Cambodian Media Involved in Asia Pacific Roundtable on Hunger

By Soy Sophea

About 20 Newspaper editors and senior reporters from the Asia Pacific region have gathered for a two-day roundtable on Inequality and Hunger. They hope to formulate a response to the problem of hunger in the region. The meeting was organized by Sri Lanka’s Panos Institute and sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Omar Noman, Chief of Policy and Programs at the UNDP Regional Centre in Colombo (UNDPRCC), said that only a few months ago, many newspapers and news channels were awash with stories on the food crisis. Now, the headlines have changed despite the fact that more than 500 million people still go to bed hungry at the end of every day in the Asia Pacific Region.

He said that the meeting was crucial in the fight against inequality and hunger and urged media institutions to continue reporting on the issue of hunger as well as other global concerns. He noted that the extent of the hunger problem remained staggering.

“We are concerned by the extent of human suffering caused by hunger in the Region and the implications it has for the growth of future generations,” he said. “The UNDP Regional Center in Asia, Colombo Office, together with the Food and Agricultural Organization, has launched a campaign against hunger, as this and inequality remain critical obstacles to development,” he added.

According to UNDPRCC’s report on Inequality and Hunger, dated February 2, 2009, the region is home to some of the fastest growing economies in the world. Moreover, the region has also made considerable progress in terms of poverty; yet the progress towards reducing hunger has been relatively slow. It continues that over 500 million people live in hunger in the region, accounting for 61 percent of the world’s undernourished population and this figure is rising.

The report stated that since the 1990s, Cambodia has made significant progress in its transition towards prosperity and development. In the process, Cambodia has re-established peace and security after almost three decades of war and civil conflict; moved to a multi-party political system following vigorous efforts to develop and strengthen the country’s democratic institutions; and transformed the isolated, state-controlled and subsistence-oriented economy into a market-driven and open economy.

“In particular, the country’s garment and tourism industries have speedily expanded from a very low base; and physical infrastructure is undergoing rapid rehabilitation and expansion,” the report said. “In the area of social development; Cambodia has made considerable advances. School enrolment has substantially increased; the health system has been rebuilt; and Cambodia has emerged as a model of successful HIV prevention.”

Hunger is not the same as starvation. In simple terms it is the need to consume adequate food for normal development of the human body. In extreme cases, due to continued dietary inadequacy, the human body gets used to having less food than necessary for healthy development, and after a while the body does not even demand enough food, according to the UN Committee on the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

In such cases, the sufferer does not complain of discomfort, though the lower intake of essential calories, proteins, fats and micro-nutrients results in under-development of the human mind and body. Thus objective indicators such as calorie consumption, Body Mass Index (BMI), the proportion of malnourished children and child mortality rates create a truer picture of the scope of the problem than the subjective articulations of individuals.

Hunger, Malnutrition and Child Mortality

Cambodia’s child nutrition status has improved, albeit slowly, between 2000 and 2005, with a welcome decline from 45 to 37 percent, coupled with a 50 percent decrease in wasting diseases, from 15 to 7 percent. The overall prevalence of underweight children has decreased from 45 per cent to 36 per cent, meeting the target for 2005. Similarly, the percentage of the population living below the food poverty line for comparable geographic areas fell by 6 percent over the same period.

Major Challenges

Even though Cambodia is on track to meet most of the nutrition targets, progress has been mixed in some areas. In particular, progress has been uneven in reducing poverty, hunger and malnutrition; in improving the level and quality of education; in reducing gender inequality, and in the area of maternal health. There is still a lack of infrastructure, and there is unsustainable resource depletion and environmental degradation.

Similarly, while the success in reducing poverty in urban and more accessible rural areas is commendable given Cambodia’s recent history, the challenge over the next decade is to vastly reduce poverty in the remaining rural, less accessible areas.