A world free of hunger and poverty by 2030, the first two major objectives of the new sustainable development goals (SDGs), can become a reality if social protection programmes are extended to the planet’s poor, according to a new UN report.
The State of Food and Agriculture 2015 (SOFA) finds that schemes such as cash transfers, school feeding and public works programmes have the potential to lift hundreds of millions out of the poverty trap, in part by providing the means for greater entrepreneurial activity.
SOFA, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 13 October, reports that in 2013 social protection programmes contributed to 150 million people escaping the scourge of extreme poverty, while allowing households to increase consumption and add more variety to the food they eat.
And far from creating a dependency culture, research points to the impact of social protection, including transfers of cash, in encouraging work activities, forward-thinking and risk-management, especially in agriculture-based rural communities, and generally stimulating the local economy.
But while programmes have expanded rapidly over the past two decades, only about a third of the world’s poorest people are covered by social assistance programmes. Coverage rates dip even lower in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, regions with the highest incidence of extreme poverty.
Without protection, many poor and vulnerable people are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, in which hunger, illness and lack of education perpetuate poverty for future generations.
International recognition that social protection must be made an integral part of any plan to end poverty and hunger has come in the shape of the SDGs, adopted by world leaders on 25 September 2015. Target 1.3, under the poverty goal, states implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
As nations around the world begin to translate the global goals into domestic objectives, the UN Rome agencies, FAO, IFAD and WFP, have detailed the kind of investments needed to defeat world poverty and hunger once and for all. Achieving Zero Hunger, first published in July 2015, underscores the importance of social protection programmes, which combined with pro-poor, largely agricultural, investment, is considered the best way for countries to achieve the top two goals of the newly adopted 2030 agenda. The report estimates that an additional investment of $265bn per year between 2016 and 2030 is the price to pay to rid the world of poverty and hunger.
Here are eight key findings of The State of Food and Agriculture 2015…
Escaping the poverty trap
Social protection programmes reduce poverty and food insecurity. Social protection contributes to higher incomes and food security not only by ensuring increases in consumption, but by enhancing a household’s ability to produce food and augment income.
Women hold the key
Maternal and child malnutrition perpetuate poverty from generation to generation. Gender-sensitive programmes reduce women’s time constraints, strengthen their control over income, and enhance maternal and child welfare.
Scoring the global goals
Social protection enhances nutrition, health and education, with implications for future productivity, employability, incomes and well-being. Programmes that provide regular and predictable transfers promote savings and investment in both farm and non-farm activities.
Opportunity not dependency
Social protection means greater choice, and many poor people shift time previously dedicated to casual agricultural wage employment of last resort to own-farm work or non-agricultural employment. It strengthens livelihoods instead of fostering dependency.
Flourishing local economies
Public works programmes can provide important infrastructure and community assets, contributing directly to the local economy. Cash transfers increase the purchasing power of households, who demand goods and services in the local economy.
A combination of investments
Social protection, alone, is not enough to move people out of poverty. Aligning social protection and agricultural programmes is likely to be more effective in helping poor households move out of poverty over the long term.
Rural growth and diversity
As the majority of the rural poor depend largely on agriculture, agricultural interventions can overcome structural supply-side bottlenecks that hold back growth. Balancing public expenditure on agriculture and social protection programmes in support of each other serves to strengthen agricultural and rural development as well.
Vision and commitment
A national vision is needed of how agriculture and social protection can gradually move people out of poverty and hunger. National vision and commitment, supported by permanent domestic resource mobilisation, must support coordinated action at the national and subnational levels.
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