Planning for Food Security in the 1960s: FAO and the Freedom from Hunger Campaign in Africa

Head of the Unibo Research Unit: Prof. Arrigo Pallotti

The research project deals with the genesis and evolution of the Freedom from Hunger Campaign (FFHC), launched by Indian Director-General of FAO, B. R. Sen, in 1960 and pursued up to the early 1980s. It aimed to raise awareness on fighting hunger and malnutrition, and its importance for the development of Newly Independent Countries. FFHC was conceived as a structured, comprehensive international partnership among UN, member states and non-state actors and was based on three pillars: research in agriculture; education and training; and rural development projects, funded by donor countries, to make agriculture a priority within the national development plan of recipients. The Bologna research unit exams FFHC from two complementary analytical perspectives: reception of FFHC by some newly independent African countries, with the aim of evaluating whether and how the indications of FAO conditioned the elaboration of their multi-year development plans and affected their domestic economic and social dynamics; how African countries contributed to the definition of the objectives of the campaign, participating in the debates and bringing their own development needs to the Agency. 

Members of the Department

Dott. Davide Chinigò

Prof. Corrado Tornimbeni

Prof. Mario Zamponi

Other members