Why an assessment of the right to food in West Africa?
West Africa has shown the fastest economic growth among the regions of the African continent, and has also made great progress in the reduction of hunger and malnutrition, with six countries already having achieved the MDG of halving by 2015 the proportion of people suffering from hunger. However, the levels of poverty and inequality remain among the highest in the world, and serious inequities in access to resources (land, water, technology, etc.) push most vulnerable households into a severe food insecurity situation. In fact, the region still has 36 million undernourished people.
West African leaders endorsed in 2013 a radical approach to end hunger in Africa by 2025. In this regard they are increasingly prioritizing food and nutrition security (FNS) issues in their political agendas and launching initiatives to address hunger-related problems.
West African States have ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and have therefore committed to realize the fundamental right to be free from hunger, and to move as expeditiously as possible towards the full realization of the right to adequate food. This means they have to consider food as a right and focus their actions on the root causes underlying the lack of access to adequate food, as well as the negative repercussions of the current situation for the most vulnerable populations.
To this end, the West Africa Zero Hunger Initiative was formally launched in February 2014, aiming at reducing hunger and malnutrition and at advancing the realization of the right to food.
A right to adequate food assessment is the first step in the process of developing a right to adequate food strategy and in implementing specific measures that respond to the State’s obligations to respect, protect and fulfil this human right.
