In the third entry of this blog series around the intersection between the work of Opportunity International Canada and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), my focus is on SDG #2 — Zero Hunger.
Opportunity International recently celebrated its 50th Anniversary (one year delayed) with a gathering in Chicago. One of the guest speakers offering congratulations via video was World Food Program Executive Director, David Beasley. I found his remarks to be particularly inspiring because fighting hunger is such a vital part of fighting poverty. In the 21st Century no one should be dying of hunger — anywhere.
There is a strong link between microfinance and food sustainability, particularly in the context of our Agriculture Finance (AgFinance) program. But before diving into AgFinance specifically, it bears noting that regular access to healthy meals is an outcome of a successful microfinance program.
Hunger and poverty go together. When a family lacks access to a regular income and where broader community support, such as a food bank, is unavailable, hunger is inevitable. The stress of parents watching their kids go unfed is unimaginable, yet too often a reality. In Haiti, I was told the tragic story of a woman who died of malnutrition before case workers could recruit her to the Pathway to a Better Life program, where she would have had access to a small stipend while learning how to run her own microenterprise.
The over-arching goal of our work in the field is to see clients acquire and grow sustainable livelihoods – with a regular income. With that income the basic needs of their family can be met – food and shelter, followed by education and health. A livelihood is just what the word says – the means to live and provide for one’s family. Over the past 50 years, millions of clients have been helped on the journey towards a sustainable livelihood, and with that the elimination of hunger for each of these families.
But our AgFinance program takes the fight against hunger to another level. Working primarily with smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in South-East Asia and Latin America, the program addresses the whole agriculture value chain.
These farmers — the majority are women who don’t own the land — eke out a subsistence level of income on small plots of land. Most of them travel to larger cities after harvest to take on dangerous menial work for minimal pay to keep going.
When they become part of the AgFinance program, they join others to receive training and support in agricultural best practices. Small loans enable them to buy better inputs such as quality seed and fertilizer. Farm service agents, who themselves are microfinance clients, will use a loan to buy a tractor and provide plowing and other mechanized services to hundreds of smallholder farmers, saving thousands of hours of manual labour. And the pooled resources are leveraged to find access to better markets for the sale of the harvest.
The results are astounding, with yield increases of 7 to 10 times! This provides a sustainable income so that families can thrive, and the kids receive a quality education. These women farmers no longer need to travel off-season for dangerous work. Instead, they can build a secure house and some of the women have successfully purchased their own plot of land!
But the benefits extend well beyond the client and her family. The excess produce provides surplus food for the region, and the additional income creates job opportunities for neighbours. It is estimated that much of the global food shortage could be eliminated by using sustainable farming practices throughout the smallholder farms of sub-Saharan Africa.
Of course, the challenges of food security and global hunger are immense, with complex root causes such as climate impact, political/economic instability, internal displacement and war. Opportunity International Canada is not set up to provide emergency food assistance when populations are at risk of starvation. That’s why it’s vitally important that we share from our abundance to help the work of organizations such as the UN World Food Program or the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. People should not die from starvation in our time.
In addition to emergency relief, we must find sustainable solutions to hunger and food security. A core value that transcends the SDGs is the dignity of the person. Hunger is a basic violation of that dignity and of our shared humanity. From our experience we know that clients have tremendous resilience, creativity, and a strong work ethic. Given the opportunity of a loan, training, and support, clients know how to build a better future for themselves, their families, and communities — a future that includes sustainable food security.
We can achieve SDG #2 and end hunger by supporting emergency food relief to keep people alive and by investing in longer term sustainable solutions to poverty and food security such as Opportunity International’s Agriculture Finance Program.
Zero Hunger – it’s a moral imperative and together we can make it happen!