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Introduction

A: Introduction to the committee:

Since 16th of October 1945, Food and Agricultural Organization of United Nations(FAO)

has been taking actions upon providing healthy and accessible food for people in need all

across the world; raising awareness on hunger, diseases that are caused by the consumption of

low-quality foods, famines, food insecurity, malnutrition and many other nourishment issues

that affect someone’s health. The aim of the organization is to end global hunger that currently

820 million suffer from by actions such as providing programs to encourage and fund local

farmers or agricultural workers to produce non-artificial goods to increase the food quality for

more affordable and healthy nutrition’s and eradicate rural poverty. The association currently

has 176 active member nations and as FAO states they are pledged into three main arms: “to

raise the levels of nutrition and the standards of living of their peoples; to improve the production

and distribution of all food and agricultural products; to improve the condition of the rural

population.”

In conclusion, delegates should not belittle the importance of the committee they will

participate in and the organization’s crises it fights against in order to maintain a fruitful

debate and write a detailed, favourable and beneficial resolution.

Agenda Item 1: Food Famine, Insecurity, and Malnutrition (with a

special focus on SDG: 2

B: Introduction to the topic:

Food insecurity, famine and nutrition are all global crisis’ that are yet to be eradicated

despite all the programs, funds and organizations that were established with the aim of solving

the issue. It is a human right to be able to access adequate food within your own territory since

it is impossible for someone to live a free and healthy life, develop a sustainable future for

themselves or their community or even survive without it. Approximately 795 million people

are forced to live a life where they either can’t afford food that have high levels of protein,

carbohydrate, minerals or any other matter that is beneficial to someone’s body or beyond that

any edible subject that is clean, healthy and affordable. This is an alarming number considering

this indicates that one out of nine people are not able to lead a healthy active life due to lack of

food, or access to food. While areas such as South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (especially The

Horn of Africa) are seen as the priority locations to eradicate hunger, it is a fact that the issue of

non-accessibility to food is all across the world. Bearing in mind there

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are countless amounts of catastrophic consequences surrounding the issue such as diseases,

corruption, poverty etc. so our distinguished delegates should consider the not only medical

but also political, moral, economical and social outcomes of this human rights crisis. Because

we need to know every solid perspective a crisis can have in order to take action and not lead

the already incredibly, almost inconceivable and complex condition into something irreversible

and pervasive.

Definition of Key Terms

Food insecurity: The disruption of eating habit and patterns or the reduction of the

consumed foods due to lack of money, sources and access to specific associations that provide

healthy and adequate food. Hunger is not a mandatory consequence of food insecurity but in

some cases it is proven that it may lead to such occasions. According to the United States

Department of Agriculture (USDA) there are two specific separated categories when it comes

to food insecurity: “Low food security” being defined as the eradication of desire, quality and

variety in nourishment while the decreasing of the food intake being none or at a level where it

isn’t necessary to diagnose as a considerable condition. While in “very low food security” the

diminishment is brazen and there is a disorder in the eating pattern.

Famine: Extreme stages of hunger that a significant segment of a country or regions

population experience where severe malnutrition, diseases and death are mostly due to the

lack of food.

Malnutrition: The dysfunction, imbalance and disorder of food consumption. It covers two

main groups of conditions and each having varieties of different illness or symptoms within

themselves. While wasting (low weight for height), stunting (low weight for age), deficiency of

micronutrients such as vitamins/minerals and being underweight are categorized under

“undernutrition”; on the opposite side of the scale there is obesity and non-communicable

diseases such as strokes, diabetes and cancer.

SDG 2(Sustainable Development Goals, Goal 2: Zero Hunger): The second goal out of the

17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Its main aim is to not only prevent but put

an end to global hunger by: ensuring safe, nutritious and sufficient access that everyone

(specifically citizens of countries with the highest levels of food famine victims) increasing

investments through international NGOs and cooperation’s to rearrange the reproduction

capacity of local or rural agricultural associations in developing countries, etc. with the funding

of UN.

“A profound change of the global food and agriculture system is needed if we are to nourish the

821 million people who are hungry today and the additional 2 billion people expected to be

undernourished by 2050. Investments in agriculture are crucial to increasing the capacity for

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agricultural productivity and sustainable food production systems are necessary to help alleviate

the perils of hunger.” ,UN SDG: 2

United Nations World Food Programme: The food-assistance leg of the United Nations. And it is the world’s biggest humanitarian organization that has its main aim, work and action on global hunger, organizing logistics in case of a humanitarian emergency and producing food security.

