About
People-Centered Food Systems
Fostering & integrating human rights in food system policy & action
Who We Are
The People-Centered Food Systems is a consortium of three organizations: the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), and Rikolto.
The Consortium is building capacity and developing advocacy and accountability tools that better integrate human rights frameworks within food system policy and action to address constraints faced by rights holders.
The Consortium engages in Ethiopia, Honduras, Cambodia, and Uganda. Activities include country assessments, interactive consultations and engagements, training sessions, awareness-raising consultation workshops, and dissemination of country lessons to regional and global food system governance mechanisms. These activities are being developed in partnership with rights holders and duty bearers including governments, and local civil society organizations within each country.
Project
The Challenge
Identify, characterize, and address constraints that impede marginalized and vulnerable food system actors from participating in decisions to realizing their rights to food security, healthy diets, and improved nutrition outcomes, adapting to and mitigating climate change and other food system-related challenges, and fully contributing to and benefiting from their food systems.
The Goals
Use advocacy, build capacity, and develop accountability tools that better integrate human rights frameworks within food system policy and action to address ongoing constraints by strengthening the capacity of right-holders.
The Outcomes
-
Improved understanding and use of the UNDROP and VGFSN, VGGT, VGRTF and its food system relevant articles by duty bearers in ways that benefit rural and peri-urban food producers and affected populations of those countries through greater access to information.
-
Drafted and implemented country-specific UNDROP roadmaps and frameworks in collaboration with stakeholders.
-
Co-developed and integrated monitoring and accountability mechanisms incorporating human rights in food system programming, policies, guidelines, and national and international legislation.
-
Improved policy coherence at the national level between individual sectors/ministries and the international level within the global norm-setting processes related to food systems and the right to food.
The Activities
Countries
Host Countries
Cambodia, a rural and agrarian country, is classified as a lower-middle-income country. Women constitute 74% of the agriculture workers and produce as much as 80% of Cambodia’s food, but their ownership of land is disproportionately low compared to men. While agriculture plays a major role in the country’s economy, growth in this sector has been slow, barely averaging 1% between 2004 –2013. The major causes for the lack of growth in the agriculture sector are low productivity, declining global commodity prices, and extreme weather, such as floods and droughts. The agriculture sector is also at risk of losing its remaining agriculture labor caused of better job opportunities offered by fast-growing agriculture and other sectors in neighboring countries. Cambodia needs to improve income generation from farming by investing in diversifying production and mechanization and strengthening the value chains of these agriculture products.
Ethiopia is classified as a low-income country, with 31% of the population living under the international poverty line of US$1.90 per day. However, changes in the country's economy and demography have gone through major changes, with a doubling of the urban population and a fall in rural poverty rates from 45% in 2000 to 23% in 2016. Despite these changes, most of the country’s population lives in rural areas (78%). There is a high reliance of the rural population on agriculture for their livelihoods, and the agricultural sector, while it has grown and contributed to the country’s growing economy, remains subsistence-based. Nevertheless, the country faces challenges across its food systems related to agricultural productivity, access to and costs of healthy diets, and more.
Honduras is classified as a lower-middle-income country, with 66% of the population living in poverty. In rural areas, those living under the international poverty line of US $1.90 a day is high, with every 1 in 5 people experiencing poverty. Economic growth in the country has been high, but development has not been experienced equally, noted by the high poverty rates and high levels of inequality. This condition of inequality especially affects women and girls, but also the population living in poverty and those exposed to physical, psychological, social, environmental, economic, or structural vulnerability. These inequalities have been understood to be linked to limitations in access to basic services, decent employment opportunities (livelihoods), and poverty.
Uganda is classified as a low-income country with widespread poverty, revealed by 41% of the population living under the international poverty line of US$ 1.90 per day. Poverty persists despite a 69% to 38% decline in households belonging to the subsistence economy between 2016-2019. Agriculture remains a significant source of income for households. Limited access to newer agricultural technologies is of major concern to those engaged in the sector. There is wide variability in surplus, adequacy, and deficiency among different food commodities within the country.
