World Hunger Day is about raising awareness of chronic persistent hunger . It is also about celebrating the achievements of millions of people who are already ending their own hunger and meeting their basic needs.
World Hunger Day seeks to inspire people in both the developed and developing worlds to show their solidarity and support to enable many more to end their own hunger and poverty and make the journey to self-reliance.
The theme for 2011 is "Empowering People. Ending Hunger".
Empowerment requires many things:
illiteracy reduction, microcredit, cooperative management, improved farming, microfinance, and of course fair trade.
Fairtrade works to empower the most marginalised in the global trade system – small-scale farmers and workers. For certain products, Fairtrade only certifies small farmer organisations. Examples include coffee, cocoa, cotton and rice. By favouring democratic organisations of small farmers, Fairtrade gives the stability rural families need to plan for the future. The alternative for many is to move to already overcrowded urban centres.
Plantations and companies using hired labour can sell certain products through Fairtrade if workers are organised and benefit from Fairtrade. The Fairtrade standards protect workers basic rights according to the International Labour Organisation conventions. This means health and safety standards, freedom of association, collective bargaining , no discrimination and no bonded or illegal child labour. The Joint Body, which includes a majority of worker representatives, decides how to invest the Fairtrade premium, works to create good working relationships between management and workers, and helps workers gain skills in leadership, communication and project management.
The Fairtrade premium is a sum of money paid on top of the agreed Fairtrade price for investment in social, environmental or economic development projects, decided upon democratically by producers within the farmers’ organisation or by workers on a plantation.The premium is fixed by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation Standards Unit in the same way as the minimum price and remains the same, even if the producer is paid more than the minimum price for the product. The premium fund is typically invested in education and healthcare, farm improvements to increase yield and quality, or processing facilities to increase income.
In the UK, the Hunger Project will be running many events to mark the day - read about them here.
