Panafrican News Agency

Kenya: Social protection expansion offers faster track to ending hunger - FAO

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Social protection is emerging as a critical tool in the drive to eradicate hunger, yet the vast majority of the world's rural poor are yet to be covered, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a news dispatch Tuesday.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2015, published by FAO today, finds that in poor countries, social protection schemes offer an economical way to provide vulnerable people with opportunities to move out of extreme poverty.

It also helps them improve their children's health education and life chances.

The social protections schemes include cash transfers, school feeding and public works.

Such programmes currently benefit 2.1 billion people in developing countries in various ways -- including keeping 150 million people out of extreme poverty, says the UN agency.

Expanding such programmes in rural areas and linking them to inclusive agricultural growth policies would rapidly reduce the number of poor people, the report says.

The report was released on the eve of World Food Day (16 October), whose focus is on social protection's role in breaking the cycle of rural poverty.

"It is urgent that we act to support the most vulnerable people in order to free the world of hunger," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

"Social protection programmes allow households to access more food -- often by increasing what they grow themselves - also make their diets more diverse and healthier," he said.

''These programmes can have positive impacts on infant and maternal nutrition, reduce child labor and raise school attendance, all of which increase productivity," he said.

Only about a third of the world's poorest people are covered by any form of social protection.

Coverage rates dip even lower in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, regions with the highest incidence of extreme poverty, the report said.

Without such assistance, many poor and vulnerable people will never have the opportunity to break out of the poverty trap -- in which hunger, illness and lack of education perpetuate poverty for future generations, according to the report.
-0- PANA DJ/VAO 13Oct2015