Meet the Team
Meet the team
The project consortium includes academics, development practitioners, ethicists, and lawyers from Rikolto, the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation funds the project, which contributes half of the grant funding, and the multidisciplinary project consortium’s member organizations jointly fund the remainder.
External Advisory Committee
Hilal Elver is a global leader and expert in international human rights law and international environmental law. From May 2014 to April 2020, Elver served as the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, responsible for carrying out the right to food mandate as prescribed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. She is currently serving as an appointed member of the Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) on food security and nutrition, and a member of the Scientific Group of the UN Food Systems Hub. She maintains several affiliations with academic institutions worldwide. She has worked with the Turkish government as the Founding Legal Advisor of Turkey’s Ministry of Environment from 1989 to 1991; the Director of the Environmental Law and Human Rights Committee of the EU Harmonization Committee: Office of the Prime Minister and State Planning Organization from 1989 to 1999; and member and legal advisor of the Turkey’s team UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), from 2009- 2014.She has authored/edited several books including: Peaceful Uses of International Rivers: The Euphrates and Tigris Transboundary River Basins (2002); Headscarf Controversy: Secularism and Freedom of Religion (2012); and Reimagining Climate Change (ed. w/ Paul Wapner) (2016). Select reports, articles, op-eds, and interviews are featured on her website hilalelver.org.
David Kabanda is a food rights lawyer with special interest for social justice in economic and environment related systems. He practices this through legal advocacy, community legal empowerment, public interest litigation, legal research, invoking social equity, and the doctrine of public trust. He is an expert in law, agroecology and an advisor in sustainable agri-food systems. He has done consultancies with UN-FAO, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, WHO, and UNESCO. He has implemented projects using a Human Rights Based Approach. He is currently a Food Law PHD candidate -University of Western Cape. He has pioneered the litigation on the right to adequate food and health in Uganda, and Africa. He has founded social rights organizations including the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) and now the Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights (CEFROHT). He is leading a team of lawyers in East Africa and in Uganda under the Agriculture and Food law cluster in Uganda law society. David is a founder and currently the Executive Director at Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights (CEFROHT).
Marlene D. Ramirez is Secretary General of the Asian Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (AsiaDHRRA) from 1999 to present. She began working for rural development and poverty eradication in the Philippines with PhilDHRRA in 1987 and was Executive Director from 1993-1998. Both at national and regional levels, her expertise covers civil society network development and management, program development and implementation, resource building and mobilization, strategic partnerships, and policy advocacy. In 1999, she pursued AsiaDHRRA’s aspiration of catalyzing a regional farmers’ alliance, now an autonomous body called Asian Farmers’ Association (AFA) serving millions of farmers in Asia. From 2012 to 2020, Marlene sat in the Board of AgriCord global alliance of agri-agencies providing direct financing and advising to farmers/fishers’ organizations and anchors the representation of the Alliance in the Asian region. From 2010 to date, she represents AsiaDHRRA as interlocutor for civil society engagement with FAO-RAP and sits in the Civil Society Governance Council of Grow Asia. Marlene represents AsiaDHRRA in the Coordinating Conference on the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (SOCCOM), has led the drafting of ASEAN Rural Development and Poverty Eradication Framework Action Plan 2011-2015 and the external Mid-term Review of the ASEAN Socio Cultural Community Blueprint in 2013. She currently oversees the implementation of a regional cooperation to empower rural development organizations in Southeast Asia under a five-year Framework Partnership Agreement with EU. She is a graduate of BS Industrial Engineering from Mapua Institute of Technology and has Master’s Degree in Public Management from the Ateneo de Manila University School of Governance.
Million Belay is the coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty for Africa, a network of networks of major African networks. He is a member of the International Panel of Experts on Food System Sustainability (IPES-Food). Million is the founder of MELCA - Ethiopia, an indigenous NGO. Million has spent the last two decades working on issues such as intergenerational learning of bio-cultural diversity, sustainable agriculture, local communities' right to seed and food sovereignty, and forest issues. His focus is now on food sovereignty, agroecology, food system transformation, inter-generational learning, knowledge dialogues, and the use of participatory mapping for social learning, identity building, and memory mobilization for resilience. He holds a PhD in environmental education, a MsC in tourism and conservation, and a BsC in biology.
