The Basics of Human Rights

Overview of the Social Welfare Concern 

Social welfare is a variety of aid programs premeditated to warrant the wellbeing of citizens of a nation. It provides aid to a population through programs such as unemployment compensation, health care, housing aid, food stamps, or child care assistance. Social injustice is or are unjust actions done to a society or a population. Social prejudice is where the equals are treated unequally, and the unequal are treated equally. Social justice is, therefore, the idea of just and fair relations between an individual and their society. Social injustice is what would warrant a social welfare concern. Social welfare concern is then the need for social welfare in a society that is undergoing social injustice. Some examples of social injustices are homophobia, discrimination, or ageism. These are situations that would warrant a social welfare concern to assist and alleviate the problem. Food insecurity is a problem that faces a large number of people, especially in developing countries. Food insecurity is a problem that has culminated out of instability like war, environmental conditions like drought or economic issues such as poor policy formulation. The underlying fact is that food insecurity is not what society should go through. In the standards of human rights, everyone is entitled to get enough food for them and their family. Initiatives like food stamps, food aid, feeding programs, and funding are some of the initiatives that have culminated out of a social welfare concern. However, the situation is unequal in developed and undeveloped countries. The situation is dire for developing nations, at least, those that are riddled with war and political instability (Wehlberg, 2008). Food security is the right for every individual to have access to safe and nutritious food. Therefore, by default, food insecurity becomes a social injustice. The response to food insecurity has traditionally been food aid to the affected population. The action is a program made possible by donor countries that donate the food to regions in need. Food insecurity may be social injustice, but we wish to focus on food aid as an injustice in society. 

Food Aid as a Social Injustice 

Food donation is normally a social welfare concern for regions affected by food insecurity. Remember, food insecurity is social prejudice, but the traditional response has been to provide food aid. Indeed, food for a hungry population would suffice as an immediate response to the problem. Still, it fails to address the causes of the predicament of hunger in the affected regions. It also fails to acknowledge both the short term and long-term effects of the social welfare concern (food aid) to the regions being facilitated. Food insecurity, just as traditionally known, has been an issue for developing countries, which have experienced some form of instability due to war or political instability that has disrupted its normal order. People who suffer are the citizens of such countries, and the suffering is more extensive than food insecurity. Most citizens can become victims of war, depletion of their human rights, or become displaced from their homes. The focus is on hunger. People have the right to feed at least three times a day, and the food should be nutritive to cater to body nutritional requirements (Food and Agriculture Organization, 1996). The objective of food aid has been to handle two factors: alleviate hunger and cater for nutrition. However, the problem is digressing from developing countries. Developed nations like Canada are experiencing food insecurity. The country is not riddled by war or political instability. It implies that there is a need to demystify the tradition of food insecurity from developing nations. So, how is food aid a form of social injustice? Developing countries bear witness to the overdependence of aid in their countries. Food aid as a dependency means that the population cannot do without it. But for how long can the population depend on it? The notion is that dependency on aid is not a solution to hunger, especially in the long run. Using the aid as a long-term social welfare concern, therefore, becomes social injustice. In the precedence of society, helping out part of society with food is a good gesture, but it becomes a vice if you let that part of society depend on that kind of aid. Hence, the saying 'give a man fish and he will eat for a day, teach them how to fish, and they will eat for a lifetime.' The right process is to offer aid then come up with a lasting solution that would help a nation become food secure. Focusing on the causes of food insecurity can be an initial scope towards solving the problem, and then formulating policies that would help solve the problem can be the last step towards food security. Food aid is like treating the symptom while the solution is to treat the disease. 

