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Ten Days for World Development 1977/Leader Kit

Gardner, Robert (ed.)
Publisher:  Inter Church Committee for World Development Education, Toronto, Canada
Year Published:  1977  
Resource Type:  Article

A kit designed for those who plan activites for the Ten Days for World Development programme.

Abstract:  This kit is produced to help those who plan to do some community animation for the Ten Days for World Development programme during February 11-21, 1977. In focusing on how food is produced, distributed, and delivered, the material collected for the kit shows that the varieties of issues we face today are the symptoms of a deeper single malaise. The content is hopeful in that it begins by demystifying a number of false popular contentions about overpopulation, lack of food and underdeveloped countries. The materials show that we have the resources and know-how to eliminate hunger and that social inequality alone is to blame for preventing this. The process of how about 3% of large land holders have come to control 80% of farm land is outlined. The effects of this concentration are shown to result in increased mechanization and specialization in high value non-essential crops for export. This acts to force small farmers out of production and off the land. The kit suggests a basic policy of basing land use on nutritional output with priority given to de-centralized industry at the service of labor intensive agriculture . This means transforming social relationships through redistributing control over food-producing resources. An interview with Francis Moore Lappe`, author of Diet for a Small Planet, and a national resource person for the Ten Days program, shows how an ordinary person can become significantly committed to historical change. There is also a theological reflection by Bishop Helmut Frenz who states why the struggle for human rights is today necessarily a struggle against structures. The kit concludes by saying that food relief is not a substitute for persistent analysis, mobilization of public opinion and social action, all of which will eventually result in conditions allowing people too feed themselves. Included is a list of resources to help this process begin.
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