Nitya Rao is Professor, Gender and Development at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom and Director of the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development. She has worked extensively as a researcher and advocate in the field of women’s rights, employment and education for over three decades. Her research interests include exploring the gendered changes in land and agrarian relations, migration and livelihoods, especially in contexts of climatic variability and economic precarity. She has done fine-grained research on households and intra-household dynamics in these contexts to draw out implications for gendered wellbeing, empowerment and justice, with a particular focus on food, nutrition and health security. She has published extensively on these themes in international peer-reviewed journals and books. She has consistently engaged with policy and practice, at both the global and local levels. Apart from supporting networks of women farmers in India, she served on the Global Advisory Committee of the United Nations Girls Education Initiative for over a decade. She is currently a member of the Steering Group of the High-Level Panel of Experts to the Committee on World Food Security, Commissioner, EAT-Lancet 2.0 on healthy and sustainable diets and member of the Scientific Advisory Group to the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub.
Consortium Bios
Addis Hailemichael is serving IIRR Ethiopia as the Food and Nutrition Security Program Director. Addis graduated with a BSc in Forestry from the Alemaya University of Agriculture (Ethiopia), an MSc in Farm Forestry from the Swedish University of Agriculture (Sweden), and he completed the course work of an MBA in Development Economics at Unity University (Ethiopia). Addis has over 30 years of experience in program and project management of different kinds mainly food security, environment, and social protection. His project management experience includes: designing, planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluation. Addis has experience in agricultural and non-agricultural livelihood developments, farm input and output marketing, off-farm and non-farm income-generating activities, watershed development, village-level saving and credit, cooperative development, participatory planning and community development, natural resource management (forestry, agroforestry, and soil, and water conservation), climate change adaptation, capacity building, water hygiene and sanitation, social protection & productive safety nets, gender, and value chain development. Moreover, Addis has experience in fundraising, communication, partnership management, capacity building, policy research & advocacy. Addis took part in several local and national consultancy works within Ethiopia.
Anne Barnhill, Ph.D. is Associate Research Professor at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. She is a philosopher and bioethicist whose research centers on the ethics of food and agriculture, and the ethics of public health. Her recent and ongoing food ethics research explores the ethics of healthy eating policy, the ethical dimensions of efforts to promote plant-based diets, and ethnically- and racially-targeted food marketing, among other topics. Her most recent book, co-authored with the political theorist Matteo Bonotti, explores the ethics and legitimacy of healthy eating policy in high-income countries (Healthy Eating Policy and Political Philosophy: A Public Reason Approach, Oxford University Press, 2022). During the COVID-19 pandemic, her work with colleagues at Johns Hopkins has explored the ethical challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the ethics and legitimacy of lockdown and reopening, the ethics of digital contact tracing, and ethical issues related to COVID-19 vaccination.
Charlotte works as the Global Programme Director of Rikolto’s Good Foor for Cities programme which works to transform urban food environments towards improved access to healthy, sustainable and nutritious food for all in 33 cities and territories worldwide. The programme supports initiatives in the field of regenerative agriculture, circular and inclusive entrepreneurship, short food chains, urban food governance, policy advocacy and peer-to-peer learning, among others. Charlotte previously worked as a programme development advisor and planning, learning and accountability coordinator for Rikolto in Vietnam. She previously held positions with IUCN Brussels Liaison Office and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. She holds master's degrees in international relations and sociology & anthropology from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium and an MSc in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh, UK.
Chris Béné is Principal Scientist and Senior Policy Advisor working with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) headquartered in Cali, Colombia. He is currently affiliated to the CGIAR Systems Transformation Science Group and seconded to Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He has 20+ years of experience conducting inter-disciplinary research focusing on poverty alleviation and food security in low and middle-income countries. In 2022 and 2023, he was listed in the top 1 percent of the world’s most cited scientists by Clarivate/Web of Science in the domain of cross-field research. In his career, he worked on a wide range of topics, including natural resource management, science-policy interface, resilience measurement, and more recently food system sustainability.
