Opinion Pieces address launch of 'IF Campaign' against global hunger

Jan 25 2013

A coalition of 100 U.K. development charities and faith groups on Wednesday launched the IF campaign, aimed at addressing global hunger. The following is a summary of opinion pieces published in response to the campaign's launch.

• Jon Ashworth, Huffington Post U.K.'s "Politics" blog: "Significantly, this campaign -- 'Enough Food for Everyone IF' -- was launched on the day of a Westminster Hall debate on tackling global hunger in 2013, where MPs will debate how the government should address this widespread problem," Ashworth, a member of parliament, writes. "Our present global food system is broken," he states, adding, "The 'Enough Food for Everyone IF' campaign hopes to tackle this problem, urging governments to take action." He concludes, "By implementing systems that allow citizens, investors and other stakeholders to hold their governments to account, 'IF' hopes to promote food security in those countries that are affected by global hunger" (1/23).
• Charlie Beckett, Guardian's "Global Development Professional's Network": "[T]he IF initiative to end world hunger needs more than just attention, it needs people to understand and act," Beckett, director of Polis, writes, adding, "The danger with the IF coalition is that the public will see it as a collection of different demands rather than a clear message." He continues, "Our research on public attitudes shows that the cleverest charities no longer take the public's sympathy for granted and are adopting diverse communications tactics to earn their trust and attention," and he discusses four practical principles for a successful communications strategy highlighted in a recent report from the organization -- keeping it simple, keeping it consistent, including "beneficiaries," and communicating with integrity (1/23).
• Deborah Doane, Guardian's "Poverty Matters" blog: "IF proposes policy options aimed at ending hunger: more aid, stopping companies dodging taxes, stopping land grabbing for biofuels and other crops, and forcing governments and companies to be more transparent about their investments in developing countries," Doane, director of World Development Movement, writes. "These are all important things that we need to achieve but, to end hunger and poverty, we need to go much further and tackle their root causes," she writes, concluding, "Ensuring everyone has enough to eat is a long-term project that demands far deeper and wide-ranging policy change than that proposed by IF, and needs democratic change well beyond the power of the G8. By all means, support the campaign's individual aims, but ending hunger demands that we go further" (1/24).
• David Harewood, Guardian's "Comment Is Free" blog: "We live on a planet of limited resources, an abstract notion for some of the world's population, but for many of the poorest and most vulnerable, those limits are all too real," Harewood, a Cafod ambassador, writes, adding, "For their sake we must learn from the examples being set by the ones at the heart of the issue." He continues, "Of course the causes of hunger are vast and complex, from climate change to the activities of major food corporations," and he states, "When the G8 comes to Northern Ireland in June we need them to take action on these issues, not just providing aid to those who are hungry, but tackling the root causes of that hunger and finding lasting solutions" (1/24).

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