By Isabella Maddalone, Advocacy Communications Intern
On June 1st, I began my internship as the Advocacy Communications Intern at The Hunger Project (THP). Within the first few weeks, one of my intern tasks included identifying side event opportunities to showcase THP’s impact in ending hunger and involvement in community-led development.
Not long after starting, I learned about an opportunity for a side event for Science Days, a part of the UN Food Systems Summit. This year’s Science Days theme recognized the pivotal role of science, technology and innovation in food systems transformation. …
By Tim Prewitt, President & CEO of The Hunger Project
This year, the world is coming together to chart a path toward a more sustainable and equitable food system — a system that can meet the demands of our ever-growing population and is resilient to environmental shocks.
Having spent my career working on food systems, I can easily say that never before have we seen such an outpouring of global engagement on this important topic. Typically, conversations about improving food systems focus on complex, commercial agricultural systems, delivering products from farm to table, often across borders. …
By Irene Naikaali
In 2018, I was assigned to undertake a scoping exercise in two districts of Uganda. The purpose of this exercise was to generate evidence to inform The Hunger Project (THP) team on the suitable district to host a new epicenter, the dynamic center THP works through to mobilize communities for action to meet their basic needs in a sustainable manner. The exercise involved a series of interviews with district-level, local government officials to verify data on the poverty and vulnerability. …
By Grace Chikowi
My name is Grace Chikowi, I have been working with The Hunger Project-Malawi since 2014, first as an HIV and AIDS, Nutrition and Gender Officer and now as Country Manager. I love working with THP-Malawi. I see firsthand the lives of people we work with transform from the despair of deep rooted poverty to healthy, fulfilling lives of self-reliance and dignity.
THP’s methodology relies on community mobilization to create sustainable change. When communities are involved in planning the project activities they are more committed to its implementation and they work hard to get the positive outcomes. …
By Libasse Sow
Each time I visit a Hunger Project epicenter community, I am reminded of the strength of rural women in Africa. They are at the heart of the community and when they feel empowered, they make sustainable change that has ripple effects for generations. As I reflect on the fact that 50 epicenter communities have declared self-reliance, and are now sustainably and independently maintaining development momentum, I have come to the conclusion that when a woman leads the way, progress happens. Just take the story of Ndeye Ndiaye, a woman living in Fadam, Senegal.
To get to Fadam…
By Dr. John Coonrod, Executive Vice President, The Hunger Project
As we have all noticed, many people lack a strong commitment to democracy. Pew Research conducts regular global surveys on democracy, and their 2020 report shows that about one third of all people don’t think democratic rights are very important in their country. Tragically but not surprisingly, we’ve seen a rise of autocratic leaders exploiting support for this fairly large minority to suppress democratic freedoms. What can each of us do about this?
In 2015, during the run up to the U.S. election, I Googled, “what can be done to…
This year’s World Food Day theme — “Grow, Nourish, Sustain. Together” meets my favorite standard: it’s clear, finite and confrontable. That’s good, because our current food system is not meeting all four of those goals. It is up to all of us to understand and transform that system.
The prevailing food system grows too much low-nutrition food, in unsustainable ways, and in ways that exacerbate inequality by pricing nutrition-rich food out of the reach of most people.
Sustainably and equitably growing affordable nutritious food is a complex human process, and in a time of rapid climate change, it is a…
By Dr. John Coonrod, Executive Vice President, The Hunger Project
The number one lesson of the current pandemic is that there is only one proven pathway to achieving the SDGs and that is to Shift the Power — to shift public resources and decision-making power to local communities.
There is a science to this. It’s called community-led development, or CLD. CLD has proven not only to be the most practical way to solve the interlinked challenges of poverty, inequality and environmental destruction — it is the only pathway to restore human dignity.
Insights from Montserrat Salazar Gamboa, Country Director of THP-Mexico
890 self-sufficient municipalities. 4.7 million people awakened to their own potential. These are the goals declared in THP-Mexico’s 2030 Strategy. These numbers, these faces, are on my mind every day. My team and I use them to guide every decision, big or small.
I have found that having a 2030 strategy in place helps create momentum and focus around everything we at THP-Mexico do.
We know that to achieve our 2030 Strategy, we must cultivate collaborative partnerships, where the work of many drives toward a shared vision and generates a result…
Florencia Hernández Rubio is one of our partners living in the community of Paxquid, Mexico. She is one of the more than 11,000 indigenous women with whom we work in the country, empowering them with tools to build their own cooperatives and advance their political rights.
“My name is Florencia Hernández Rubio, I am an indigenous woman and I speak Nahualt. I live in the community of Paxquid, Tampamolón Corona, in SLP. I am 43 years old, I am a widow, and I am very happy to be a catalyst.”
Florencia explains how The Hunger Project has turned her life…
The Hunger Project
Empowering women and men across Africa, South Asia & Latin America to end their own hunger and poverty since 1977. Visit www.thp.org for more.
