Food, as a basic human right, helps citizens and courts hold governments accountable for violations or victimisation that results in hunger, said Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.

Addressing reporters last week, De Schutter submitted his final report to the General Assembly, after a five year mandate. The report is based on 11 country missions and spans submissions from states across all regions.

De Schutter dedicated the report to the “progress that right to food has made in the last ten years.” The progress is partly due to a shift in perception, he said.

“For many years hunger and malnutrition were seen as technical issues that could be addressed by increasing production, by improving trade, by the help of economists” and what governments came to realise in the early years of the past decade was “that the issue of accountability, of governance, combating discrimination” were “hugely important,” he said.

The special rapporteur’s report also includes right to food consultations in Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern and Southern Africa and West Africa. He cited a case where the South African government, in order to combat overfishing, allocated fishing quotas to big fishing groups, while entirely ignoring small fishers that depended on fishing for sustenance.

With the right to food as law, the court was able to intervene and push for a revised legislative framework with the interests of the small fishers in view.

Similarly, a high court in Kampala, Uganda, was able to secure compensation for over 2,000 small farmers illegally evicted from their farm for a German coffee company, De Schutter said.

According to the special rapporteur, another area that saw progress was the adoption of framework laws and national strategies. “This has been particularly important in Latin America under the leadership of Brazil and Guatemala” he said, which resulted in several countries in the region adopting laws and national action plans to implement the right.

In times of crisis, De Schutter said, governments in developing countries usually rushed to give cash transfers to the poor or put temporary programmes in place without long-standing sustainable solutions.

“Codifying as legal entitlements the benefits that otherwise people receive as hand-outs from governments is an essential safeguard against misuse of funds, against corruption,” he said.

 While identifying key areas where progress has been made, Schutter’s report to the General Assembly also makes recommendations for the full realisation of the right. This means that hunger, sometime in the future, may well be an issue of the past.

In a few decades, 65 to 70 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas, said Joan Clos, executive director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). “It is a huge transformation of life experience,” he added, highlighting the importance of increasing access to a range of services, including health, education and mobility.

However, services like mobility should be sustainable, Clos said, and added that sustainability should take into account the environment and also the economic sustainability of policies and programmes.

Speaking at press briefing Friday, commemorating World Habitat day, scheduled for October 7,  Clos reiterated the challenges and opportunities associated with rapid urbanization worldwide.

Clos spoke of specific problems faced by developing countries, where urban congestion meant that commuting a few miles could take up to several hours. Urban design is just as essential as transport systems in addressing this issue, he said.  “When we admire a good city, we admire the work of the human society…  There is no good city without good human design.”

The book Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities, which was launched during the press briefing, was produced by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, along with UN-Habitat and some 200 scientists from around the world.

Thomas Elmqvist, the scientific editor of the book, said it is the first global assessment exploring the link between rapid urbanization and its effects on biodiversity and ecosystems. By 2050, “a lot of prime agricultural land will be covered by buildings, roads and other infrastructure” said Elmqvist  pointing out that this will have an enormous global impact on food security.

Sharing a few findings, Elmqvist said 25 percent of the world’s protected areas are within 17 kilometers of an urban area. But this gap is set to reduce threatening global biodiversity patterns.

The book also emphasises opportunities said Elmqvist, and that 60 percent of the urban areas expected to be developed by 2030 is yet to be built. Future urban development can focus on improving and enhancing human health, food security, water security and efficient and sound climate change adaptation.

In response to a question about the link between climate change and hurricane Sandy which caused major devastation in New York City and its surrounding areas last year, Clos said the storm was improbable and could have been due to climate change. Both rapid urbanisation and climate change are set to trigger an increase in such events, he warned.

At a U.N. ceremony  Wednesday, the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F) presented the results of its work, which it claims has directly benefitted nine million people around the world. Created from a US$ 900 million donation from Spain in 2007, the MDG-F administers development programmes in over 50 countries through the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) and its worldwide network of agencies.

The ceremony highlighted the achievements of the MDG-F and showed what the donation from Spain, the largest by a single donor in the history of the U.N., has helped achieve across areas like gender equality, climate change and culture & development. Here is an in-depth IPS story on how the Fund helps boost food security in countries like Brazil, Peru, Vietnam and Ethiopia.

Some of the results presented at the event that was organised on the sidelines of the General Assembly was the improvement of nutrition among 1.67 million children and 800,000 mothers, job training for 190,00 youth and the active participation of 400,000 youth in peacebuilding and conflict-prevention activities.

These results have been obtained through about 130 programmes administered worldwide. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was at the ceremony and received thanks from some of the beneficiary countries as well as administrators of the UNDP.

While the Spanish economy has suffered a serious setback in recent years, Rajoy pointed out why the MDG-F was important and said, “We cannot afford distractions. Those who depend on us cannot afford them. What is at stake is the global welfare. We cannot consider development aid as an act of charity — it is a joint investment in a common future.”