Chuon Sophea graduated with a Master in Public Policy from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He finished his bachelor’s degree in Development Economics from Norton University, Cambodia, and a bachelor’s degree in English for Teaching at University of Puthisastra, Cambodia. He has research experience and also provided inputs for formulating policies and regulations and addressing migration-related issues. He was the deputy director of the Center for Governance Innovation and Democracy at the Asian Vision Institute. He wrote articles about Food Security and Agriculture in Cambodia. He also coordinated with public and private higher education institutions to develop a university guidebook for the Department of Higher Education.
Dianne Arboleda is a social worker/trainer by profession with extensive experience in programme/project management; in training management including designing, organizing, coordination, facilitation, monitoring and evaluation of capacity building interventions; in organizing communities; advocacy work focused on women’s rights, women’s empowerment and gender and development (GAD); and documentation of training and other events. She completed her master’s degree in Applied Development Studies from the University of Reading, United Kingdom and have a Diploma on Women & Development from the University of the Philippines. Diane also served as Gender Advisor with VSO in Nigeria, Programme Manager and later Technical Consultant with UNIFEM in Timor-Leste and as UNV Programme Officer with UNDP/UNV in Botswana, The Gambia and in Indonesia.
Dulce Dominguez is a Training Associate at IIRR’s Regional Center for Asia. She provides support to fundraising and partnership development through fundraising materials development, storage and sharing. She assists in proposal development and tracking and project coordination. Dulce is also responsible for promoting and marketing international training courses. She coordinates participant recruitment and supports course design implementation and evaluation. She also maintains the records management system of training course alumni and training-related data and facilitates data storage and retrieval.
Emilita Monville Oro is the Acting Asia Regional Director and concurrent Country Director in the Philippines of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction. She provides strategic directions of the Philippine country program and the regional program for Asia. Emily has 30 years of work experience mostly in Asia, focusing on research and development, public health i.e., nutrition and clinical nursing, community resilience building, community-managed disaster risk reduction, monitoring and evaluation, and the design of capacity development. She completed her Master’s in Public Health under a full scholarship from James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University in Bangladesh.
Jody Harris is Global Research Lead for the People Centered Food Systems programme with Columbia University (USA), and Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (UK). She is an applied academic with research interests in the politics and ethics of equitable food and nutrition policy. Her work includes development of theory around equity and human rights in the field of nutrition; and theory-driven analysis of the social and policy dimensions of food systems in a global context. Jody has 20 years of experience working on food and nutrition justice as a researcher and implementer, for universities, think-tanks and NGOs in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. She has over 50 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and edited volumes for academic audiences which have been cited over 3000 times, and she often translates her work for policy, technical and lay audiences.
Julian Francis Gonsalves received his PhD from the Cornell University and his master’s degree from Michigan State University. He served as Vice President for Programs at IIRR. His association with IIRR has been since 1984. He currently serves as Senior Advisor on climate resilient agriculture, food systems, and related areas of work. He has done external reviews for UNEP, FAO, SDC, IFAD, IDRC and several other organizations. He is a UNEP Global 500 awardee for his work on environment in agriculture. He has been a strong proponent of regenerative agriculture since the nineties and helped developed a program for training in regenerative agriculture in six countries.
Mariela Wismann
Sociologist. Master´s degree in development studies by The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Switzerland). Master´s degree in social management (Perú).
Experience in food security and family farming, the design and implementation of training programs with emphasis on women's empowerment, as well as on issues of access to land; in recent years she has worked in strengthening the associativity of agrarian organizations and collective action as a strategy for the defense of their rights. Currently coordinates the Good Food for Cities Program (SAS- CI) and in Peru, she chairs the Coordinating Committee of Foreign Entities for International Cooperation, which brings together 50 organizations of private cooperation for development.
Myrtel Anne Valenzuela is a Development Communication specialist pursuing a Master of Science degree at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. With a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Arts, majoring in Speech Communication, she graduated in 2017. She currently serves as a DevCom & Advocacy Specialist at the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR). Previously, she worked as a Science Research Specialist at the Philippine Rice Research Institute Los Baños Station. Her exceptional work in knowledge product production and distribution earned her the Best Communication Focal Person-RCEF Program Award. She also received recognition for her outstanding achievements in knowledge product distribution and knowledge sharing and learning.
