Food insecurity and climate change

FOOD INSECURITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
We wish a Happy New Year to all friends and supporters of Fundación Adelante. We appreciate your generous contributions that resulted in a successful holidayfundraising drive last month. Looking ahead into 2010, we pledge to make the most of your contributions in our struggle to improve the standard of living of the poorest Honduran women and their families.Unfortunately, food security, perhaps the most important indicator of standard of living, remains out of reach for a substantial number of Honduran families – a fact that keeps us striving to reachan increasing number of clients.
In fact, according to the United Nations World Food Program, Honduras ranks fourth among 28 Latin American and Caribbean nations in terms of food insecurity - withpregnant and lactating women and children under five years of age the most at risk. Currently, over one million people in the country are suffering from food insecurity and 53.4 of the ruralpopulation are living in extreme poverty [ 1 ].
The main culprit recently has been the “El Niño” climatic phenomenon which caused a drought in 2009 that scorched corn, bean and vegetable crops insouth-central parts of the country – especially in the departments of Yoro, Lempira, Francisco Morazán, Valle and Choluteca [ 2 ].
Along with such natural climatic fluctuations such as “El Niño,” globalclimate change threatens the well-being of the poor who, according to Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), are more likely to depend on agriculture fora living, and risk going hungry or losing their livelihood when droughts, floods, or hurricanes strike.
She went on to say in the organization’s 2009 State of the World Population report that poorwomen in poor countries are among the hardest hit by climate change, even though they contributed the least to it,” and that “because women are often the poorest in society and have less power over...