SAWTEE, in partnership with Oxfam and its global campaign GROW,
organised a regional consultation on “Food-related Legislation in South Asia” on
30-31 July 2013, in Kathmandu as a part of its ongoing regional programme
“Research, advocacy and capacity building on food-related legislation in South
Asia”. The major objective of the consultation was to disseminate the findings
of the country specific food-related legislation studies undertaken under the
programme in five South Asian countries, namely Bangladesh, India, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
During the two-day meeting, about 50 representatives from the
five South Asian countries discussed findings in the Regional Synthesis Report
on food-related legislation in each of the countries. Four categories of food
insecurity factors were discussed including production/productivity,
consumption/distribution, environment, and cooperation, along with solutions
that are in line with national, regional, and international goals. Food
security experts and policymakers from the five South Asian countries urged
their governments to enact a specialized and comprehensive law on rights to
food immediately in order to battle the region’s prevailing and chronic hunger
that left more than 304 million people going to bed hungry every day.
“South Asian governments are investing a lot in terms of direct
and indirect investment in food and agriculture. Many laws, rules, regulations,
policies, and administrative measures have been introduced but they are not
coherent and comprehensive,” said Bangladesh’s Information Minister and
Chairperson of All Party Parliamentary Group on Food, Agriculture and Rural
Development Hasanul Haq Inu. “Despite Nepal’s Interim Constitution that
guarantees food sovereignty, Pakistan’s Zero-Hunger Action Plan, Bangladesh’s
massive investment in social protection, or Sri Lanka’s constitutional change,
it is hard to see poor people have three meals everyday with existing legal loopholes
and many related issues missing,” he said, adding that the rights to food bill
in India could be an inspiration for other South Asian governments.
Lilian Mercado, Deputy Regional Director of Oxfam Asia, noted
that South Asia has experienced the second fastest rate of economic growth in
the world, enjoying an annual growth rate of six percent on average in the last
two decades. Yet poverty has gotten worse as inequality has risen and become
more severe. “Studies showed it could grow at the steady rate of around 5.5
percent in the next 25 years. But factors such as climate change, rising
inequality, food price hike, population growth, rapid urbanization as well as
competition for natural resources could hamper or reverse the progress. It
reflects a need for South Asian governments to transform their political
pledges on food security into immediate action,” she said. “The bottom line is
we must take into account people’s rights to food. It should be central to any
law related to food security. It must serve all, particularly women and
marginalized groups, even in times of crisis whether economic or emergency
given the region’s status as the world’s most vulnerable place to natural
disasters and climate change,” Mercado added.
“South Asia will have to face
some other daunting tasks that hinder positive change—coherence in policies,
coordination in enforcement, and most importantly, political will. All those laws the region have in the
past, though now outdated, were very good in those times, many still working
well now. Except they’re good and effective in the papers because they are
either not implemented or fully enforced,” said Dr. Ratnakar Adhikari, Chief
Executive Director, South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment
(SAWTEE). “The specialized and comprehensive rights-to-food law must have
clear-cut tools and measures to show strong political will. It’s well known
that South Asian countries perform poorly in this area so we can’t ignore this
any longer. The law must be implemented to be truly effective,” Dr Adhikari
said.
Participants urged the governments to come up with a
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP). The programme, which focuses on
land acquisition and distribution to help landless farmers, is aimed at
securing the availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability of foods.
Experts believed that it would lead to political commitment and active action
on food security-related legislation.
Also joining the discussion were Gagan Thapa, Member of
Committee on Natural Resources and Means of the Former Constituent Assembly of
Nepal; Honourable Buddika Pathirana, Member of Parliament of Sri Lanka; Chitra
Lekha Yadav, Deputy-speaker of Nepal’s Former House of Representatives; Dr Somsak
Pipoppinyo, Nepal Country Representative of Food and Agriculture Organization;
Dr Dinesh Chandra Devkota, former Vice-Chairman of National Planning Commission
of Nepal; and Hari Roka, Committee Member of Natural Resources, Financial
Rights and Revenue Sharing of Nepal’s Former Constituent Assembly.