General Overview

There are approximately 800 million of victims across the world that are forced to be exposed

to severe levels of hunger. Like many other crisis’ United Nations covers this issue has political,

economical, mental and medical consequences. So valuing each one of these categories and

their sub-categories equally is the only way to have a possible solution.

Such as, for the first time in the past six years, South Sudan declared that 100.000 of their

citizens were facing starvation. The same example can be given to Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen

where a total of 20 million people are in the edge of being in the same situation as South Sudan

due to the lack of food and water for someone to survive. Since UN Children’s Agency stated

that the end of the war in Yemen will not reduce the starvation of the country, WFP announced

its emergency operations in Yemen in order to: procure food assistance to the 7 million people

who are classified as severely food insecure, conduce fertile breastfeeding to mothers and

pregnant woman with specialized nutrition and provide nutrition backup for the elimination

and prevention of malnutrition among 2.2 million children. After the decline of famine starting

from the 16th to 17th century, it wasn’t until 2017 that the constant discussion upon starvation

was reconsidered again and agreed on that the decline of starvation is fact, but the numbers

are still at a level where it is irremissible. Since capitalist landowners paid their workers with

money rather than other sources and forced their workers to commercialize their activities

due to high taxes, they increased the commercialization of rural society; therefore the need for

sources were decreasing during the 16th century and beyond.

Day by day food famine is having a salient resurgence. So in occasions where having a slight

access to food is a privilege, life-long illnesses, diseases and deaths are inevitable,

Famine, food insecurity and malnutrition do not only cover humanitarian organizations,

The answer for “why” famines still maintain their presence depends from region to region.

Even though a country’s geographical, political and geopolitical placement can be a factor of its

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existence but on most cases the reasons are the developed countries and their overexploitation

of the natural habitats.

Deeply conscious that lack of money isn’t the only reason why millions of people have to

face food insecurity on a daily basis. Employment, race, ethnicity, income, and the social status

of an individual or community are just some examples of social, mental, economical and

political aspects that lead to the inaccessibility to adequate sustenance. For a possible solution,

the target audience to raise awareness shouldn’t just people with less than average income or a

citizen of a LEDC country but in actual reality, as many researches show any minority in a

certain demographic is more likely to face the crisis compared to an individual with

economical, social and political privileges. Consequently the effects of famine aren’t limited by

health dysfunctions, malnutrition and diseases. Famines do have a broader impact on society.

The increasing of prostitution, criminal practices, cannibalism, infanticide and child

abandonment are few examples of the inhuman outcomes.

Women play a key role in solving the crisis since on most cases due extreme sexism and

gender roles women don’t get the opportunity or even chance to learn, educate or work in an

agricultural fields. Empowering women to break these rules and restrictions and integrating

them into working and earning money would double the average family income, double the

food a household could afford. The protection of women while encouraging is mandatory due

to the high levels of crimes projected against women in working areas.

Due to weakened immune systems of people with low nutriment intake, as WHO reports,

“Between starvation and death, there is nearly always disease.” 20% of population faces

extreme food shortages with limited ability to cope; some of the reasons being lack of safe food

and water, poor sanitation, lack of access to basic health equipments, collapse of preventive

public health measures such as immunization and vector control and overcrowding. With the

combination of these circumstances it is inevitable to find someone who doesn’t carry a

communicable disease. Acute malnutrition rates exceed 30% for children under 5 while 2 out

of 10 000 people, or 4 out of 10 000 children loses their lives each day since the limited ability

to cope usually affects children the most due to the body’s being not developed enough to

handle such diseases.

Ever since Thomas Malthus’s Essay on Population in 1798, there’s been a popular ideology

that famines are nature’s corrective to over-population, some kind of a cleansing. Encouraging

a population control over a specific group of people who are already dealing with daily

pressure to survive or feed their families is impossible. It is one of the many “solutions” people

from developed countries introduce to media out of just politically thinking. Technically

controlling the birth rate of a society where everyone’s born into hunger is, reasonable. But

when it comes to practice it is crucial to expect people in need to restrict their lives and add

more layers of captivity to a marginalized community. No one can punish someone because of

having more kids than the average since the family wouldn’t have anything to pay off the

“crime” or give back to the government. The one who needs to take action is the member states

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of United Nations and the approach to a sustainable solution should be well organized and

well-funded, not an unethical punishment to the already oppressed.

“The number and proportion of hungry people in the world are declining as the global economy

recovers and food prices remain below their peak levels, but hunger remains higher than before

the food price and economic crises, making it more difficult to meet the internationally agreed

hunger-reduction targets.”, FAO

“Together with the other goals set out here, we can end hunger by 2030.”, SDG: 2

Timeline of Events

1845-1849

The worst famine of 19th century’s Europe, the Great Famine of Ireland was

caused by a disease called by “late blight” which destroyed leaves and edible

roots of potatoes.

