UNU-WIDER Presentation of the WIDER study on Hunger and Food Security

The launch of two volumes, Food Security: Indicators, Measurement, and the Impact of Trade Openness (Oxford University Press, UNU-WIDER Studies in Development Economics: ISBN 9780199236558), and Food Insecurity, Vulnerability and Human Rights Failure (Palgrave Macmillan, Studies in Development Economics and Policy: ISBN 9780230553576), both edited by Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis, Shabd S. Acharya and Benjamin Davis.

World hunger is prevalent yet receives relatively less attention compared to poverty. The MDGs have taken a step to address this with the resolution of halving the number of starving people in the world by 2015. A substantial and sustainable reduction in hunger will also greatly improve the chances of meeting the MDGs related to poverty reduction, education, child mortality, maternal health, and disease. Hunger though is not a straightforward problem of producing enough to feed the world’s population; it has many cross-cutting dimensions. This study addresses a combination of economic, social, and political perspectives, drawing upon academic research of the economic factors and the experiences of international organizations and civil society.

See also UNU Policy Brief 1/2008 ‘Can We Eradicate Hunger?’ by Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis.

"When the history of our times is written, unarguably one of its greatest crimes would be that despite unprecedented plenty, millions of our children still have to sleep hungry. The essays in this volume suggest with rigour and compassion that it does not have to be this way." — Harsh Mander, Special Commissioner to the Supreme Court of India in the Writ Petition (Civil) No. 196 filed before the Supreme Court on 2001, by the People’s Union for Civil Liberty (PUCL), Rajasthan known as the ‘right to food’ case.