A surge in global food prices reveals that economic growth alone cannot guarantee the right to food. UN Human Rights advocates for rights-based action to protect the availability, adequacy, affordability, and sustainability of food, and the inclusion of women farmers and other small-scale food producers in agrifood systems in The Gambia. 

“We all need to eat, the right to food ensures that we can do so with dignity,” said Pradeep Wagle, Chief of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Section at UN Human Rights. 

The right to food protects every person’s right to have regular, permanent, and unrestricted access — either directly or through purchase — to adequate, safe, and culturally acceptable food that is sufficient to maintain a healthy and active life. It is inherently linked to the rights to health, land, work and social security, adequate housing, education and many others.

Inflation threatens the realization of the right to food 

According to FAO, since 2021, persistent pressures in global food markets have driven food prices upward, undermining post-pandemic recovery efforts and exposing deep structural inequities in the global food system. Despite economic rebound, millions have seen slight improvement in their food security — a clear indication that economic growth alone does not guarantee the realisation of the right to food.

FAO also indicates that, while median global food price inflation rose from 2.3 percent in December 2020 to 13.6 percent in January 2023, low-income countries experienced significantly steeper increases, with inflation peaking at 30 percent in May 2023.  The organization highlights the scale of the human cost: a 10 per cent increase in food prices is associated with a 3.5 per cent rise in moderate or severe food insecurity and a 1.8 per cent increase in severe food insecurity. 

“This sustained price pressure has eroded household purchasing power and compromised families’ access to adequate food and their ability to balance the competing costs of their healthcare and education,” Wagle said. 

Promoting a rights-based response to hunger

UN Human Rights promotes the realization of the right to food by centring food-related policies and programmes around rights-holders, including small-scale food producers. For the Office, even in times of economic downturn, Governments must fulfil their legal obligations to maximise all available resources to respect, protect, and to fulfil the right to food. They should do so by facilitating access to adequate food or by ensuring that food systems are inclusive and sustainable.

This year, UN Human Rights co-organised a two-day National Dialogue on the Right to Food in The Gambia in partnership with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of The Gambia and FAO. The Dialogue brought together a wide range of duty-bearers and rights-holders, including Government line ministries, farmers’ associations, seed and laboratory officials, civil society and the African Commission on Human’s and People’s Rights – united to chart the way forward through a human rights-based approach.  

The Dialogue followed recommendations made in January 2025 during The Gambia Universal Periodic Review, in which Members States highlighted the need to strengthen cooperation with the international community to promote and protect human rights, in particular, economic, social and cultural rights, continue its engagement with international human rights bodies, and implement measures to enhance food security.

“There were strong recommendations that were made to The Gambia to implement the issues relating to right to food. This is important. Having all these department ministries and agencies be part of the process shows that the momentum is on,” said Emmanuel Joof, Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of the Gambia. 

At the Dialogue, civil society and farmers’ groups revealed their challenges related to the right to food. They spoke of broken or hybrid seeds, waters polluted with oil, and saline wells and boreholes. They also called attention to the fact that most of The Gambia’s food and agricultural inputs are imported, and how this has resulted in supply chain disruptions and price spikes. Without disaggregated public data, adequate social protection, and non-discriminatory access to resources, they said, local food producers are caving to competition with producers from abroad. 

Gender equality to advance food security

Fatou Njie Samba, from the National Women’s Farmers Organization, highlighted how The Gambia’s food systems are rooted in gender inequality and exploitation. While men control the rights related to property, resources, and decision-making, women are assigned informal and unpaid labour; accounting for 60-80 per cent of food production. Women in The Gambia own only 10 per cent of arable land. For Njie Samba, without secure land tenure and direct access to finance, women farmers are unable to make medium or long-term decisions on how to scale or diversify crops for greater value-add or resilience. 

In 2023, FAO indicated that measures to close the productivity gap between farms managed by men and women, and ensure the equal enjoyment of opportunities and the rights to food and land,could result in a 3.2 per cent increase in global agriculture value added, equating to a rise of USD 133.5 billion. Achieving this would require measures to address deep-rooted gender biases, repeal discriminatory legislation inhibiting the enjoyment and realization of women’s land rights, and ensure equal access to finance. 

FAO also pointed out that increasing women’s and girls’ access to education would contribute to empowering women and providing them access to social and economic benefits, such as higher wages or improvements in maternal and child health and nutrition. The right to water is also closely interrelated to the right to food and land rights: water is essential for agriculture production, and other stages of agrifood systems, therefore barriers that women face in accessing and managing water resources directly affects their capacity to ensure sufficient level of nutrition for their households.

“The government really needs to include us more in what they are doing. We know that they have included some women, but still now there is a big gap that needs to be closed. That is by including us in decision making,” said Njie Samba.

The Dialogue concluded with a set of key recommendations, aimed to serve as an advocacy tool and to guide legal, policy and budgetary decision-making. These included calls for timely government support to farmers, ensuring justiciability of the right to food, and strengthening the promotion and protection of related rights, such as the right to land and right to work. 

“We have discussed many things that have affected my organization. When I go back to them, I will discuss with them and tell them that we have some people who are ready to stand for us,” added Njie Samba.

UN Human Rights aims to follow up on the Dialogue by providing technical support to stakeholders in their efforts to promote, protect and realize the right to food. This includes addressing challenges related to the right to food by involving key actors such as small-scale food producers in decision-making processes and offering technical advice in developing right to food-related legislation, policies and programmes.  

“At the international level, you cannot talk about human rights without the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The support they have given to the National Human Rights Commission has translated into real impact in our society,” said Joof. 

This story first appeared on the website of UN Human Rights