Rising oceans, climate change, food aid, and human rights in the Marshall Islands

Ingrid Ahlgren*, Seiji Yamada, Allen Wong

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    61 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Climate change impacts are expected to produce more frequent, longer and unpredictable drought periods with further saltwater intrusion in the Marshall Islands. As a result, a significant return to traditional food cropping is unlikely. This will lead to an increased dependence on food aid, especially in the outer atoll populations. An examination of the nutritional content of food aid suggests it is likely to lead to poor health outcomes. Dependence on food aid has gradually increased over the past 70 years in the Marshall Islands, starting with population relocation because of war and nuclear testing and most recently because of climate change. The authors argue that the health impacts of the supplemental imported diet, combined with migration to population centers, may result in an even greater prevalence of chronic diseases, and exert pressures that lead to more communicable disease, further exacerbating the syndemics in the Marshall Islands. The authors conclude that food aid donors and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) government have human rights obligations to ensure that the people in the Marshall Islands have access to adequate nutrition. Accordingly, donors and the government should re-examine the content of food aid and ensure it is of sufficient quality to meet the right to health obligations.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)69-80
    Number of pages12
    JournalHealth and Human Rights
    Volume16
    Issue number1
    Publication statusPublished - 2014

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Rising oceans, climate change, food aid, and human rights in the Marshall Islands'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this