History of Food Aid as a Social Concern 

Food insecurity as instability has been witnessed since a long time ago. The injustice of food aid is a component that existed from time immemorial. To look into the history of food aid, we would focus on America as one of the early nations faced with the pressure of becoming a donor country. Between 1794 and 1914, America was a young nation struggling to be self-reliant. The leaders then urged the government not to form alliances that would later affect the stability of the nation, for instance, forming an alliance with China who would later be at war with India. The situation would force America to take sides, which is difficult, especially if India is also an ally. The sentiment was urged by President George Washington during his farewell speech and echoed by Thomas Jefferson during his tenure as president. It may all have been fine with sentiments about war or prolonged conflicts on several issues, but what about other foreign events that managed to intrude into the consciousness of Americans nonetheless? Events such as natural calamities including and not limited to drought, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, and famine would render fellow humans in need as they are powerless, blameless, and helpless. Were these distressing situations to be ignored by America because of their ultimate quest to cocoon themselves from external worldly events? An issue that was intermittently debated between 1794 and 1914 (Riley, 2017). The debate was titled: should the human sentiment of sympathy felt by private Americans in the reaction to suffering abroad enable or otherwise require official federal government action and public funds expenditure in response? 

Other stakeholders in the political realm contributed to the debate leading up to the first food aid America offered to Venezuela in 1812 while engaging in a war against Britain. Food aid for foreigners took a new course after 1914 under the leadership of the 31st President, Herbert Hoover. His leadership between 1914 and 1923 saw increased efforts by Americans to feeds millions in Europe and Asia ravaged by war and revolution. His efforts are evident through a radio address to the American people on May 17, 1946. Herbert said that hunger is a silent visitor who comes like a shadow. He sits beside every anxious mother three times each day. He brings not alone suffering and sorrow but fear and terror. He carries disorder and the paralysis of government, and even its downfall. He is more destructive than armies, not only in human life but in morals. All of the values of the right living melt before his invasions, and every gain of civilization crumbles (Riley, 2017). Judging by what President Herbert said, hunger is a serious thing. Better phrased as food insecurity, the problem has continued to exist in the 20 th century. But as early as 1914, food aid can still be redefined as an injustice. When Europe and Asia were still locked in their wars and revolutions, America did a great thing to provide food aid and feed millions of citizens bogged down by the actions of their polity. Still, it is treating a symptom and not the disease. The disease was war and revolution. America could have intervened in the actions of other polities in nations that were unstable. However, would this be going against the advice of their founding fathers to steer clear of forming alliances to protect the sanctity of the land of the brave and free? Wouldn't America's intervention in the wars and revolutions have helped alleviate other symptoms like displacement, illiteracy, and underdevelopment besides food insecurity? Well, it is hard to factualize these sentiments, but ideally would have made sense to have undertaken some intervention. 

Analysis of Food Aid through Social Policies 

Food aid has shifted geologically with donor nations increasing as well as target regions shifting from Asia to the much-reckoned conglomerate of developing countries in Africa. Just like their counterparts in the early years, unstable African countries require food aid to alleviate their much-dreaded visitor – hunger. Policies on food aid from the UK and America focused on helping troubled nations with food aid as a resource, which can be the actual food or funding to purchase food. For most nations contributing to food aid, the policy has mostly been to provide food aid through multilateral agencies like the World Food Program (WFP) to assist crisis countries faced with food insecurity. However, the situation may have changed not just to alleviate hunger but to provide nourishment and food. Enabling crisis countries to have their citizens focus on more burning issues like poverty eradication that may have changed the kind of policies able nations came up with to assist developing nations. The policies on food aid were, in most part, out of an obligation. An obligation meted upon developed countries to assist developing nations. And with that obligation came minimum levels to which each country could donate (Clay et al., 1998). To continue to assess the situation from an able country to an unable country will be deceiving as there are aspects of food insecurity in developed nations. But do they need food aid or food assistance to alleviate food insecurity? Doing so would exacerbate the problem. The presence of food insecurity in western nations takes away the focus from developing countries ridden by war and instability. Food insecurity is, therefore, a symptom or indicator of a failed system, a failed policy, and, in that regard, why continue to use a failed policy. A failed policy in use and the idea of policy for food aid in third world countries are both social injustices. When these injustices are being committed, they are unknowingly perpetrated as no one would want to put to practice a failed idea. The ethical attributes can only be assessed after an outcome is realized, assessed, and concluded to be negative. The continuous use of a strategy after realizing the negativity is a social injustice. So here we look at food aid policies in their generality, an obligation for richer countries to help the poorer countries or a move out of sympathy of an able citizen and the obligation of a government to act in lieu of its citizens. 

