David Nabarro discusses food and nutrition security on BBC World News

SUN Movement Coordinator, Dr. David Nabarro was interviewed on BBC World News Service 29 November, to discuss issues of food and nutrition security – with an emphasis the central role of women in developing long-term, sustainable solutions.

BBC: Food insecurity is a reality of daily life for millions of Africans. And it’s not just Africans who face food insecurity – around the world it’s said that 1 in 8 people go hungry every day. Now that’s a challenge facing the UN Special Representative for Food Security and Nutrition, Dr. David Nabarro, who joins us now live.

Thank you very much Dr. Nabarro for your time. I think the figure is something like 33 out of the 50 countries that have a dire case of food insecurity or nutrition problems – those 33 are found in Africa; why is that?

DN: Well if we look at the overall situation, there is actually enough food in the world to go around, and to enable everybody to have a full diet. But, unfortunately, the way in which food systems work right now is not enabling, as you say, 1 in 8 to get the food they need. And the challenge in terms of countries is very great in Africa. Globally, we find in all continents, particularly in Asia, there is a very, very significant number of people who just don’t get enough to eat all year round and the nutritional consequences for as many as one third of all children are really serious.

BBC: You talk about food systems, please explain more, because the great irony is that generally in Africa there is an agricultural based society across the 54 states, there’s lots of land to be cultivated, and it isn’t being.

DN: Well firstly, let’s be clear that the majority of Africans do earn their living and produce their food and spend most of their time in agriculture. But it’s not working as efficiently and effectively as it could. This is well understood by African leaders, so most of them are invested heavily in getting agriculture to work better. But then once the food is produced, it’s not getting to the markets where people need it – and when it does get to those markets, it’s not available all year round. I think many of your listeners will be very familiar with that problem – that in certain months of the year, they can get all the food that they need from local markets and in other months it’s very difficult, you might get a few grains or pulses, but that’s about it.

And when it comes to small children, my particular area of focus today – particularly from the start of pregnancy through to the second birthday – the nutritional needs are really very important. And if these kids can’t get the food they need, then what happens is they get undernourished, and if they are undernourished by the age of two that’s a handicap for life – so that’s my focus.

BBC: You talk about cycles of food provision, you talk about children, and this raises the question of what we are seeing in the Sahel – where there is what we call a chronic hunger crisis and it happens periodically every year around this time. How are you addressing that situation, if at all?

DN: Well the most important thing to say is that governments all over Africa are giving food security, nutrition security very much higher priority than ever before. They’ve got comprehensive plans, they’ve been doing it for the last 10 years, but in the most recent last 2 or 3 years, we’ve seen a real upsurge in the efficiency of agriculture production and also the systems for enabling people to access food. In the Sahel the problem is particularly serious. Your listeners don’t need me to tell you that as a result of changing climate you’ve got drought and then floods occurring much more frequently than ever before. What we are seeing for example in Niger is the President has adopted an extraordinary program,l’initiative 3 N or les Nigériens nourrissent les Nigériens [the people of Niger feed the people of Niger], that program is changing the way in which agriculture and food systems work. And we are seeing a much greater emphasis on resilience. And also in Niger the levels of mortality associated with undernutrition have reduced because of excellent work by ministries and also NGOs to reduce suffering and undernutrition.

BBC: Dr. Nabarro, final question, let’s throw forward solutions that could be offered. There is an emphasis on the role that women and mothers can play. Explain to me why that is.

DN: There are really three reasons why children get undernourished. Firstly, there is not the right kind of nutrients in their diet. Secondly, they get sick often, and it’s difficult for them to get enough food to eat. Thirdly, their mothers do not have the time or the opportunity to give them the food they need because they have got so many other jobs on. If ways could be found to enable women to be able to breastfeed fully, to be able to provide the necessary foods that their young children need for a good start in life, then most of the problems that we are discussing right now would be greatly reduced. So the emphasis in scaling up nutrition, which will be a big issue in 2013 all over the world, is on empowering women so that children can have a better start to life and then be better intellectually developed, stronger physically and also have a healthy adulthood.

Listen to the 29 November interview via BBC World News Service.