In the latest edition of Research Watch – the eTV/magazine from UNICEF’s Office of Research – global experts discuss how malnourishment, drought, rising food prices, migration, conflict and climate change can be stopped from escalating into full-scale nutritional crises and famine.
Averting Famine, Acting Early brings leading thinkers together in a studio Debate and through written commentaries, asking whether famine and nutrition crises are preventable, if so, how, and who, if anyone, is responsible.
Averting Famine, Acting Early includes discussion from the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter; the co-founder and Executive Director of Horn of Africa Relief, Fatima Jibrell; author of ‘Theories of Famine’ and ‘Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa’, Dr. Stephen Devereux; UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Elhadj As Sy; the ’Father of the Green Revolution in India‘, Professor M.S. Swaminathan; and Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy at Cornell University, Per Pinstrup-Andersen.
Combining vast knowledge and experience, they point to essential keys to end nutritional crises and famine, including: transformational technologies; establishing ‘ready-to-go, off-the-shelf interventions’; national social protection strategies; mechanisms to deal with food price volatility; stability and accountability; and finally, while early warning systems are much improved, it is argued that current famine scales don’t trigger a response before children become severely malnourished.