F or how many years have people repeated the Chinese

proverb ‘give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a

man to fish, he eats for a lifetime’? Yet how often

has the world actually put this wisdom into practice?

Since perhaps the biblical story of loaves and fishes, there

have been examples of people providing food to others. In

more modern times, the Marshall Plan in Europe was a

main contributor to the continent’s post-war rebuilding.

Since then, NGOs, the UN World Food Programme and

many governments have provided food aid for millions of

people each year.

For decades, however, the ‘eat for a lifetime’ part of the

aforementioned proverb has been mostly ignored. Only

4% of official development assistance, for instance, is

directed to agricultural development. The world is

extremely generous in helping human beings live through

obvious, well-publicised disasters, but reluctant to help

those stuck in chronic hunger and poverty.

That has begun to change, as several notable examples

illustrate. In his inaugural address, President Barack

Obama declared: “To the people of poor nations, we

pledge to work alongside you to make your farms

flourish.” The G8 and the G20 made serious commitments

to support farmers in developing countries: 14 European

countries and the EU joined others in pledging at least

$22bn for this purpose. Spain, Canada, the Republic

of Korea, the USA, and the Bill & Melinda Gates

Foundation announced the creation of a new Global

Agricultural and Food Security Program based at the

World Bank. This all follows the commitment of African

governments to each work towards 10% of their budgets

for agriculture. Since agriculture is the primary occupation

and largest contributor to most African countries’ GNP,

this is critically important.

‘Teaching’ fishing is therefore developing beyond words.

However, it takes more than money. Leadership is

required from each developing country to push through

legal changes – in land ownership laws, inheritance laws,

credit systems, and even in seed development. It takes

community ownership, as well as training and extension

programmes to actually reach poor farmers, who are

most often women. Updated research on crop develop -

ment is needed that serves the poor by providing crops

that are more weed and pest resistant, that grow well in

tropical climates, that need less water, that provide more

nutritious and vitamin rich foods and foods that are

easier to cook. Finally, it takes sustained support from the

donor countries.

These initiatives have to be much more than the isolated

‘good idea’ of 2010. Instead, they require the drive

and commitment to become the best idea for the next

few decades.

S P E C I A L F O C U S

114 Public Service Review: Science and Technology: issue 7

Teach a man to fish

Professor Catherine BertiniFormer Executive Director of the World FoodProgrammeMaxwell School, Syracuse University