The
International Community of Banyakigezi (the People of Kigezi) held its 6th Convention in New York from July 31 to August 4, 2008. The Convention was well
attended by a wide range of stakeholders including Members of Parliament (MPs),
the media, international community, researchers and non-state actors such as
NGOs and Foundations. I was invited as Keynote Speaker on The Paradox of Hunger and Abundance.
The
Convention confirmed that while Kigezi is one of the country’s bread basket,
producing a wide range of crops, vegetables, livestock, fish and wild game, it
sufferers from high levels of under-nutrition especially among children.
Studies
from Kabale have shown that while the district is a producer of surplus vegetables,
anemia and vitamin A deficiencies were a major nutritional problem due to low
consumption of green leafy vegetables. This was caused by massive food losses,
producing for cash and inadequate purchasing power among many families. Hunger
had contributed to low school attendance and poor performance.
It
was recommended strongly that in the short-term school feeding programs and
cold storage facilities should be implemented. Local governments, parents,
civic and religious organizations should spearhead the establishment of school
feeding programs. It was also stressed that the MPs should provide a link
between the local authorities on the one hand and central government and the
international community on the other hand and report implementation progress to
the International Community of Banyakigezi at the annual Conventions.
The
following Keynote Speaker’s recommendations received wide support.
1. We should inform
local and central government authorities at the earliest opportunity that the
level of hunger and under-nutrition in our country and especially in Kigezi is
unacceptable. Every effort should be made to realize the right to food.
Promises must be monitored to ensure full implementation.
2. We should
underscore that the active participation of national leadership is crucial in
addressing the hunger problem. The Agrarian Revolution in England benefited
greatly from the personal involvement of King George III. The personal involvement of our President
cannot be stressed enough.
3. We should remind
the government that as a member of the United Nations, it has an obligation to
fulfill the right to food which is also contained in the Uganda Constitution of
1995 and the Children Statute of 1996. Failure to do so is a violation of the right to food.
4. We should urge
the government to participate more strategically in the economy to correct the
imperfections of the market mechanism including in the food subsector. The
abandonment of the Washington Consensus has presented a golden opportunity for
active state participation without however undermining the role of the market
and the private sector.
5. We should urge
the authorities in particular the local government to establish school feeding
programs in close collaboration with parents and non-state actors as well as
the United Nations. School feeding programs are an integral part of the right
to food. Failure to establish them is a violation of that right.
6. We should urge
the government to adopt a human-centered policy and strategy of sustained and
sustainable economic growth with equity so that all Ugandans acquire the
purchasing power to access all the food they need for a productive and healthy
life.
7. We should urge
parents to accord high priority to feeding their children well. Serving coca
cola when there is millet porridge is not a sign of progress but of ignorance.
8. As we prepare to
celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights later this year, we should redouble our efforts to ensure that no
Ugandan goes to bed on an empty stomach.
9. But most
important of all, we must exercise our sovereign right. As sovereign people we
have the right to set our priorities and implement them with support as
appropriate from our authorities and development partners. We should not wait
for outsiders to tell us what to do and how to do it.
10. Europe developed without foreign aid and technical
assistance. We can do the same or go very far if we muster the will to do so.
11. Just as nobody runs your home, so no one should run
your village.
12. Let us conclude by pledging that: We the people of
Kigezi reaffirm the inalienable rights of every one and that we are created
equal. We are determined to create the necessary conditions for the promotion
and realization of economic, social, political, scientific, cultural and
environmental justice and rights for all present and future generations.
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