Napoleon Molina
Napoleón Molina was born in Honduras. He is the director of Rikolto´s Coffee Program in Latin America with professional experience in managing and implementing agriculture/agribusiness development projects and programs. He holds a doctorate degree and a master´s degree in Agricultural Economics from Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany.
Or Thy is the Country Director in Cambodia of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction since May 2012 up to present. He provides strategic leadership and direction, developing and managing the implementation of IIRR’s programs, projects, and activities in Cambodia. Thy has 20 years of work experience mostly in Asia, focusing on nutrition-sensitive agriculture, climate-smart agriculture, community-based entrepreneurship promotion, and sustainable natural resources management. He finished his Master of Science, major in Rural Development at the International University in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Pamela Nyamutoka Katooro is IIRR’s Africa Regional Director, doubling as Uganda Country Director. She is a Development Specialist with 15 years of experience in community and organizational development and leadership. She has a passion for rural economic development and has initiated, designed, and managed several projects that have transformed poor people into prosperous and food secure agri-entrepreneurs. She is a lawyer by training, a policy analyst and has been at the forefront of spearheading policy reforms in the microenterprise and agricultural sector in Uganda. She has a master’s in business administration MBA [Strategic Management and Leadership], Master of Law [research underway], Bachelor of Laws and Diploma in Legal Practice. She is a Certified Gender Practitioner and soon to become a certified digital finance practitioner with the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at the Tufts University, USA.
Puth Voraknuth MARK is a Research Assistant of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction in Cambodia. She has graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the Royal University of Law and Economics, Cambodia. She has relevant research experience collecting primary data information and secondary data research focusing on rural development and agriculture. She has also done numerous legal research and analysis documentations throughout her years of university focusing on both national and international instruments.
Raul Pinel is an agricultural science professional with a Master's degree in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness from Louisiana State University (LSU) with a combined experience of more than 30 years in the agricultural sector.
He has experience in various areas: teaching and research, collection, systematization, and dissemination of agricultural data, agri-food value chains, and monitoring and evaluating projects. Currently, he works as a Project Manager within the Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems Program at Rikolto in Honduras. Raul considers it of utmost importance to create strong links with the different stakeholders as the basis for successful teamwork.
Robert Kaliisa has over 8 years’ experience in agricultural value chains and food nutrition security, conservation agriculture/climate smart agricultural development and integrated water resources management. Robert currently works as a Program Manager, Food Security, Resilient Livelihoods and Pro-Poor Value Chain Development at the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR). He has also served in previous positions at IRR as Business Development Officer and Water Resource Management and Forestry Expert at IIRR. He is also a Master Trainer in Pro-poor Agricultural Value Chains Development, Livelihoods and Food Security, Food Systems Development, Integrated Water Resources Management and Rights Based Approaches for Climate Smart Agriculture at IIRR.
Uy Sokmeas brings nearly 20 years of diverse development experience to his new role as IIRR-Cambodia's Food Security and Nutrition Specialist. His expertise spans areas like twin-track approaches, human rights-based approaches, human-centered design, people-first impact methods, PESLET-based perception analysis, food and nutrition security, social accountability, gender equity, community peacebuilding, non-violent communication, policy review, and qualitative and quantitative research using tools like Kobo toolbox and SPSS v.25. Uy Sokmeas holds a bachelor's degree in education and further strengthened his skillset by taking weekend courses in educational research and management for two years (2008-2010). He has since leveraged his educational background and expertise across various fields, including public health, food and nutrition security, natural resource management, and more. This experience allows him to effectively apply principles of Do No Harm, social entrepreneurship, disability inclusion, media for peacebuilding, and conflict resolution mechanisms in his current work.
Zaira Colindres
Honduran professional in agricultural sciences with 30 years of experience in design, implementation and evaluation of rural projects with emphasis on vulnerable populations (women, youth and indigenous people) in conditions of high rural marginalization. The topics addressed in the projects in which she has participated include business development with emphasis on micro and small enterprises, organic agriculture, food security, climate change and microfinance.
She has a master's degree in business administration with a focus on finance and another master's degree in local development management, a diploma in food and nutrition security, a certificate in Program DPRO, Scope Insight and a certificate in Agro-environmental Management and Participatory Community Development.
