Despite the globe producing enough food to sustain all 7.5 billion people, more than 10% of individuals experience daily hunger.
Why? These are the top 10 reasons why hunger still persists as a socio-economic problem in the world today:
Poverty
Hunger and poverty often co-exist. Families who are caught in a cycle of poverty frequently cannot afford nourishing food, which causes undernourishment.
In consequence, malnutrition makes it challenging for people to make more money so they can afford wholesome foods.
There are 89.56 million people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is consistently ranked as one of the poorest nations in the world. The majority of these people make less than $1.25 (about R22) per day.
Food shortages
Farming families encounter stretches of time before harvests that are referred to as “hungry seasons” in places like the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.
At this time of year, food supplies from the previous harvest are depleted but it will be some time before supplies can be replenished. Families are compelled to skip one (or more) meals every day until the next harvest, which could be months away.
War and conflict
Hunger and conflict are two sides of the same coin. Civil violence in South Sudan has resulted in widespread emigration and abandoned farmland.
Crop failure is the end outcome, and paired with sky-rocketing inflation rates that make imported food unaffordable, 7.2 million people are now facing a food crisis.
Similar to Yemen, where the protracted conflict has left over half the population (about 17 million people) in need of immediate help in the absence of ongoing humanitarian food aid, urgent action is required.
Climate change
Political stability and relative peace are common in nations like Zambia. However, because of climate change, they are also suffering from hunger.
Rainfall that is either too little or too much can ruin crops and diminish the amount of accessible pasture for livestock.
El Niño weather system exacerbates these swings, which are also projected to get worse owing to climatic changes.
Extreme weather patterns also frequently have a greater impact in the world’s poorest areas. Over the next 10 years, according to the World Bank, climate change could force more than 100 million people into poverty.
Poor nutrition
Hunger is more than just a lack of food; it’s also a lack of the appropriate nutrients. Humans require a variety of foods that offer critical health advantages in order to flourish. Families in poverty frequently only consume one or two staple foods (such as corn or wheat), which prevents them from consuming enough essential macro-nutrients and vitamins and increases the likelihood that they would still experience the consequences of hunger.
Poor public policy
Food insecurity and water scarcity are usually caused by structural issues, such as inadequate infrastructure or low agricultural investment.
Poor economy
A nation’s economic resilience directly influences its nutritional resilience, much like the cycle of poverty and hunger does.
For instance, Liberia’s general economic issues grew worse following the 2014 Ebola outbreak, 50% of people are still living in poverty eight years after the epidemic ended. Working to improve global economic stability will have a knock-on effect on the other factors listed above that contribute to world hunger.
Food waste
The World Food Programme estimates that more than 1 billion tons of food produced each year go unconsumed.
Additionally, the production of this wasted food requires other natural resources, whose depletion has a knock-on effect in nations already worst hit by hunger, poverty, and climate change.
This food waste necessitates the release of about 3 billion tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, as well as water equivalent to the yearly flow of Russia’s Volga River.
Gender inequality
According to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, if women farmers had equal access to resources as men, there might be up to 150 million fewer people going hungry globally.
In developing nations, the majority of food is grown, harvested, prepared, and sold by female farmers.
Women are fighting hunger on the front lines, but women are usually under represented in the settings where crucial decisions about resources and policy are made.
Forced migration
Forced migration can lead to starvation, but hunger can also lead to forced migration. Numerous refugees from other countries reside in nearby nations that already have scarce resources.
For instance, the fact that over a third of the people in Lebanon are refugees puts a tremendous demand on available resources.
The GHI (Global Hunger Index) 2018 highlights the link between hunger and forced migration, an issue that can only be solved politically.
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