II-g. Varieties of Government Action
National governments can do many different things that influence the food and nutrition situation within their countries—for better or worse. In many cases there are specific programs explicitly designed to improve the nutrition status of particular segments of the population, such as school meal programs, child feeding programs, subsidies on staple foods, breastfeeding support programs, and nutrition education programs. In addition, the government’s agricultural policy, fiscal policy, land tenure policy, etc. are likely to have substantial effects on the food and nutrition situation.
Of course many other actors in the society, apart from government, can have significant effects. Decisions made by food producers, processors, and marketers will have great impacts. Labor unions may be influential. In some cases church groups or other nongovernmental organizations may establish feeding programs for vulnerable groups. Here, however, our special concern is with the actions of government.
The core assumption is that normally individuals, in the context of their families and communities, will provide adequate food for themselves. The government’s task is not to feed people, but to make sure that people live in circumstances in which they can provide for themselves. However, there are situations in which the system breaks down.
The many different kinds of things that governments can do to strengthen food and nutrition security may be usefully divided into four broad categories: respect, protect, facilitate, and fulfill.
First, governments can respect people’s efforts to feed themselves, and not interfere with their efforts to do so. In some cases governments fail to show this respect by, say, taking away land they had historically used to produce their own food, or by blocking their access to that land.
Second, governments can protect people’s efforts to feed themselves. The need for protection comes up when, say, marauders steal farmers’ crops before they can be harvested.
Third, governments can facilitate people’s efforts to feed themselves. Governments can provide extension services, sound currencies, market information, and a variety of other services that make it easier for people to feed themselves.
Fourth, in some circumstances governments may fulfill people’s needs by providing food directly, through programs such as school meals, emergency shelters, subsidized staple foods, etc.
In brief, your government respects your efforts to get what you want by not interfering with you; it protects you from others who might get in the way of your getting what you want; it facilitates you by helping you get what you want; and it sometimes may fulfil you wishes by giving you want you want directly.
In any country it is possible to identify a variety of things the government can do with regard to respecting, protecting, facilitating, and fulfilling food and nutrition needs. One can also identify which things it actually does do. Later, in Subsection VII-b, when we discuss the government’s obligations associated with food and nutrition rights, we will ask which things the government must do in these four categories.
Continue to III-a. Historical Foundations
Subsection II-g last updated on September 26, 1999