Zerihun Lemma joins IIRR with over 27 years of experience managing education programs and various other social sector projects. Prior to his Ethiopia Country Director position, Zerihun served as the Country Director in South Sudan and also as a Capacity Development Outreach Coordinator for Ethiopia IIRR office. He has conducted extensive work involving planning, research, analysis, implementation and assessment of various integrated projects. He has worked both at the grassroots and donor level, and with governments, NGOs, and GO constituencies. Zerihun has worked in Somali Land, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan and Ethiopia, with the Ministry of National defense in Ethiopia and USAID. He holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in Education, Master’s of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from Addis Ababa University, and Masters of Arts in Applied Community Change from the Future Generations University, West Virginia USA.
Resources
Publications: Overviews and Explainers
Trainings and Mini-Courses
A People-Centered Food Systems Approach
What are Human Rights Part 1 and Part 2?
Fulfilling Human Rights in Food Systems
UNDROP: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas
What are the Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition?
Primers
Primer 1: What is a food system?
Primer 2: Why should people be at the center of food systems?
Primer 3: Understanding human rights in food systems
Primer 4: Fulfilling human rights in food systems
News and Blog
September 2024 Country Updates: Honduras
July 2024 Country Updates: Cambodia and Honduras
June 2024 Country Updates: Cambodia and Honduras
May 2024 Country Updates: Cambodia and Honduras
April 2024 Country Updates: Cambodia, Honduras and Uganda
November 2023 Photo News Updates: Cambodia, Ethiopia, Honduras and Uganda
October 2023 Photo News Updates: Cambodia, Ethiopia, Honduras and Uganda
Latest Updates
IIRR Culminated the People-Centered Food Systems (PCFSy) Synthesis Writeshop
On July 8-10, 2024, IIRR’s Regional Center for Asia (RCA) completed a 3-day PCFSy Synthesis Writeshop, where 3 out of the 4 pilot host countries including the IIRR country teams of Cambodia, Ethiopia and Uganda (with the other team Honduras of Rikolto) of the People-Centered Food Systems (PCFSy) project had to work on their Country Analysis Reports from the consolidated information pertaining to the awareness raising and capacity building efforts that were conducted with stakeholders in the early part of the project. With its long-term goal, the PCFSy project is to contribute to improving and embedding equity and rights of disadvantaged and marginalized populations into policies and programs to transform food systems in equitable ways. This is a 5-year project funded by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and managed by a global Consortium led by Columbia University’s Climate School based in New York (previously with Johns Hopkins University), Alliance Bioversity-CIAT, Rikolto and IIRR. The PCFSy project aims to identify, characterize, and address constraints, low awareness and lack of accountability of governments and other key-actors, which impedes rights holders including rural and peri-urban food producers and other legitimate food system actors (who are also consumers) from participating in decisions and thus inhibit them from realizing their rights to food security.
Participants to the PCFSy writeshop held at the Yen Center of IIRR in Cavite, Philippines included the Leads of country teams from IIRR-Cambodia, Mr. Sokmeas Uy; IIRR-Ethiopia, Mr. Addis Hailemichael; and IIRR-Uganda, Mr. Roberto Kaliisa. They were joined by IIRR’s RCA team led by Ms. Emily Monville-Oro, IIRR’s Acting Director for Asia; Dr. Julian Gonsalves, Senior Adviser; Ms. Myrtel Valenzuela, Development Communication and Advocacy Specialist; and the Global Learning Program (GLP) team including Ms. Dulce Dominguez, Ms. Annie Secretario and Ms. Dianne Arboleda, and a National Consultant, Mr. Jonas Rex Turingan. On the last day of the writeshop, the 3 Country Leads were able to submit each the 3rd draft of their Country Analysis Report, lists of proposed PCFSy programming and advocacy materials or tools in pursuing PCFSy project activities in the country, and their respective action plans reflecting the immediate steps they have to undertake upon return to their countries. They plan to share their outputs with their country teams, stakeholders and partners back home, representing the PCFSy project’s stakeholders including right holders, CSOs/NGOs and duty bearers and with some representatives from the academe and staff of multi-lateral or donor organizations.