September 2,

1990

The Entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted

in 1989, comprises articles upon the stipulations access to adequate food for

children as it mentions on the 27thArticle by: "the right of every child to a

standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and

social development”, the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for

the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development",

May 3, 2008

Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006, the Convention on the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities provides for the right to adequate food in its article 28

"the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living for

themselves and their families, including adequate food".

May 30, 2015 Dhaka Declaration of the Conference on the Right to Food in South Asia brought over

two thousand representatives of civil society, NGOs, international organizations and

governments from South Asia (Pakistan, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh)

and offered to take actions on right to consume quality food and food sovereignty for a

developed, sustainable future.

February 23,

2017

To raise emergency aid for the millions of people who are threatened by a

possible famine in the Lake Chad region, UN aid agencies and funding countries

gathered in Oslo for a two-day meeting.

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Agenda Item 2: Enhancing Youth Employment in Agriculture

Introduction to the topic:

Almost 88 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion youth live in developing countries. Globally,

young people account for approximately 24 percent of the working poor and this dynamic is

particularly pronounced in Africa, where over 70 percent of youth subsist on US$2 per day or

less. Although the world’s youth population is expected to grow, employment and

entrepreneurial opportunities for young women and men remain limited – particularly for

those living in economically stagnant rural areas of developing countries.

The majority of rural youth are employed in the informal economy as contributing family

workers, subsistence farmers, home-based micro-entrepreneurs or unskilled workers. They

typically earn low wages, are employed under casual or seasonal work arrangements and face

unsafe, often exploitive working conditions that compel many to migrate to urban areas. Re-

engaging youth in agriculture requires addressing the numerous constraints that they face

when trying to earn a livelihood. Among others, they include insufficient access to skills

development and education; limited access to resources such as land; and low levels of

involvement in decision-making processes. Rural youth are also typically excluded from those

institutions that provide access to financial services – such as credit, savings and insurance –

which further hinders their ability to participate in the sector.

Definition of Key Terms

Migration: The movement of persons from one country or locality to another.

Rural Youth: Rural youth is “a person who has reached the age of 10 but has not reached the

age of 21 and resides in a rural area or any city or town with a population of 50,000 or fewer

people.”

Greening: The process of becoming more active about protecting the environment:

Insurance: An agreement in which you pay company money and they pay your costs if you

have an accident, injury, etc.

Sustainable: Causing little or no damage to the environment and therefore able to continue

for a long time:

Micro Entrepreneur: One who operates a microenterprise; a small-scale entrepreneur.*

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*The definition of an entrepreneur is a person who takes an idea, product or service and does

whatever is necessary to introduce it to the marketplace where it can produce revenue.

General Overview

Young people are the present and future of global food and nutrition security. Yet around

the world, just a few young people see opportunities for growth in countryside areas and the

agriculture sector. While youth employment is high on the global policy agenda, many

countries struggle to identify practical solutions to encourage and facilitate youth participation

in the rural economy and to define specific national budget allocations.

To begin with, this module provides an overview of the main challenges faced by young

people in agriculture and FAO's approach to improve decent employment prospects for rural

youth. It then brings together materials to guide policy makers and development practitioners

in identifying adequate solutions with potential for up-scale. In particular, the module focuses

on tailor-made educational and vocational training programmes, such as the Junior Farmer

Field and Life Schools (JFFLS) methodology, which can provide young women and men with

the skills and insights needed to engage in agriculture and innovative sustainable practices.

Investment in agriculture, FAO's technical cooperation department hosts an Investment

Centre that promotes greater investment in agriculture and rural development by helping

developing countries identify and formulate sustainable agricultural policies, programmes and

projects. It mobilizes funding from multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, regional

development banks and international funds as well as FAO resources.

Following the World Food Summit, the Alliance was initially created in 2002 as the ‘International Alliance Against Hunger (IAAH)’ to strengthen and coordinate national efforts in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. The mission of the Alliance originates from the first and eight UN Millennium Development Goals; reducing the number of people that suffer from hunger in half by 2015 (preceded by the “Rome Declaration” in 1996) and developing a global partnership for development. The Alliance was founded by the Rome-based food agencies – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UN World Food Programme (WFP), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), – and Bioversity International. AAHM connects top-down and bottom- up anti-hunger development initiatives, linking governments, UN organizations, and NGOs together in order to increase effectiveness through unity

The role of FAO on this topic is, to raise awareness and develop a strong enabling

environment in which young people can thrive and seize current and future decent rural

employment opportunities. FAO tries to make a better world for the youth, so they can live in

peace in the future. They try to make sure that they are empowering young men and women.

