegations came from Morocco,
Egypt, Lebanon, Syria,
Iraq, Yemen, the Palestinian Authority, Brazil, the United States and elsewhere
The global food security crisis
By their actions, they people who attended the conference and subsequent events demonstrate their
belief that in a world of extraordinary wealth creation and accumulation, it is unacceptable that more than half a million people, many of them children, suffer from hunger.
Given the context of rising prices of fuel and food, the situation of regional insecurity, and the limited employment opportunities for the poor, then the ris of food insecurity is growing daily.
Hunger itself
also leads to poverty - because hungry people suffer from poor health, low levels of energy, and even
mental impairment, hunger can lead to even greater poverty by reducing people's
ability to work. The problem is most acute amongst children - those born
into hunger fail to develop the skills and capacities to escape their poverty.
Solving the
problem of child hunger is the key to ending hunger. If we can all work
together to give today's children the chance to reach their full potential in
adulthood and prepare them better as parents, we can actually break the
inter-generational cycle of hunger and poverty.
Since 1999, the Government of Jordan has tackled the challenge of child
hunger in practical ways, especially through the School Nutrition Programme
(SNP) which aims to boost the health of
impoverished students suffering from severe micronutrient deficiencies.
Recently, through the actions of the Jordanian
Alliance Against Hunger (JAAH) - and through mobilization of funds raised
from alliances members, the government
has been able to expand the School Nutrition Programme. By 2008, all first to sixth grade school children
in the country will be covered by the programme. Jordan is grateful for the support
that enables these children to receive a better start in life.
At the same time, it is essential to address the root causes of poverty
- and these do not necessarily lie within the borders of our own country. Hunger and poverty in Jordan are also
often the result of political, social and economic instability within the
region, which have resulted in a culture of conflict and violence. It is the obligation of all the citizens of
every country to urge their governments to create a global culture of
peace.
Hunger is also the result of distortions in the global trading system
which tend to benefit the richer nations and often exclude poorer rural
producers from benefits of this trade.
In this respect, initiatives that promote trade justice and fair trade help raise awareness of the importance of the ethical element in markets and distribution. The World Food Programme - one of the
members of the JAAH - says that developed
countries continue to spend more money on subsidising farmers than they do to
help starving children. In the longer term, only through addressing global
policies on trade will we tackle the root of the causes of hunger.
This is not a
issue of ‘rich countries' helping ‘poor countries'. In every country, rich or poor, there are people who are hungry. In
every country of the world there is a growing segment of the population that is
excluded from the benefits of social, economic and cultural development.
Through the work
of the JAAH we can raise awareness of the urgency of the problem and also the
fact that there ARE solutions. In Jordan, our
government and the other partners have demonstrated a commitment to tackle the
issue. We call on global partners to
also show the same political commitment to address the underlying causes of
hunger.
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