Food Aid Policy Analysis Framework 

Before a policy is implemented, it has to undergo a rigorous process of analysis to ascertain whether it is fit enough for execution. Attempting to analyze already existing food aid policies has to put into consideration the periods, purpose, and status of the nation or people receiving the food aid. One major determinant of policy is its effectiveness. Does the policy eradicate the problem at hand, and what are the positive effects as well as the negative effects? Analysis entails trying to gauge whether the good outweighs the bad and to what degree is bad. In regards to food aid, policy formulators or implementers have to understand that households they intend to assist are already in control of a bundle of assets or endowments (Barrett, 2006). Part of the household is working and earning, another is skilled in some form of labor, while the others may be home but can be laborious. It is important to note with the underlying information that food aid can have two broad classes of effects. These are an insurance effect before and a transfer effect after the flow of food aid in a region. Both effects can alter the behavior of a household by changing their incentives. The behavior change can trigger positive dependency or negative dependency. Positive dependency is the intended effect by introducing food aid, but negative dependency is an unintended effect. However, a negative dependency is something that can be anticipated with thoughtful analysis. 

In the case of Africa as a major donor beneficiary, the intended effect is achieved with warring countries like South Sudan, whose citizens have been affected by the war between two communities. In a war environment, food production and procurement are inhibited, leaving behind hungry citizens. Food aid will alleviate the hunger till the warring faction stop and normalcy is returned. An undesired effect is then South Sudan becomes dependent on food aid even after normalcy is returned. Dependency hinders progress in development, especially in the part of food security. The next level of analysis focuses more on the unintended effects of the policy. The analysis is geared towards the drawbacks of food aid policies rather than the intended effects, which still encompasses the negative effects of policy implementation. For instance, food aid, in the case of funding, could solicit unintended effects in a society. Funding may cause food prices to hike, causing citizens to have to liquidate their livestock or land to meet their immediate consumption needs leaving them in a rather precarious state, and the food aid policy may not have solved anything. Beneficiaries of food aid also lack the understanding of who is to benefit from the aid or how what quantity each household is to get is arrived at. It makes them not to adjust their behavior to food aid flows, leaving the policy at a rather precarious position (Barrett, 2006). Equity is another level of policy analysis. Equity pits a policy in a different population to assed whether the policy will have the same effects. Food aid policies solicit the same effects, especially in African countries being long term beneficiaries of food aid. In some African countries, there have been instances where food aid is repackaged and sold to unsuspecting consumers. Such a problem is prevalent as both multilateral and bilateral organizations lack enforcing powers to deal with such scenarios. The endgame is that beneficiaries of the food aid may not get the assistance they need. Under implementation of the food aid policy, three factors are analyzed including cost, feasibility, and acceptability. Food aid policies involve donor countries providing food or funding. Getting these to the beneficiary populations costs time and money. Feasibility entails whether the policy is technically feasible. In the case of food aid, do the countries providing food have it, and if it is funding, are they still able to sustain funding, especially in the current economic times. Agricultural production in donor countries is also dwindling because of climate change. Fewer agricultural produce is available for food aid and coupled with the soring population figures; aid becomes unsustainable. The last level of implementation analysis is acceptability. Acceptability is whether the stakeholders involved in providing, supplying, and implementing food aid are all following the policy. If food aid policies are formulated as an obligation, then the weakness upon it comes as a statistical obligation. That America or the UK has provided food aid worth a given number of tons. But the functionality of it is ignored hence negative effects like negative dependency from developing countries. The solution for food insecurity for developed countries has often been food banks. But using food banks as a solution is ineffective as arguably the solution masks the problem of food insecurity rather than solve it. Therefore, using food banks to alleviate food insecurity is a temporary solution to relieve the situation. It is treating a system by giving painkillers that will offer relief for the pain only to come back later. The solution for treating the disease includes policies that cover social justice and food security through government commitments to strategies like taxation reforms, commitments to living reforms and wages, as well as new approaches to food nutrition and agricultural policies (Roncarolo & Potvin, 2016). An in-depth look at agricultural policies in the western world went for large scale farming. The policy advocates for mechanized farming and the use of artificial inputs that degrades the soil health. These kinds of policies have eluded the agricultural industry from more practical traditional farming like market gardening, which is highly intensive and variety-oriented production, and also a better way to ensure safe food security in the region. The policies implemented by stakeholders mainly cause social injustice in the area of food aid. 

