Why is world hunger still an issue ?

With conflicts, economic crises and natural disasters, hunger is back in the news.

According to SOFI, the FAO’s (the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation) report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world, 733 million people across the world suffered from hunger in 2023. This is an increase of 152 million people compared to 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The end of hunger is the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) set by governments, with 2030 as a deadline, yet the world is moving in the wrong direction. There are eight years left to eliminate hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition. What are the key figures on hunger today? What are its causes? What is hunger? How can we fight world hunger? We will explore all of this in this article.

HUNGER EXPLAINED

Before delving into the subject, let’s go over the basics. When we talk about hunger here, we are not referring to the feeling of hunger when you skip a meal, but rather to a lasting phenomenon during which populations can no longer access sufficient food, in terms of both quality and quantity. These people are experiencing food insecurity. In other words, they are struggling to feed themselves properly over a prolonged period of time. This lack of food and nutrients will have a direct impact on their health, and if the situation continues, they may suffer from malnutrition, sometimes known as undernutrition.

It leads to weight loss, to the extent that the person becomes underweight, and stunted growth. Malnutrition weakens the immune system, thus making the person vulnerable to other diseases, and can even lead to death.

WHAT IS FAMINE?

Famine is a state of serious food shortage where a significant portion of the population of a country or region has no access to food for a prolonged period, leading to death among the populations concerned. Famine is an exceptional situation where a large number of people cannot feed themselves properly.

International bodies have established a set of food insecurity alert levels known as the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification), which range from 1 to 5. This classification is based on criteria that determine the severity of food insecurity in a region of the world in order to attract international attention to certain critical situations and promote action. The highest levels correspond to an extreme emergency that can be categorised as a famine or quasi-famine.

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING FROM HUNGER? MALNUTRITION FIGURES

In 2023, hunger figures remained relatively stable, but the situation shows contrasting trends in different regions of the world. Asia as a whole and Latin America saw a drop in hunger, while in West Asia, the Caribbean and all sub-regions of Africa, hunger was on the rise. Africa was the most affected region, where a fifth of the population suffers from hunger.

In 2023, hunger affected 385 million people in Asia, 298 million people in Africa, and 41 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

HOW MANY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD DIE OF HUNGER EACH DAY?

In 2022, it was estimated that one person died of hunger every four seconds worldwide².

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING FROM HUNGER IN FRANCE? WHAT IS THE SITUATION IN FRANCE?

In France, between 5 and 7 million people – almost a tenth of the population – used food aid in 2020, according to the ‘State of Poverty in France 2021’ report issued by Secours Catholique. These are figures that have never before been seen in peacetime in France. The coronavirus crisis made already fragile households even more vulnerable, especially single-parent families.

Asylum seekers are also severely affected. In Paris, an estimated 50% of asylum seekers rely exclusively on food aid and 33% of them are in a situation of severe hunger, according to our joint report with several other associations, entitled ‘Those Forgotten by the Right to Asylum’.

WHO IN THE WORLD IS MOST AFFECTED BY HUNGER?

The people most affected by malnutrition are children, women and, especially, farmers and smallholders.

Women, who are the victims of gender inequality, still lack access to land and income sources. Their work, especially domestic work, is often unpaid. When they are on their own, they do not have access to food or enough resources to satisfy their hunger.

Children, particularly children under 5, have a more fragile immune system than adults, and are therefore highly vulnerable. Mothers themselves face serious food insecurity, and as a result, they produce less milk or less nutritious milk, which makes their children more vulnerable to hunger. In addition, unequal access to drinking water has a direct impact on babies’ health, especially when they drink formula mixed with non-potable water.

In its 2023 report, the FAO estimates that 45 million children under the age of 5 are suffering from the deadliest form of malnutrition, which can multiply the risk of the child dying by 12. According to the report, 148 million children under the age of 5 show symptoms of stunted growth and developmental delays due to a chronic lack of essential nutrients in their diet.

WHAT ARE THE THREE MAIN CAUSES OF WORLD HUNGER?

Hunger is mainly the result of conflict, inequalities and the climate emergency. These factors are interlinked and exacerbate each other, creating a vicious circle in which means of subsistence are weakened and lives are ruined.

They are having a growing influence on a global scale. This is particularly the case for climate change and repeated economic shocks, especially those linked to the socio-economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

In 2023, conflicts were the main cause of acute food insecurity in terms of the number of people affected. Conflicts have been the main cause of most of the top ten food crises.³

CONFLICT

In 2023, conflict was the main cause of hunger for 135 million people in 20 countries³. Most of these countries are either in conflict or still suffering the consequences of a past conflict.

In 2023, food crises intensified alarmingly in conflict zones, notably in the Gaza Strip and Sudan. It is therefore important to give these people access to healthcare and humanitarian aid. These areas are often difficult for humanitarian actors to access due to administrative and security constraints.

Today, in many countries, hunger is used as a weapon of war. Starving populations, poisoning wells, burning crops: all of these practices are commonly used tactics to subjugate populations. To combat this, the UN Security Council issued Resolution 2417, which penalizes the use of starvation as a method of warfare.

Conflicts may come about due to unequal access to resources, population movements caused by other conflicts, poverty and even climate change.

INEQUALITIES

Access to the main resources needed for survival – water, land for crops, education and health – is unequal across the world. Even today, millions of people do not have access to running water, and waterborne diseases can contribute to malnutrition. The WHO estimates that 50% of child malnutrition cases are directly linked to the consumption of dirty water and to a lack of access to hygiene and sanitation. To fight against hunger effectively for the long term, we must guarantee SDG number 6: access to water for all.

Gender inequality also plays a part in the development of the fight against hunger. Women’s role in the fight against hunger is essential, yet they face quasi-systematic discrimination in certain regions. In 2022, the food insecurity gap between men and women was reduced considerably. Some 27.8% of women were in a situation of moderate or severe food insecurity, compared to 25.4% of men, according to the SOFI 2023 report. This is a gap of 2.4%, compared to 3.8% in 2021.

All over the world, women do not have equal access to land, tools or the financial means they need to become independent. They can be forced to marry and lack access to education, which traps them in the vicious circle of poverty. If men and women had the same access to land, hunger could drop by 12–17%. Women are also more affected by climate change, population displacement and conflict.

TRANSFORMING FOOD SYSTEMS

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted faults in our food systems.

The pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, two of the world’s biggest exporters of grain, have emphasised importing countries’ dependence on producing countries that specialise in a certain type of product. The war has put pressure on countries that depend on grain imports, such as Madagascar or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In addition, lockdown measures and restrictions on travel to contain the spread of Covid-19 prevented agricultural workers from cultivating their land, forcing them to abandon their crops. Rethinking and improving food systems is clearly more urgent than ever.

Action contre la Faim calls upon decision-makers and governments across the world to take measures to transform food systems. We must reverse negative trends by radically changing food systems and reorienting them towards small-scale agroecology. Governments need to focus their efforts on agroecology and local, sustainable food systems. Agroecology can increase both food production and farmers’ independence while reducing environmental pressures such as greenhouse gas emissions and pollution due to pesticides.

It harnesses various environmentally friendly techniques, such as seeking complementarity between species. It offers a host of advantages in comparison with industrial agricultural practices, which deplete and degrade soil and constitute another cause of hunger. Agroecology values farmers’ expertise and helps to build economically viable, fair food systems.

The global food system must be revised. Leaders must make the most of opportunities like the G7 summit to encourage worldwide change and work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promised by the UN by 2030 to guarantee a sustainable world for all.