Despite the government’s efforts to attain food self-sufficiency, Filipinos’ access to food remains limited, according to a United Nations rights expert.
UN Special Rapporteur Hilal Elver urged the Philippine government to develop comprehensive policies on the right to adequate food.
“The government of the Philippines has declared its commitment to developing a national framework for ensuring the right to adequate food and I commend the efforts made to date to develop policies to ensure food security,” Elver said. “The passing of the pending right to adequate food bill should be considered as a matter of priority.”
She said the lack of access to food leads to undernutrition and stunting in the case of undernourished children. This, she said, could compromise the future of the younger generation of Filipinos.
Stunting is one of the major reasons the Philippines is not on track to meeting the World Health Assembly (WHA) nutrition targets by 2025.
The WHA nutrition targets aim to reduce stunting among children by 40 percent by 2025, or an average annual rate of reduction of 3.9 percent.
However, the Philippines is among the countries with a high level of stunting or malnutrition in children with a prevalence of 33.6 percent.
Further, the country’s progress in reducing stunting was only at 0.8 percent per year, lower than the global target of cutting it by 4.6 percent annually.
“Child malnutrition is an issue of serious concern with some 4 million children in the country suffering from stunted growth,” Elver said.
“The effects of undernutrition are irreversible, and lack of access to adequate and nutritious food is having a detrimental effect on future generations in the Philippines and must be addressed as a matter of urgency,” she added.
Elver also expressed concern about smallholder farmers who are facing challenges that are undermining agricultural production, including deforestation, climate change, and an ever-expanding monoculture for export and large corporations.
As communities affected by the devastating impact of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) gradually begin to recover, Elver urged the government to develop adaptation and mitigation financing and support to urban poor, small farmers and coastal communities who are particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change.
“Landless farmers are particularly vulnerable as they await the passing of a bill on agrarian reform, which has been pending for some 25 years,” she said. “The bill is laudable; however, I am concerned at reports suggesting that huge tracts of land remain in the possession of a few, while those farmers who have tilled and worked the land are allegedly being harassed and criminalized.”
In her seven-day visit to the Philippines, Elver met with senior government officials and representatives of parliamentary committees, international organizations, development agencies, academia and a range of civil society and grassroot organizations.
She also visited a number of projects in Nueva Ecija, Luzon and interacted with communities living in the Visayas, Tacloban as well as urban poor living in various locations in Metro Manila.