The right to adequate food: From theory to practice in Honduras
By: Raul Pinel, Rikolto
June 19, 2023
Spanish version is here.
The right to food is a right recognized both in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1848) and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966. This is an inclusive right, where everyone has the right to have access to available, affordable and adequate food (biologically and culturally) individually or collectively and permanently (OHCHR).
According to FAO, food is a basic need, and everyone has the right to access an adequate, safe diet with appropriate nutritional requirements. Human rights-based policies related to food systems seek to ensure that food is accessible, available, adequate and affordable to all people without discrimination of race, age, religious belief, among others, based on Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
However, the current world food system and the lack of applicability of policies related to human rights, is characterized by inequality in individuals or communities in rural areas; millions of people suffer from hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity, despite the fact that most food is produced in rural areas. In Honduras, where 53.1% of the 9.7 million inhabitants are women, 34% of households spend between 50% and 65% of their income on food, while 12% of households spend 75% of their income on food (INE, 2022).
This access to food is also determined by the levels of poverty in Honduras, where almost 56% of people in urban areas live in poverty; and 63% of people in rural areas live in extreme poverty. Monetary poverty is defined by the cost of the basic food basket, which in Honduras in April 2023 was 11,968.90 lempiras for a family of five (2,393.78 lempiras per person, equivalent to $96.96 or 30% of income in rural areas). The minimum monthly salary for a worker in the rural areas is 7,802.10 lempiras ($315.88).
Likewise, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) indicates that in the last 20 years (2001-2021) the Gini coefficient (which measures wage inequality) has oscillated between 0.51 and 0.60, with its highest peak in 2005 and its lowest peak in 2015. In 2021, the Gini coefficient was 0.55. Also, the Human Development Index (HDI 2020) in Honduras is the lowest in Central America, at 0.634 (rank 132/189), which makes us note that the country is below Nicaragua and Guatemala in basic aspects such as life expectancy, adult literacy and a decent standard of living (GDP per capita).
Since 2006, Honduras began to make efforts to implement regulations regarding Food and Nutritional Security. In that year, the Food and Nutritional Security Policy (PSAN) was designed, and five years later in 2011, by legislative decree (25-2011), the Food and Nutritional Security Law (SAN Law) was approved, creating a series of mechanisms for its implementation. These mechanisms included the National Food and Nutrition Security System (SINASAN), which included a National Council (CONASAN), the Interinstitutional Technical Committee (COTISAN), the Surveillance Commission (COVISAN) and the Technical Unit (UTSAN), the latter being the only unit that remains in force to date due to the changes in governmental structures in 2022.
It is necessary to better integrate the human rights framework and approach with the policies and actions of the food system through the implementation of relevant articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and People Living in Rural Areas (UNDROP) and other existing regulations, develop capacities and accountability tools that allow moving from a theoretical framework to a real practice of human rights to food for vulnerable groups and groups that guarantee these rights.
Thus, in the year 2021, the People Centered Food Systems Project: with a human rights-based approach (HRBA) began to be conceptualized. It is currently being implemented in four countries: Honduras, Cambodia, Uganda and Ethiopia, with funds from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) through a consortium led by John Hopkins University, Rikolto, IIRR and Alliance Bioversity-CIAT.
The project aims to better protect the rights of producers and improve their food security and well-being through the effective implementation of UNDROP and the Voluntary Guidelines, which will result in increased awareness, access to information and capacity building of the participating groups (policy makers, duty bearers, duty bearers and process facilitators); as well as the participation of right holders in activities to influence food sector policies related to the UNDROP and Voluntary Guidelines and their relationship with food systems and the right to adequate food, as well as accountability processes. In the end, it is hoped that vulnerable groups will be able to demand their rights and decision-makers will be able to safely enforce policies such as UNDROP and other regulations that reinforce the rights of peasants in rural areas, who lack protection under the law despite the different instruments that countries have signed.
Rikolto, through its Food Systems for Cities Program (GF4C) seeks healthy food environments and inclusive supply chains that favor access to healthy, nutritious and sustainably produced food for all, especially vulnerable groups promoted by local governments. In this way, the organization's objectives are aligned with those of the project (adequate food, sustainable production and governance, among others).
