Right to Food Bangladesh’ Charter Introduction Countrywide ‘Right to Food Campaign’ was initiated centering the event ‘South Asia Right to Food Conference-SARF 2015’ held on 30, 31 May and 1 June 2015 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Later, at the last day of the SARF Conference, the civil society declared the ‘Right to Food Bangladesh’ as an Umbrella network of organizations, network and individuals working on issues relevant to Right to Food. This umbrella network will connect and elaborate the civil society mechanism process on right to food issues in Bangladesh. The major objectives of this ‘Right to Food Bangladesh’ Movement is to share experiences of civil societies on Right to Food & nutritional security movements, strengthen networking among all the relevant stakeholders, organizations and networks for effective campaign. We want to promote ‘Legal Framework on Right to Food’ with engaging policy makers with our perspectives and strategy building on Right to Food & nutritional security movement for all relevant actors. The right to adequate food and nutrition links with the lot of issues and so many emerging challenges—not just conceptually but also on the ground, in peoples’ struggles. Civil society organizations and social movements representing various constituencies of rights-holders—peasants, fisherfolks, pastoralists, indigenous peoples,
rural women, food and agricultural workers, urban workers, and others—are increasingly joining forces to advance their common goals, with human rights as unifying factor. Many obstacles stand in the way of implementing the right to food in our country. To overcome these obstacles, it is necessary to develop inter sectoral and holistic policies and laws based on human rights that can enable people to regain control of the food system. A primary element in ‘Right to Food Bangladesh’ is promoting investment in agriculture and food systems should be accomplished with coherent and transparent policies, laws and regulations based on equitable, inclusive, and gender sensitive governance structures in the context of Bangladesh Considering this context, we hereby adopt the following Charter of Right to Food Bangladesh Conceding the positive changes have seen in recent years in the policy level related to the issue of food and nutritional security
Also acknowledging the positive growth performance that our agricultural sector has been registering in recent years Concerned that a significant proportion of our population still remains vulnerable to the challenges of economic marginalization, hunger and malnutrition, despite the positive achievements registered recently in the issue of food and nutritional security, agriculture and economic growth Also concerned over the heavy and growing dependence of our produ
ction systems and consumption patterns on external factors (climate change, global markets, amongst others,) and their associated vulnerabilities to such external factors as climate variability and change as well as to global economic and political shocks Reaffirming our resolve towards ensuring, through deliberate and support, that all segments of our populations, particularly women, the youth, and other disadvantaged sectors of our societies, must
participate and directly benefit from the growth and transformation opportunities to improve their lives and livelihoods.Reflecting that hunger and malnutrition are major causes of poverty and underdevelopment in Bangladesh by causing poor health, low levels of energy, and mental impairment, all leading to low productivity and low educational attainment all of which can in turn lead to even greater hunger and malnutrition, thereby creating a viscous cycle. Agitated that there is limited progress made in agro-industries and agribusiness development, which hampers value addition and competitiveness of our products in trade local, regional, and international; and undermines the potential of the sector in transformation and generation of gainful employment
opportunities.