NOMA - The Face of Poverty

• The fight against noma must be made a priority at international level. " In the view of the rise in malnutrition, all regions at risk must be included in the monitoring system.

Inter-agency cooperation on the issue of noma must take place. " Noma should become integral part of the international response given by organizations such as FAO, WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, etc. to the challenges posed by the food and economic crises.

• States must put in place national programs against noma or strengthen existing frameworks. States should allocate sufficient funds for prevention and information activities, as well as for nutritious food aid to individuals facing malnutrition. In case of lack of funds and faced with emergency situations, States have a legal obligation to appeal for international humanitarian aid. Not making such an appeal would be an encroachment on the right to food. Other States have a responsibility to cooperate as it is clear from Articles 2 and 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and from customary international law.

Postword

The fact that this horrible disease is still continuing to wreak havoc in the developing world should be to the eternal shame of the wealthy countries the other side of the coin where waste and luxury are the law of the land and overfeeding is the prevalent health problem.

A few organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are supposedly responsible for solving the ever-increasing and global problem of hunger. However, all they have done so far is to ever more enrich the rich countries and further strangle the poor countries that have been forced to humbly ask for loans to get out of their unacceptable living conditions. Instead of being enabled to give their people decent living conditions, these countries have been forced by the IMF to accept austerity measures, i.e. cutbacks in social spending and devaluation of their currencies, making the paying back of their loans even more hurtful and causing the living conditions of their citizens to deteriorate even further.

So, as the poverty-stricken nations are gasping for breath, lacking food and clean drinking water and being robbed by the Big Transnational Corporations, while the rich 2% of the world population are gathering up further obscene wealth, the drive to the destruction of a decent and ethical cohabitation in this world is speeding up by the day.

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