“Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2012” Connects Countries with Concrete Recommendations for Improved Nutrition

This week marked the publication of the fifth annual Right to Food and Nutrition Watch (RTFN Watch), a report delineating several of the root causes of hunger and malnutrition for millions of individuals globally. Assembled by 15 civil society organizations and their partners, the report is intended to provide activists, media and scholars with a platform for promoting, advocating and lobbying for food and nutrition rights.

According to the report, chief among the causes of hunger and malnutrition worldwide is the issue of ineffective policies surrounding food security and agricultural development. Outlined in the RTFN Watch are case studies from one country on each continent that display the correlation between ineffective legal structures and violated rights to food and nutrition. As a solution to these issues, civil society representatives argue for citizen action, social movement and redirection of control from companies to civilians. The report calls the 2009 reform of the Committee on World Food Security a key step toward achieving this goal and enabling the solutions described in the RTFN Watch to become a reality.