Poverty rates were halved between 1990 and 2010, but 1.2 billion people still live in extreme poverty and one in eight people are still hungry.
World Food Day on 16 October highlights the need to ensure that all people have physical and economic access at all times to enough nutritious, safe food to lead healthy and active lives.
The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Thursday 16 October is an opportunity to acknowledge the struggle of people living in poverty, a chance for them to make their concerns heard, and for the community to recognise and support poor people in their fight against poverty.
Poverty and food security are intricately interlinked. Without an income or resources to grow food people are likely to become ill and to be unable to work to produce food or earn an income.
Poverty and food security were linked in Millennium Development Goal 1 – eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. The target of reducing extreme poverty rates by half was met by 2000 and the hunger reduction target is within reach by 2015. But there is still more to be done to make the world a fairer place for all.
What will your school do to acknowledge the 1.2 billion people who are food insecure?
Going further-
Caritas Australia Food security and sustainable agriculture
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Global education website Food security
Action Make poverty history
TED talk Jessica Jackley, the co-founder of Kiva.org talks about how her attitude to poverty changed — and how her work with microloans has brought new power to people who live on a few dollars a day. Jessica Jackley on poverty
TED talk Esther Duflo takes economics out of the lab and into the field to discover the causes of poverty and means to eradicate it.
Esther Duflo on poverty
Practical Action is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) that uses technology to challenge poverty in developing countries Practical Action
Oxfam Climate change poverty and women
Young Lives – an international study of childhood poverty Young Lives
World Vision – What is Poverty? A Day in the Life of Lucy
World Vision – What is Poverty? Film Clip Lucy’s film clip