A majority of the developing countries will fail to achieve the Millenium Development Goals by the 2015 deadline and there are many lessons to be learnt from the outcomes of the MDG-F programmes. “The MDG-F has been key in using an integrated response in the countries where we work,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, “The knowledge derived from these programmes is a very important contribution to the work of accelerating the progress of the Millennium Development Goals.”

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova, who was also present at the ceremony, said:

“Policies anchored in culture and development are more sustainable. The MDG Fund has shown the potential of culture to accelerate development.”

In Cambodia, for instance, 800 Khmer artisans were trained in skills like marketing and quality control, while in Ecuador, inclusion programmes were introduced to support minority groups discriminated because of their culture or ethnicity.

To reinforce the importance of supporting cultural development amidst other more obviously urgent issues such as hunger, a music video featuring artists from several countries around the world was aired to conclude the ceremony.

At a press conference Tuesday with Bolivian President Evo Morales, the denial of airspace to his presidential jet by several European countries in July this year (covered by IPS here) was foremost among the minds of many journalists .

However, Morales focused on how his government’s policies, frequently described as ‘leftist’, were helping fight poverty in the country. The rise in Bolivian export revenues, debt reduction and growing remittances have enabled an increase in expenditure on social programmes, which take the country closer to achieving its Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).

“People cannot be governed by bankers,” Morales said while speaking about increasing regulation of the private sector, including the banking industry in Bolivia. Stressing the importance of lending to the more vulnerable in his country, Morales stated, “The poor are more responsible than the bankers when it comes to paying back their loans.” The Bolivian President’s comments are relevant in the light of the new law introduced by his government last month which restrains profitability of the banking sector, while introducing new regulations that intend to improve consumer protection and create greater financial inclusion.

MI AGUA was among the several ongoing social welfare programmes mentioned by the President. Currently in its third phase, MI AGUA will provide potable water to over 80 percent of the population, Morales claimed. In the year 2000, the privatisation of water and subsequent 50 percent price hike in Cochabamba, Bolivia’s third largest city, led to large-scale protests across the Andean nation.

Despite increased expenditure and focus on the politically relevant and popular issue of water in Bolivia, the nation faces several challenges including recurring droughts in recent years that have been attributed to climate change. Increased access to drinking water was among the first Millenium Development Goals to be met in 2012, well ahead of its target.

Responding to U.S. President Barack Obama’s concerns about a nuclear crisis and the Syrian conflict,  Morales alluded to the role of the private defence industry based in the United States and other parts of the developed world. “Where do nuclear weapons come from? Where do chemical weapons come from?” he asked, criticising the backing of opposition and rebels in various countries during times of crisis, describing it as a strategy by the United States to confront defiant national leaders from within a country.

As anticipated, journalists at the conference posed questions on the denial of airspace by France, Spain, Portugal and Italy to the Bolivian President’s jet due to the rumoured presence of American whistleblower Edward Snowden onboard.

Morales made light of the issue by comparing it to a couple’s tiff (presumably between the United States and Bolivia), in which the European third-parties did not wish to intervene. While Morales did not specifically speak about intimidation in relation to the airspace controversy, he mentioned intimidation several times during his criticism of U.S. policies.

Despite its well-intentioned fight against global poverty, the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)  marginalizes  persons with disabilities.

As a result,  the challenges faced by over one billion individuals with disabilities, including the lack of access to education, employment and other resources, remain out of focus on the world stage.

However, the adoption in 2006 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=150) , which links disabilities to human rights and a more inclusive development agenda, offered hope to many concerned with the issue. A high-level meeting at the Generally Assembly Monday witnessed the release of an ‘outcome document’ (http://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/hlmdd/a_68_l.1.doc) which affirms the commitment of the participating nations towards the inclusion of the rights of persons with disabilities in the post-2015 development agenda.

Musician Stevie Wonder,  the current U.N.  Messenger of Peace who campaigns for greater awareness on disabilities, congratulated Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for making the rights of individuals with disabilities a priority among the many other issues that currently affect the world. As reflected in the 68th General Assembly schedule, discussions among world leaders this year include complex issues such as nuclear disarmament and sustainable development.

At the press conference, Wonder was joined by Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes, Chair of the Committee of Rights of Person with Disabilities and Ambassador Libran Cabactulan, Permanent Representative of the Philippines. Describing the adoption of an agreed outcome by the General Assembly as “a great historical moment”,  Reyes emphasised the additional risks faced by persons with disabilities during times of crisis such as natural disasters and conflicts, and also by disabled persons in indigenous communities and other disabled individuals such as women and children.
A career diplomat,  Cabactulan, highlighted the power of diplomacy in “making things possible”, and alluded to the intense behind-the-scenes negotiations and discussions that led to the outcome of the General Assembly meeting on disabilities. However, he pointed out that countries worldwide  had to continue to focus on the issue and that there was still a long way to go in ensuring greater inclusion.

.Wonder emphasised the same in his statement:  “I am celebrating in my heart, but I am looking forward to the victory, to the home-run, to the conclusion, where every single person throughout the world can live their lives independently knowing that the world is accessible to everyone.”