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“Main challenges faced by young people in agriculture

While the world’s youth population is expected to grow, employment and entrepreneurial

opportunities for youth – particularly those living in economically stagnant rural areas of

developing countries – remain limited, poorly remunerated and of poor quality. Via surveys and

global fora, six main challenges have been identified which negatively affect the employment

prospects of the rural youth in the agricultural sector:

1) Youth’s insufficient access to knowledge, information and education which limits their

productivity and the acquisition of skills.

2) Youth’s limited access to land, due to the lack of resources to acquire or lease it, or inheritance

laws and customs which make the transfer of land to young women problematic.

3) Inadequate access to financial services, as most financial service providers are reluctant to

offer their services to youth due to their frequent lack of collateral and financial literacy.

4) Difficult access for young people to green jobs, due to their lack of skills to obtain new jobs in

the green economy (e.g. energy production from renewable sources) or to participate in the

"greening" of existing jobs (e.g. environmentally friendly food production such as organic

farming, composting, agroforestry).

5) Young people’s limited access to markets, which is becoming even more difficult due to the

growing international influence of supermarkets and the rigorous standards of their supply

chains. This limited access to markets is also due to the limited youth inclusion in the private

sector and their limited ability in becoming structurally organized into their own producers’

organizations or being included in mixed ones. Additionally, young women in developing

countries face further constraints in accessing markets, due in part to the fact that their freedom

of movement is sometimes limited by cultural norms.

6) Youth’s limited inclusion in social and policy dialogue. Too often young people’s representatives

are not invited in countries’ policy processes, and so their complex and multifaceted needs are not

met.

Addressing these six principal challenges is pivotal to increasing youth’s inclusion and

involvement in the agricultural sector, and ultimately addressing the significant untapped

potential of this sizeable and growing demographic dividend. In developing countries in

particular, facilitating the youth cohort’s participation in agriculture has the potential to drive

widespread rural poverty reduction among youth and adults alike while rejuvenating an aging

sector.”

The role of FAO:

Through policy assistance and awareness-raising, FAO seeks to develop a strong enabling

environment in which young people can thrive and seize current and future decent rural

employment opportunities. In particular, FAO works to:

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Develop innovative and field-tested approaches that address the constraints rural youth face in

accessing decent work. For example, FAO’s private and public partnership model for youth

employment in agriculture is designed to strengthen young people’s skills using FAO’s Junior

Farmer Field and Life Schools methodology; it facilitates their access to land, credit and markets;

and enhances their ability to partake in policy debates relevant to their well-being.

Support governments in the design and implementation of strategies that more effectively target

rural youth. FAO also works with governments to integrate youth issues into national agricultural

investment plans (NAIPs). In Nigeria, for instance, it supported the design of an investment plan

for the National Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP).

Generate more country-specific research to advise stakeholders about employment conditions and

opportunities in their respective countries. This can include analyses of a given country’s labour

market conditions, youth employment situation and untapped opportunities for rural

employment generation.

Advocate and further rural youth needs at global level. For instance, FAO is a member of the

United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD). The aim of IANYD is to

increase the effectiveness of UN work in youth development, including youth employment, by

strengthening collaboration and exchange among all relevant UN entities and other partners.”

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Timeline of Events

Bibliography

1961

FAO and the World Health Organization created the Codex Alimentarius

Commission in 1961 to develop food standards, guidelines and texts such as

codes of practice under the Joint FAO/ WHO Food Standards Programme.

The main aims of the programme are protecting consumer health, ensuring

fair trade and promoting co-ordination of all food standards work

undertaken by intergovernmental and non-governmental organization.

1963

The WFP was formally established by the FAO and the United Nations

General Assembly on a three-year experimental basis.

1994

FAO established an Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary

Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases in 1994, focusing on the control of

diseases like rinderpest, foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu by helping

governments coordinate their responses. One key element is the Global

Rinderpest Eradication Programme, which has advanced to a stage where

large tracts of Asia and Africa have now been free of the cattle disease

rinderpest for an extended period of time.

December

2007

FAO launched its Initiative on Soaring Food Prices to help small producers

raise their output and earn more. Under the initiative, FAO contributed to

the work of the UN High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Crisis, which

produced the Comprehensive Framework for Action. FAO has carried out

projects in over 25 countries and inter-agency missions in nearly 60, scaled

up its monitoring through the Global Information and Early Warning

System on Food and Agriculture, provided policy advice to governments

while supporting their efforts to increase food production, and advocated

for more investment in agriculture.

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aW5l

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