In mid 2022, the information gathering (baseline) of the project begins, using the methodology developed by CIAT that includes a two-day workshop with the purpose of collecting critical information from right holders, stakeholders (Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs); and policy makers (government sector).
In Honduras, these workshops were conducted between July and September 2022 with the participation of stakeholders from 44 organizations/institutions from the three groups mentioned above (13 policy makers, 21 groups representing right holders and 10 NGOs/CSOs), yielding important information on the awareness, importance and use of UNDROP and the HRBA.
The data indicate that there is a need for the three groups to know more about the HRBA and the different treaties and mechanisms within the existing regulations; in addition, the perception of the importance of these issues by the three groups is evident; whereas, the use of the regulations by right holders is very low, and in the other two groups there are those who know and implement the regulations and others who do not. These results guided us in defining the following steps: determine the type of training to reinforce capacities in each of the groups participating in the intervention.
In this period of implementation, the project has made progress in several areas, such as the update on the food situation (through the baseline with the information collected with the participating groups), the review of mechanisms to ensure the right to food and the implementation of food policy (development of initial drafts of food policies at sub-national and local government level) and; the creation of a food security office in the Municipality of Las Vegas, Santa Barbara). The Rural Reconstruction Program (PRR), RIKOLTO's partner, is moving towards becoming a provider of the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) and alliances have been established especially with the Technical Unit for Food and Nutritional Security (UTSAN), as well as with the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner (CONADEH).
As part of the following steps, based on the analysis of the baseline data, efforts were joined for the discussion on protecting the rights of vulnerable groups on the use of traditional phyto-genetic resources as cited by UNDROP in Article 19, since in February 2022, the Supreme Court of Honduras declared unconstitutional the Law for the Protection of Plant Varieties (Decree No. 21-2012), which prohibited farmers from saving, exchanging and giving away seeds under the threat of heavy penalties.
For the consortium, it is crucial to complement these developed capacities with advocacy actions, such as policy dialogues, monitoring and accountability mechanisms in relation to human rights; and an analysis of policy coherence between national and international policies at different scales.
What is coming in the project refers to collective work in order to analyze and propose ways to update and implement food policies. Thus, we will organize with allies, representative organizations in the country, spaces for discussion, reflection and proposals; we are interested in contributing with more updated data to food policies; strengthening the institutional framework; linking competent entities with civil society organizations to move forward in a participatory manner; and reinforcing the work of the technical roundtables and multi-actor spaces in relation to food systems. We all need to act to achieve structural changes, so that no one is left behind.
Food systems are directly linked to human rights and several articles of the UDHR. Unfortunately, food systems often do not guarantee these rights of their citizens because they are affected by other factors such as poverty, inequality, lack of access to land and inputs, lack of access to credit, and lack of respect for the rights of agricultural workers, among others.
The important thing is to start and analyze how we contribute through this project and other actions, to improve and transform food systems to ensure the human right to food. Not only from the productive point of view, but taking into account deeper causes that produce food insecurity, the lack of implementation of existing policies or the implementation of adequate policies, but above all the direct involvement of the communities. Our goal should be to fight for fair food systems that promote the human rights of individuals while respecting existing regulations, implementing them to achieve a common good as a society as a whole.
References
-
El Derecho a una alimentación adecuada. Boletin Informtivo No. 34.June 2012. Geneva Switzerland. ONU/FAO.
-
La Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos, Diciembre 1978. Naciones Unidas. Un.org.
-
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. United Nations. Octubre 2018.
-
Analisis del Impacto de la Pandemia por COVID 19 sobre el estado de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional en Niños (as) menores de 5 años y mujeres en edad reproductiva ()15-49 años) en 39 municipios seleccionados en el país. Instituto Nacional de estadísticas de Honduras 2022.
-
Encuesta Permanente de Hogares de Propósitos Múltiples Instituto Nacional de estadísticas de Honduras 2022.
-
La gaceta. Diario Oficial de la República de Honduras. Decreto 21-2012. Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
-
Hogares en Situación de Pobreza. Instituto Nacional de estadísticas de Honduras 2022.
-
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/FactSheet34sp.pdf