Five-volume set provides governments and civil society with "how-to"
guidelines

23 October 2009, Rome - FAO has published a "methodological toolbox"
on the right to food, designed to provide countries, institutions
civil society and other stakeholders with a series of effective
instruments they can use to assert the right to adequate food as a
basic human right.

The publication comes at a time when scores of countries are seeking a
way to incorporate the right to food into their legislations,
strategies, policies and programs. The toolbox can provide useful
guidance to policymakers and stakeholders interested in moving in the
above direction.

"The right to food is not a utopia," said Barbara Ekwall, right to
food team leader. "It can be realized for every woman, man and child,
even in times of crisis. We have the legal framework in form of
international, regional and national human rights standards. To make
the right to adequate food a reality for all, action at country level
is essential. It is there that the difference will be made for those
who are suffering from hunger."

"The development, launch and distribution of the Right to Food
Methodological Toolbox was realized thanks to the support of Germany,
with contributions from Norway, Spain and the Netherlands.

The toolbox — prepared by the agency's right to food team — is a book
binder including six different volumes that provide practical
information and detailed guidance on ways to integrate the right to
food into different levels of national legislation, policies and
programmees. It provides operational assistance to those seeking to
monitor the right to adequate food and to identify and classify
vulnerable groups suffering from hunger and food insecurity. There are
also a large number of recommendations on planning, implementing and
monitoring public allocations and expenditures in this field.

The toolbox, was put together by experts and practitioners with ample
knowledge and experience in a variety of fields. The five volumes
offer practical information into a variety of important subjects such
as:

    * introducing the right to food into a constitution or into
national legislation;
    * monitoring the right to adequate food, addressed largely to
technical staff in public sector institutions and civil society
organisations responsible for planning and monitoring food security,
nutrition and poverty;
    * assisting governments, civil society and other stakeholders in
assessing the right to food situation;
    * exploring how government budgets relate to the realization of
the right to food, offering a 10-steps program for building the case
for a right to food approach, analysing the government budget and
presenting a claim.

Finally, the right to food toolbox includes a Curriculum Outline that
will help to strengthen country capacity to implement the right to
food. It can be used by teachers, trainers and other educators in
developing specific courses or training programmes on the right to
food.



The toolbox can be downloaded from this page:
http://www.fao.org/righttofood/publi_02_en.htm