The 'Enough food for everyone, if' campaign kicked off last night in London, with a wide range of global development professionals and press in attendance. The campaign, supported by a coalition of over 100 development organisations, seeks to lobby British prime minister David Cameron to take to the G8 the mission of ending global hunger.
If's main aims were outlined by the actor Bill Nighy: land should be used for food and not fuel; tax evasion by multinational corporations in poor countries should be stopped; G8 countries should keep to their aid commitments; and governments and companies should be transparent about their role in the food system.
Aesthetically, there doesn't seem to be much to distinguish the 'If' campaign from its predecessors - wristbands, boybands and pictures of African children were all in evidence. Still, Oxfam GB's head of advocacy and public policy Max Lawson described its asks as more radical than those of 2005's 'Make Poverty History' campaign, which focused mainly on debt cancellation.
If the purpose of this campaign is limited to influencing government, it could already be considered a success - David Cameron welcomed it saying his government will "drive forward progress on the G8 New Alliance on Food Security and Nutrition". But as far as If's wider asks are concerned, success will arguably depend on the work and coordination of development professionals beyond the G8 decision makers. But is the way forward apparent? As Lawrence Haddad of the Institute of Development Studies writes in his blog: "I would have liked to have heard about what the INGOs themselves are going to do differently to help end hunger, in partnership with the UK government or not."
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