World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 119

World Food Policy

4.2 - Two action domains to advance
human development and security
4.2.1 -Make links between human security
policies, including the right to food, and
nutrition

Within poorer nations, food
security is all too often driven by crisis and
charity, and within more affluent countries
food security is driven by financial access
to commercial markets. In neither case
is food security a matter “of collective
aspiration and mutual responsibility”
(Kickbusch 2010, 30). There are now
numerous international and regional
bodies arguing that food security is first
and foremost a matter of human security.
For the purposes of this document human
security is defined in terms of access to
jobs and income, education, personal
safety, living in sustainable resource
environments, universal health coverage
(WHO 2012), and the right to food.

In a welcome development, the
links between human and nutrition
security are beginning to appear at global
and regional levels. For example, while fully
supportive of “free” food trade, the UN
System High Level Task Force on Global
Food Security argues that governments
need to act on their social protection
schemes and safety nets to assist farmers
who can no longer compete in the market
place, including school meals, work or
asset-based creation schemes and riskassurance schemes (2012, 2). In turning

such aspiration into action, a recent
initiative jointly supported by The Speci al
Rapporteur on the right to food and the
Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty
and human rights calls for the creation of a
Global Fund for Social Protection with an
aim to establish a social protection floor
in least developed countries (De Schutter
and Sepulveda 2012). As they argue: “The
right to social protection is deeply linked
to the right to adequate food” (p. 6).

Within this context, it is worth
noting that 40 percent of South Africans
are in receipt of social protection/social
safety net assistance, with the largest
proportion residing in rural areas.
While the country is characterized by a
highly commercialized and productive
agricultural sector, the provision of social
benefits has been shown to be effective
in fighting poverty and improving health
and education especially among lowincome households (Woolard, Harttgen,
and Klasen 2010)9.

The right to food was recognized
in the 1948 Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (Art. 25) as part of
the right to an adequate standard of
living, and was enshrined in the 1966
International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (Art. 11).
And in 1996, the World Food Summit
requested that the right to food be given
a more concrete and operational content.
A number of initiatives were taken as a
result, including:

9

“The social security system in South Africa has two main objectives. The first objective is to reduce
poverty among people vulnerable to low income, such as the elderly, children, and people with disabilities who cannot participate fully in the labour market. The second objective is to increase investments
in health, nutrition, and education, in order to increase human capital to accelerate economic growth
and development” (Woolard, Harttgen, and Klasen 2010, 3).

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