IIHA and University College Dublin Host World Hunger Conference

On Monday, May 14, 2012 The Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham University and the University College Dublin Clinton Institute for American Studies hosted "The Fight Against Hunger: The History and Future of the Irish Role in Humanitarian Assistance." Ireland plays an exceptional role in the fight against global hunger, providing leadership and example in both government and non-government sectors to provide sustainable solutions to the food crises that haunt this century. The scale and impact of the Irish contribution to humanitarian action is remarkable for a small nation. This symposium provided an opportunity to discuss the history of this role and considered its present and future challenges and opportunities. The symposium looked beyond immediate governmental partnership to the roles of non-government and civil society actors – from aid organizations, religious groups and educators, to philanthropists – and considered the political and cultural
contexts determining Irish/US strategies and collaborations.

Speakers included Brendan Cahill, Fordham University, Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs; Cormac O’Grada, University College Dublin; Tom Arnold, Concern Worldwide; Niall O’Dowd, Irish Voice; David Rieff, Journalist and Author; Brendan Rogers, Irish Aid; Greg Gottlieb, USAID; Ami Desai, Clinton Foundation; Geoff Loane, International Committee of the Red Cross; Kevin M. Cahill, M.D., Fordham University; Loretta Brennan Glucksman, The American Ireland Fund; Patrick Gibbons, University College Dublin; John Harrington, Fordham University; and Liam Kennedy, UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies.

Irish Central recently published two articles about the event, which can be found below or on their website.

Could Ireland lead the world in ending hunger? Ireland, its Diaspora, and the fight against hunger

“The Fight Against Hunger: The History and Future of the Irish Role in Humanitarian Assistance” discussed at Fordham University

By Jane Walsh, IrishCentral Staff Writer

Tom Arnold, CEO of Concern Worldwide, and Niall O’Dowd, founder of IrishCentral, Irish America magazine, and Irish Voice, spoke at “The Fight Against Hunger: The History and Future of the Irish Role in Humanitarian Assistance”, the first annual symposium co-hosted by Fordham University’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs and The Clinton Institute of the University College Dublin, earlier this week.

The conference, which took place at Fordham University in New York City on Monday, May 14, analyzed the role that Ireland has and will play in humanitarian assistance.

As speakers at the conference, O’Dowd and Arnold both voiced their opinions that Ireland, and its diaspora, can take a strategic leadership role in tackling world hunger. “We want Ireland to be to hunger what Norway is to peace,” said Arnold.

As a country that experienced the tragedy of famine 160 years ago, Ireland has a unique connection to hunger. Some two million people emigrated as a result of the famine in less than a decade, creating the large Irish diaspora that now exists in the United States and elsewhere.

“We are children of the famine just as much as we are of the diaspora,” O’Dowd said. “We must do much more on educating our own people [on the Irish famine] and sharing with the world what we went through.”

Ireland has already taken a key leadership role in driving forward innovative solutions to hunger. With the support of Irish Aid and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Concern Worldwide, and Dr. Steve Collins, Director of Valid International, pioneered what is now the international best practice for the treatment of malnutrition.

The community-based management of acute malnutrition model, known as ‘CMAM,’ was revolutionary because it moved away from treating malnutrition in centralized health care facilities, which often meant that mothers had to travel long distances with their children to access care. Instead, CMAM anchors the knowledge and skills to tackle malnutrition in communities by training volunteers to prevent, diagnose, and treat malnutrition in people’s homes.

The shift from health care facilities to CMAM meant that treatment for malnutrition was easier to access for mothers and their children. As a result, far more malnourished children who are in need of treatment are getting access to it before it’s too late. “CMAM is something that the Irish community should be very proud of,” said Arnold.

The Ireland-U.S. partnership around hunger continued in September 2010 when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and then Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin launched the 1,000 Days: Change a Life, Change the Future Call to Action campaign, which looks to improve nutrition during the during the critical 1,000-day window between pregnancy to a child’s second birthday when irreversible physical and mental damage can occur if he or she is undernourished.

Concern has supported the campaign since its inception and will be co-hosting two events around this weekend’s G8 summit to ensure that members renew their commitments to food security and nutrition, particularly during the 1,000-day window.

However, with 55 million children suffering from acute malnutrition and one billion people suffering from food insecurity, there is still much more that needs to be done to ensure that generations are not lost or stunted because of a lack of food and nutrients. “We have never before had the knowledge, evidence, and political and grassroots support as we do now to make malnutrition history,” said Arnold.

With Ireland taking over the EU Presidency in 2013, it will be in a unique position to push the international community for larger collective efforts to tackle hunger and respond to predictable emergencies, like the food crisis that is now unfolding in the Sahel region of West Africa where 18 million people are now facing food insecurity as a result of drought and failed crops and rising food prices. “It is the right thing to do – morally, economically, and politically for Ireland to lead on hunger globally,” said Arnold.

Beyond the Irish Government, freeing mankind from hunger could also be something for the Irish people – both domestically and overseas – to rally around. “The story about Ireland is also about the people working to relieve the world of famine now, not just the economy,” said O’Dowd.

“This is something we could ask the diaspora to get more involved in and doing something noble. We are talking about famine. We are talking about diaspora. It’s time for the two come together.”

Cannibalism was likely practiced in Irish famine says leading expert

Conference also hears world malnutrition can be eliminated in a generation

By Niall O'Dowd, IrishCentral Founder

Cannibalism was likely practiced in Ireland during the Famine, Professor Cormac O Grada of University College Dublin told a New York conference on world hunger at Fordham University on Monday.

O Grada, a leading expert on famine, said there were many rumors about it in Ireland, but one documented report involved a John Connolly in the West of Ireland who came before the court on theft charges.

In the course of the prosecution, it emerged that the family were in such desperate straits that his wife had eaten some of the flesh off the leg of the dead body of her son.

The son’s body was exhumed and it was discovered that his flesh was indeed missing. Connolly was immediately discharged, O Grada noted, as the desperate condition of the Famine victims was taken into account.

Another case of cannibalism was reported in The Times on May 23rd 1849. In Mayo, a starving man was reported to have “extracted the heart and liver...[of] a shipwrecked human body…cast on shore”.

The conference entitled “The Fight against Hunger: the History and Future of the Irish Role in Humanitarian Assistance,” also heard from Concern CEO Tom Arnold and renowned Third World expert physician Dr. Kevin Cahill.

It was organized by the UCD Clinton Institute and The Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham.

Brendan Rogers, Director General of Irish Aid for the Irish government, stated that he was optimistic that today, hunger could be ended by expanding on three policy areas.

They were linking relief rehabilitation and development together, strengthening international partnerships and using a combined approach to tragedies and building up local institutions and communities to help manage crises.

“If we work together on those three fronts I firmly believe that within a generation we can eradicate acute malnutrition and we can seriously reduce the extent and impact of natural and man-made disasters,” he said.

Tom Arnold, Concern’s CEO, stated he was careful never to use the word famine when talking about huge hunger and malnutrition problems as he did not want to sensationalize the problem of world hunger in any way.