ISLAMABAD, Oct 16: The world celebrated the annual World Food Day on Tuesday (Oct 16) with a vow to ensure the availability of food for all and easy access to affordable, pure and ample quantity of food to all citizens.

These views were expressed in a statement released by an NGO, The Network for Consumer Protection.

Executive Coordinator of The Network, Dr Talib Lashari, stressed the need to revamp the health sector to accelerate progress towards MDGs. He added that according to the GHI 2007, about one fourth of Pakistan’s population is undernourished and one third of the children under five years of age are underweight.

This year’s theme for the World Food Day is, ‘The right to food,’ highlighting a basic human right, often ignored as severe food insecurity affects over 850 million people worldwide.

Food is not available at affordable prices to consumers, mainly to due to high prices. Its quality and hygiene also leave a lot to be desired.

The main source of affordable food is street food for the midday meal for a vast majority of the working class.

Due to soaring prices, access to food is beyond the buying capacity of the common man. According to the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), food inflation was 8.4 per cent in September, compared to the same month last year.

Like other countries of the Saarc region, Pakistan is lagging behind in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) targets and its scores are still at an alarming level, according to the Global Hunger Index 2007 by German Agro Action (DWHH).

This index provides a comprehensive measure of three indicators in 115 developing countries —child malnutrition, child mortality, and estimates of the proportion of people who are underweight.

The progress in eliminating hunger in Pakistan, out of 91 countries, is slower than India and Bangladesh. According to the Global Hunger Index Progress Indicator (GHI-P), Pakistan is ranked 60th (GHI-P score 0.219), Bangladesh 42nd (0.444) and India 33rd (0.496).

Dr Lashari opined that inflated prices, low quality and shortage of food could seriously hamper meeting targets of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), specifically the first one —eradication of extreme poverty and hunger— and the fourth one —reduction of mortality rate among children under five by two- thirds till 2015.

He demanded of the policy makers and planners to address the issues of stagnating food production, emergence of food poverty and food security. He also urged strict implementation of the food laws to ensure access to safe food for all.