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  • Title: Confronting world hunger.
    Author: Huddleston B.
    Journal: CARE Briefs Develop Isssues; 1983; (3):1-8. PubMed ID: 12266156.
    Abstract:
    In 1980, per capita food supplies were less than adequate in 53 developing countries. More than half of these were the predominantly rural, low income countries of South Asia, China, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Finding the proper balance between satisfying immediate human needs and building political and economic systems in which individuals can in the future acquire the means to satisfy their own requirements is the central issue facing those in the fight against world hunger. At the international level, developed countries have responded to world hunger by raising the minimum level of food aid provided when supplies are scarce and by creating a financing facility for cereal imports. The food and agriculture sector is receiving a highe priority than before in the allocation of international development assistance, and more attention is being given to the effects of both general food subsidies and targeted nutrition programs on future agricultural output. At the national level, over 40 developing countries have requested assistance from the World Food Council for the preparation of food sector strategies. Although such measures are important, they do not directly address local problems and individual needs. For example, dietary intake tends to be lower in urban than in rural households in Latin America at the same level of income. These urban groups require health and nutrition interventions that simultaneously address their immediate need for food, clean water, and health care and their more longterm need for employment. Longterm economic development that provides adequate income to all segments of the population is the best means to combat hunger, and income security also reduces incentives for large family size. The contribution of the international community should remain the transfer of resources and the provision of technical assistance. At the individual level, the need for targeted food distribution programs continues. Greater benefit can be obtained from directing such programs to groups with seriously inadequate levels of food consumption rather than targeting broadly on low income groups. New initiatives should be undertaken as a true collaboration between donors and recipients and should be focused on eradicating the conditions that give rise to hunger as well as on meeting immediate needs.
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