The Nepalese government must do more to address hunger in the country, an international fact-finding mission of experts on the human right to food has concluded, describing hunger and food insecurity across the country as ‘pervasive’.
“The government has no comprehensive strategy to address hunger and the situation is exacerbated by a lack of coordination between the capital, regions and districts, as well as between government ministries,” Carol Samdup, mission head for the group, told IRIN on 19 April.
The group was composed of 12 international and local experts from a number of organisations, including the Montreal-based institution Rights & Democracy, the Geneva-based Research Unit on the Right to Food, the German-based Food First Information and Action Network, and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation.
Samdup’s comments coincided with the release of preliminary findings by the group, which assessed hunger and food insecurity, after visiting affected communities in the western districts of Makwanpur, Nawalparasi, Chitwan, Banke, Jumla, Dadeldhura, Accham, as well as the eastern district of Siraha.
The team also met government representatives, donors and members of civil society.
The findings suggest that food insecurity was pervasive in food-surplus as well as food-deficit districts. Mostly affected were women and children, Adivasi janajatis (indigenous ethnic groups), dalits (low-caste groups), Kamayas, Haliyas and Haruwas (bonded labourers) and people living with HIV/AIDS.
Obstacles to food access
Obstacles to food access they found include endemic discrimination; insufficient and insecure access to land, and evictions; and discriminatory access to resources such as forests and fishing areas.
Additionally, the mission noted that existing programmes did not fully respect, protect or fulfill the human right to food.
“International agencies active in Nepal do not apply a human rights framework nor do they emphasise the human right to food in their programmes,” Samdup said.“The realisation of the human right to food is key to reconciliation and peace.”
 The government has no comprehensive strategy to address hunger and the situation is exacerbated by a lack of coordination between the capital, regions and districts, as well as between government ministries. |
“I think it is very well known that there are problems of food insecurity in Nepal and there are particularly high malnutrition levels," said Sally-Anne Way of the research unit on the right to food at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Geneva. Speaking to IRIN in food-insecure Jumla, she described Nepal’s levels of child malnutrition as among the highest in the world – both in terms of wasting and stunting.
According to the UN World Food Programme, more than half of children under the age of five in Nepal are stunted and more than 45 percent are underweight.
But despite those figures, there is no government agency dealing with food insecurity, nor a comprehensive government policy on food security, Way said.
Compounding the problem further was the fact that international donors and implementing agencies were focusing mainly on the country’s political process while ignoring the economic and social causes of the decade-long conflict between the army and Maoist rebels.
“In Nepal we are preoccupied with civil and political rights,” Ila Sharma from the NGO Action Aid Nepal said. “If you are tortured or murdered, you have the right to speak up, but nobody talks about the right to food.”
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see also
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Medicine and food shortages in Terai
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
