Manila: A visiting UN official urged the Philippines to develop a clear food security policy as she pointed out that the widening economic gap between rural and urban parts of the country is increasing inequality.
Hilal Elver, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, said the Philippines needs to improve access to sufficient and nutritious food if it is to effectively defeat poverty.
Elver, who is from Turkey, said while the country has shown impressive economic growth, these developments have failed to benefit the poor, especially in the rural areas, where there are still four million children suffering from stunted growth because of lack of nutrition.
“While the Filipino economy has shown impressive growth in recent years, access to adequate and nutritious food continues to be a challenge across most of the country both in terms of under and over nutrition,” she said.
The human rights expert cautioned that “the effects of under-nutrition are irreversible, and lack of access to adequate and nutritious food is having a detrimental effect on future generations in the Philippines and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
“While some parts of the country are being transformed, high levels of poverty remain in the country and is becoming entrenched not only in rural areas but also in urban centres as the income gap widens and inequality increases,” Elver noted, citing findings of a recent fact-finding mission undertaken by her office.
Challenges
The rights expert also expressed serious concern about smallholder farmers, many of whom currently face increasing challenges that undermine agricultural production, including deforestation, climate change and an ever expanding monoculture for export and large corporations.
“Landless farmers are particularly vulnerable as they await the passing of a Bill on agrarian reform, which has been pending for some 25 years,” she said as she referred to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law.
She said that while the bill deserves praise, there are concerns suggesting that huge tracts of land remain in the possession of a few.
“The Government of the Philippines has declared its commitment to developing a national framework for ensuring the right to adequate food and I commend the efforts made to date to develop policies to ensure food security,” the Special Rapporteur said. “The passing of the pending Right to Adequate Food Bill should be considered as a matter of priority.”