Organizations Trying to Address the Injustice 

Food insecurity is taken as social injustice, but this article defines one of the reliefs for food insecurity (food aid) as social injustice. The injustice culminates from the belief that food aid is a solution, yet it is merely a relief to a symptom. The main problem is food insecurity, which would need permanent solutions. Any organization or individual working towards food security is a person or organization working towards alleviating hunger and nutrition deficiency, a long-run solution that will take away the need for food aid. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) under the United Nations (UN) is at the forefront of restructuring food aid policies and make them more functional; in a sense that would lead to negative effects hindering the progress of households or the development of countries. 

Strategies by the Organizations 

FAO has realized through research that 55% of people are concentrated in urban areas, and the number would grow to about 68% by 2050 (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2019). The fact is true for countries in Asia and Africa; regions that have been hit hard by food insecurity and rely the most on food aid. FAO is working with stakeholders like other multilateral organizations and governments to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 11. The objective is promoting sustainable communities and cities, which is also key in achieving the other SDGs. Other key SDGs are numbers one and two. No poverty and zero hunger, respectively. As UN initiatives, these goals are not enforceable to sovereign countries. The SDGs act as guidelines that a region can either use to follow or neglect with no consequence. The lack of an enforcing contingent prolongs the realization period. SDGs that are supposed to be achieved by the year 2030 may end up taking longer. Policy formulation is likewise also pertinent to the nations and organizations involved. Countries like the United States are still the leading donators of aid and can conjure bargaining power over global food aid policies. The parties relevant to food aid policies and strategies for food security are huge but have minimal representation on the ground. Minimal representation means their limitations can be addressed if grassroots representation is available, which is a good opportunity for social workers. 

Intervention 

Strategies like the SDGs are great to implement and would work greatly against dependency on food aid and food security. The strategy is a way of dealing with the food aid social injustices. Social workers are in a better position to facilitate the strategies as they can work from grassroots levels. A social worker is capable of visiting communities or households educate them on policies and strategies, guide and offer assistance in implementing and measure progress through the different stages. Social workers act as the bridge between the beneficiaries and the stakeholders. Strategies and policies are prone to succeed with this kind of feedback channel dependent on several external and internal factors. For example, climate change is a factor that affects agriculture globally, thus affecting food security globally. Communities that social workers are to work with have different cultures and may present hostilities with social workers. But all these factors are scopes that can be considered before working with the communities. 

Reflection 

Social location and values are key when working with communities in the field, especially as a social worker. My social location is flexible and approachable, mindful of the cultures and beliefs of communities, as well as optimistic that the right goals will be achieved. I believe that my location will help me connect and impact the community I am to work with. Having patience and understanding that change is conflicting will ensure the effectiveness of the strategies to implement without reproach of how long it may take. I can conclude that with these attributes, social workers play a vital role in the implementation and execution of strategies. 

References 

Barrett, C. B. (2006). Food Aid's Intended and Unintended Consequences. SSRN Electronic Journal . doi:10.2139/ssrn.1142286 

Clay, E., Pillai, N., & Benson, C. (1998). The future of food aid: A policy review . London: Overseas Development Institute. 

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (1996). Report of the World Food Summit: 13–17 November 1996. Rome, It: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from www.fao.org/docrep/003/w3548e/w3548e00.htm on 25/3/2020. 

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2019). Tackling food insecurity at the urban level - turning global commitments into local realities. Rterieved from http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1181196/icode/ on 25/3/2020. 

Riley, B. (2017). The political history of American food aid: An uneasy benevolence . New York, NY, NY: Oxford University Press. 

Roncarolo, F., & Potvin, L. (2016). Food insecurity as a symptom of a social disease: Analyzing a social problem from a medical perspective.  Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien ,  62 (4), 291–e163. 

United Nations. (n.d.). #Envision2030: 17 goals to transform the world for persons with disabilities Enable. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030.html on 25/3/2020. 

Wahlberg, K. (2008). Food Aid for the Hungry? Retrieved from https://www.globalpolicy.org/world-hunger/46251-food-aid-for-the-hungry.html on 25/3/2020