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schemes and the distribution of food and other commodities. The long-term focus was
to help empower communities to become self-reliant and independent through develop-
ment efforts.
Following a severe drought in the early 1990s, the National Consultative Forum on Drought
was established. Establishment of this commission led to numerous investigations, commis-
sions and policy changes related to drought monitoring, mitigation and responses. It also
influenced and shaped future food security and nutrition policies. Due to the severe drought
in 1992, a Nutrition Task Force was established under the auspices of the Consultative Forum.
The Task Force was mandated to initiate public discussion and debate on national nutrition
programmes more broadly than simply focusing on the drought.
However, this time we find ourselves in a significantly different situation. This is the first
serious drought that the post-apartheid government has faced. Add to this that the current
drought is one of the worst since the 1930s. So much about agriculture and food systems is
different to what it was in the 1930s. Except that we are still looking for sustainable ways to
fulfilling the FAO Constitution, in which member states ‘…have undertaken to promote sepa-
rate and collective action for the purpose inter alia of raising levels of agricultural production,
nutrition and standards of living, bettering the condition of rural populations, and ensuring
humanity's freedom from hunger.’
At the height of the worst drought since the 1930s, we are again at a food security and nutri-
tion policy crossroads, struggling to co-ordinate multisectoral implementation of the first
National Food Security Policy. Among the multiple challenges faced with leadership and co-
ordination of one of our most intractable problems, the drought reminds of the urgency of
implementing comprehensive food security and nutrition strategies as part of a bold national
effort to deal with climate change in the midst of volatile political and economic change.
Let’s take the challenge of World Food Day and make it a national discussion for all of the
next 365 days.
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