teach a man to fishproverb ‘give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, he eats for...
TRANSCRIPT
F or how many years have people repeated the Chinese
proverb ‘give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a
man to fish, he eats for a lifetime’? Yet how often
has the world actually put this wisdom into practice?
Since perhaps the biblical story of loaves and fishes, there
have been examples of people providing food to others. In
more modern times, the Marshall Plan in Europe was a
main contributor to the continent’s post-war rebuilding.
Since then, NGOs, the UN World Food Programme and
many governments have provided food aid for millions of
people each year.
For decades, however, the ‘eat for a lifetime’ part of the
aforementioned proverb has been mostly ignored. Only
4% of official development assistance, for instance, is
directed to agricultural development. The world is
extremely generous in helping human beings live through
obvious, well-publicised disasters, but reluctant to help
those stuck in chronic hunger and poverty.
That has begun to change, as several notable examples
illustrate. In his inaugural address, President Barack
Obama declared: “To the people of poor nations, we
pledge to work alongside you to make your farms
flourish.” The G8 and the G20 made serious commitments
to support farmers in developing countries: 14 European
countries and the EU joined others in pledging at least
$22bn for this purpose. Spain, Canada, the Republic
of Korea, the USA, and the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation announced the creation of a new Global
Agricultural and Food Security Program based at the
World Bank. This all follows the commitment of African
governments to each work towards 10% of their budgets
for agriculture. Since agriculture is the primary occupation
and largest contributor to most African countries’ GNP,
this is critically important.
‘Teaching’ fishing is therefore developing beyond words.
However, it takes more than money. Leadership is
required from each developing country to push through
legal changes – in land ownership laws, inheritance laws,
credit systems, and even in seed development. It takes
community ownership, as well as training and extension
programmes to actually reach poor farmers, who are
most often women. Updated research on crop develop -
ment is needed that serves the poor by providing crops
that are more weed and pest resistant, that grow well in
tropical climates, that need less water, that provide more
nutritious and vitamin rich foods and foods that are
easier to cook. Finally, it takes sustained support from the
donor countries.
These initiatives have to be much more than the isolated
‘good idea’ of 2010. Instead, they require the drive
and commitment to become the best idea for the next
few decades.
S P E C I A L F O C U S
114 Public Service Review: Science and Technology: issue 7
Teach a man to fish
Professor Catherine BertiniFormer Executive Director of the World FoodProgrammeMaxwell School, Syracuse University