This year’s celebration comes at an opportune moment, just after the global review of the status of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the ushering of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Coincidentally, this year also marks the commemoration of FAO’s 70th Anniversary. Global events will highlight the Milan Charter, a manifesto that engages all citizens in the fight against undernourishment, malnutrition and waste, while promoting equal access to natural resources and sustainability.
We of Public Agenda find the theme very relevant since we give our unflinching support any policy or programme designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labour markets, diminishing people’s exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to manage economic and social risks, such as unemployment, exclusion, sickness, disability and old age.
Accord to FAO about 75% of the 795 million undernourished people in the world today live in rural areas. And such vulnerable groups need effective social protection programmes in such areas, where agriculture plays a vital role, include cash transfers, vouchers, insurances and in-kind contributions.
Providing people with nutritious food is not enough. Without social protection, poor communities are at constant risk of hunger and poverty, especially when faced with a crisis or shock of any nature. By incorporating social protection programmes into national development strategies and policies, governments can provide greater income stability and ability to manage risk, thus contributing to reducing poverty and food insecurity in the longer-term.
In fact social protection is high on the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and considered an important means to achieving the Goal of ending poverty within the next 15 years. It is also at the heart of the Zero Hunger Challenge promoted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
It is against the backdrop of the above facts that Public Agenda calls on Government to act swiftly in respect of the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle whose presence in many farming communities across the country have become a nuisance.
Recently, we carried a story of how they went rampaging farms in the Afram Plains and issuing death threats to whoever dares raise a finger against their destructive activities.
Police in the area are currently investigating a case in which a Fulani herdsman allegedly butchered a local farmer to death because he had attempted to resist the Fulani herdsman from taking his cattle through his farm. We call on the IGP to put the case on the radar and ensure that justice is done.
Source : Public Agenda
