FEBRUARY 2003

Local Democracy and Ending Hunger


Photo courtesy of ACLO

Democracy is essential for the end of hunger. As the word “democracy” means “rule by the people,” local people must have authority, a voice in decisions that affect their lives, and access to resources that are rightfully theirs.

Amid the many discouraging trends in the world today, the good news is that democracy continues to spread. In Kenya, opposition leader Mwai Kibaki defeated the handpicked candidate of autocratic Daniel arap Moi, whose party has ruled Kenya since independence. On 1 January, the working-class hero, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was sworn in as the 36th president of Brazil.

For hunger to be eradicated, democracy at the village level is vital. The complex challenges to the sustainable end of hunger can only be solved locally — by the people themselves. Grassroots people must have the power to ensure adequate education, health care, nutrition and income opportunities for their families. Local government must empower, mobilize and prepare them to do so.

Africa Prize Laureate Named to National Government in Kenya

Professor Wangari Maathai, one of the world’s leading environmentalists and a 1991 Africa Prize laureate, has been named deputy minister of environment, natural resources and wildlife in the cabinet of Kenya’s newly elected president Kibaki.

Dr. Maathai is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, which has mobilized 50,000 women to plant more than 20 million trees, and has repeatedly gone to court to block the previous government from destroying Kenya’s forests.

As Dr. Maathai’s daughter told The Hunger Project, “This represents the culmination of her struggle to restore democracy in our country. Indeed, this is only the beginning, but it represents a wonderful time along the long roads Kenyans have traveled.”

 

Local Democracy in Action across Africa

In Africa, The Hunger Project’s campaign for the end of hunger mobilizes grassroots people to take self-reliant action and ensures that they have adequate resources to do so. A real advantage in this process is Africa’s progress in decentralized government. Grassroots people mobilized by The Hunger Project are able to participate with locally elected officials and obtain resources that are rightfully theirs.

Across Africa, local government works in partnership with The Hunger Project — giving land to build epicenters and plant community farms, providing teachers and medical doctors for epicenter schools and clinics, and contributing security personnel to protect each epicenter. Our partners are also participating directly in local democracy by being elected to local and district assemblies.

In Uganda, the local government has recently announced its plan to fund The Hunger Project’s AIDS and Gender Inequality Workshop at the Mpigi epicenter. With support from the local government, trained grassroots animators will hold workshops to address and transform the harmful gender roles that are fueling the spread of the epidemic.

 

Women’s Success in Panchayati Raj

Across India, The Hunger Project is seizing the historic opportunity of what is unquestionably the greatest social experiment in the world today: the transfer of decision-making power to one million grassroots women elected to panchayats, or village councils. Through the Women’s Leadership Workshop (WLW), The Hunger Project-India is training and supporting locally elected women to be effective change agents for the end of hunger.

 

“I intend to work hard to accomplish everything that I have taken on, and some day I aspire to sit in the same chair that you are sitting on.”

— Jayalakshmi, panchayat member who took the WLW 18 months ago, to the minister of secondary education.

 

“The secretary of the panchayat, who is appointed by the government, wasn’t doing his job. The seven women members got together and went on strike until he did what he should have in the first place. Now I’m not afraid of anything. I can take on anybody.”

—Sumitramma, panchayat member from Tumkur District, Karnataka

 

“I have built a school building so that all children and adults can be literate. I have built houses for people who did not have them through the government schemes. I have also brought water to my village and provided ration cards, so that villagers can get subsidized grains from the government granaries.”

—Mudda Erakka, panchayat member from Tumkur District

 

Breakthrough in Bolivia

Committed to building a more just society, our partner organization in Bolivia — ACLO — launched a widespread mobilization campaign around the national elections last June. ACLO’s radio programs, publications and training workshops were integral components of the campaign to mobilize campesinos as active participants in the democratic process.

The campaign was an enormous success. Representation by the marginalized, indigenous minority increased dramatically, including the first-ever elected indigenous senators. Of the 27 indigenous members elected to the house and senate, seven are graduates of ACLO workshops.

Historic Opportunity in Bangladesh

Strengthening local democracy — and particularly women’s leadership — is the heart of our strategy in Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s upcoming local elections provide a historic opportunity to give local people a real voice in the decisions that affect their lives.

Across Bangladesh, elections for union parishads — village councils — will be held from mid-January to mid-March. The Hunger Project-Bangladesh is at the forefront of a coalition, Citizens for Fair Elections, to mobilize the country to select candidates who will be honest, and will fight for the well-being and rights of the people. Professor Muzaffer Ahmed, one of the most highly respected people in Bangladesh, heads the alliance.

The campaign is now under way, and is getting good press coverage. The Hunger Project-Bangladesh is also preparing a handbook for newly elected officials, and plans to have many of these officials take our four-day animator training.