JUNE 1995

The Hunger Project launches "Hunger-Free Zone" strategies in India and Bangladesh

On 20 April 1995, our work to end hunger reached a critical milestone. Leaders of the 11 state Hunger Project councils in India met with the government's Planning Commission and Joan Holmes in New Delhi to launch "Agenda 1997" -- a strategy to create hunger-free zones in every state where we are working by the 50th anniversary of India's independence in 1997.

For the past four and one-half years, The Hunger Project has applied the principles of Strategic Planning-in-Action to causing breakthroughs in health, education, nutrition, women's empowerment and incomes of hungry people. Now, we are taking the next quantum leap.

The "hunger-free zones" strategy is a comprehensive, systematic, dynamic approach to achieve the sustainable end of hunger over a large enough area that it is not just a demonstration of charity, but a systematic, comprehensive demonstration of social transformation.

The heart of this strategy is empowerment: empowering hungry people to end their own hunger. The challenge is to create the strategic actions that will reach, empower, and unleash the creativity and productivity of every individual sufficient for them to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.

Formulated late last year in India, it has already inspired the creation of a "hunger-free zone" strategy in The Hunger Project-Bangladesh.

cf: Proceedings of the Planning Commission Meeting

In India: putting planning in the hands of people
Hunger Project council leaders came to New Delhi not merely to report, but to cause sweeping changes in India's national policies. To do this, they formed themselves as a new "National Council - Hunger Project India."

The National Council now includes many of the most experienced and committed leaders for the end of hunger in India. The 11 states include more than 80 percent of India's population. As Mohan Daria, a Maharashtra Council member who himself once led the Planning Commission, stressed: "we must emphasize with government that we speak with the authority of perhaps the only organization that is truly spread across the entire nation."

Foremost among their recommendations: put local people in charge of their own strategic planning. Every village has different strategic issues - the critical "missing ingredient" can only be determined locally. An example was given from the state of Uttar Pradesh. In a local-level planning meeting facilitated by The Hunger Project, people identified a bridge and a road to be critical missing elements for economic progress. Representatives of government approved funding for the bridge and road on the spot. Such a decision would never have emerged from a state-level analysis.

In Bangladesh: Freedom Fighters for the "Second Liberation"
In Bangladesh, the strategy to create "hunger-free zones" begins with the people themselves -- organizing all the poor within a village so that they have a voice in their own future.

This strategy builds on the Vision, Commitment and Action campaign. More than 200 volunteer "animators" have been trained to lead Vision, Commitment and Action workshops, and mobilize people into grassroots actions for ending hunger. To date, 50,000 individuals have taken the workshop across 45 of Bangladesh's 64 districts.

A pioneering group of animators from 10 districts are now pioneering the Hunger-Free Zone strategy. They have declared themselves to be "facilitators" of peoples own strategies for their self-development. In Joypurhat, for example, villagers have organized, built their own health center, and built irrigation systems to allow them to grow two crops per year instead of one. They raised their own money from their own Financial Family members, who joined in the construction!

The facilitator in Joypurhat, Mohammed Pannu, stated, "when I was a boy, my father was a freedom fighter for our nation's liberation. I thought I would not have that chance. But I do. Now I am a freedom fighter for our second liberation - for our liberation from poverty, from dependency - for a self-reliant future for Bangladesh."

A Strategy of Empowerment
There are five distinct ways The Hunger Project empowers people to create hunger-free zones;

SOCIAL EMPOWERMENT: Social barriers to participation in the economy must be removed, such as prejudices against women, castes and religions. People must free themselves from internalized feelings of worthlessness, reasserting their dignity and rights.

INFORMATIONAL EMPOWERMENT: Village leaders often have no idea what services are available, and how to obtain them. Our councils empower people to get what they need by creating directories of government services, training workshops and videos.

ORGANIZATIONAL EMPOWERMENT: Bureaucratic inefficiencies hold back progress. The Hunger Project empowers people, voluntary organizations and government to work together effectively, and achieve efficiencies through synergy and convergence.

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT: Hungry people need opportunities (skills, markets, credit) to increase their incomes. Hunger Project councils provide a "menu" of new income earning opportunities and ensure these new opportunities are available to all.

POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT: Through training programs and local strategy forums, The Hunger Project enables villagers to gain effective voice in running their communities, reallocating resources and altering policies.