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15 World Hunger Statistics

World Hunger Statistics facts
While great strides have been made towards fighting hunger and malnutrition, world hunger remains a persistent problem. Hunger is detrimental to developing countries, as it pushes impoverished families into a downward spiral and prevents further development. This article discusses the leading world hunger statistics.

Top 15 World Hunger Statistics

 

  1.  Approximately 842 million people suffer from hunger worldwide. That’s almost 12 percent of the world’s population of 7.1 billion people.
  2. Ninety-eight percent of those who suffer from hunger live in developing countries. 553 million live in the Asian and Pacific regions, while 227 million live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Latin America and the Caribbean account for 47 million.
  3. India has the highest population of hungry people. In 2014, over 190.7 million people were undernourished in India.
  4. Approximately 9 million people die of world hunger each year according to world hunger statistics; more than the death toll for malaria, AIDs and tuberculosis combined in 2012.
  5. Over 60 percent of the world hungry are women, who have limited access to resources because of the patriarchal societies in which they live.
  6. Because of the prevalence of hunger in women in developing countries, malnutrition is a leading cause of death for children. Approximately 3.1 million children die of hunger each year, and in 2011 poor nutrition accounted for 45 percent of deaths for children under five.
  7. Malnutrition is a primary symptom of hunger. Forty percent of preschool-age children are estimated to be anemic because of iron deficiency, and anemia causes 20 percent of all maternal deaths. In addition, it is estimated that 250 to 500 thousand children go blind from Vitamin A deficiency every year.
  8. Malnutrition causes stunting among children, a condition characterized by low height for a child’s age. In 2013, it was estimated that 161 million children under 5 were stunted worldwide.
  9. Malnutrition also causes wasting, a condition characterized by low weight for a child’s age. In 2013, it was estimated that 51 million children under 5 were wasted.
  10. Great strides have been made towards ending world hunger. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations estimates that the total number of hungry people worldwide has been reduced by 216 million people since 1992.
  11. 11. The regions that have made the greatest progress towards ending world hunger have been Latin America and South-East Asia. Latin America reduced its hunger rate from 14.7 percent in 1990-1992 to 5.5 percent in 2012-2014, whereas South-East Asia reduced its hunger rate from 30.6 percent to 9.6 percent in the same period.
  12. One region that has shown little reduction in hunger has been Sub-Saharan Africa. While the hunger rate in this region fell 10 percent from 1992-2014, the number of hungry people has actually risen during this time period, from 175.7 million to 220 million.
  13. The world produces enough food to feed everyone. Food availability per capita has increased from approximately 2220 kcal per person per day in the 1960s to 2790 kcals per person per day in 2006.
  14. Poverty is the number one cause of world hunger. The World Bank estimates that 10.7 percent of the world’s population, or 767 million people, lived on less than $1.90 per day in 2013.
  15. Over 75 percent of the world poorest grow their own food. This causes widespread food insecurity in developing countries, as drought, climate change and natural disasters can easily cut off a family’s food supply.

World hunger has proven to be a difficult problem to solve, despite the efforts of many nations and organizations working to eradicate it. However, world hunger statistics show that great progress has been made towards reducing it, and regions such as East Asia, South-East Asia and Latin America have met the Millennium Development Goal for developing countries to cut their hunger rates in half by 2015. If efforts from organizations like USAID and UNICEF continue, even more progress can be made to fight world hunger.

– Chasen Turk

Photo: Flickr

 

Poverty in Barbados: What You Need to Know


Barbados is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles situated left of the North Atlantic belt in the Americas. The country’s poverty levels have been at an all-time high since 2006. A study from 1998 described the poverty line in Barbados as BDS$ 5,503 per capita per year. Approximately 7,000 households existed on income below this threshold, and poverty affected about 13.9 percent of the country’s population at the time.

Poverty in Barbados tends to affect female-headed households at 60 percent, and poverty is concentrated in more urban areas of the country.

In 1997 the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) worked with UNDP officials as well as the government of Barbados to launch a poverty alleviation program aimed at helping people living in poverty in Barbados. The concerns were that the most vulnerable parts of the population were not being helped, that measures put in place were only temporary, and that these measures did not affect the root causes of the problem.

Barbados currently has the lowest poverty rate in the Caribbean region as of 2007, but the rate is still significantly high at 14 percent.

As of 2014, poverty in Barbados continued to increase, and a Country Assessment of Living Conditions (CALC) survey conducted in the same year revealed rising levels of poverty in the country, with a six percent increase of households living below suitable living conditions.

Additionally, as of 2016, Barbados implemented the Strengthening Human and Social Development in Barbados Project 2016 program as a means to properly measure variables that impact the country’s poverty. The program is expected to serve as an interlinkage to the country’s already existing ISEE Bridge Programme, which aids those who are poor and vulnerable by providing Barbadians opportunities for employment and training and decreasing poverty altogether.

It will be interesting to see if Barbados remains the most prosperous nation in the Caribbean region while income is impacted by a weak tourism outlook and planned austerity measures.

– Rochelle R. Dean

Photo: Flickr

Poverty in Finland

Poverty in Finland
Poverty in Finland? Regardless of a person’s wealth, social well-being or background, Finland is one of the most successful countries in providing equal opportunities for all citizens. No person in Finland lives beneath the international poverty line due to social benefits for employees, pensioners and young people.

Successfully Fighting Poverty in Finland

As of January, Finland has seen its highest unemployment rate since June 2016, with an increase to 9.2 percent. Although the rate has increased, Finland is currently in the midst of trialing a universal basic income scheme. The country now pays its unemployed citizens £475 per month in place of previous social benefits and will continue to pay this even when citizens find work. This trial aims to not only reduce but bring an end to poverty in Finland.

Although this scheme is intended to alleviate poverty in Finland, it could also push more people below the poverty line. Due to child benefits, housing allowances and national pensions being cut, Finland could see a rise in poverty rates. Already 180,000 pensioners live below the poverty line and this could increase due to the cuts in benefits and allowances that the government previously provided. Even with the government paying unemployed citizens monthly, pensioners will benefit more from social allowances than from this recurring payment.

Education in Finland is designed to provide the best experience for students and to lead them straight into employment. Children do not start school until they reach the age of seven and are not formally tested until they reach 16. With a high graduation rate of 93 percent, 66 percent of students then continue to study at college-level and another 43 percent begin vocational training. The school system is completely funded by the state in order for every child to have the opportunity to receive an education. With a high rate of college and vocational applicants, Finland provides every opportunity for students to head straight into employment.

Healthcare is not free in Finland; it is funded through taxation and patient fees. Facilities determine medical charges based on the patient’s ability to pay for their medication. Nevertheless, healthcare is available to all permanent residents in Finland.

Poverty in Finland is one of the lowest worldwide due to social benefits. Hopefully, this new scheme will prove to alleviate poverty and boost employment rates.

– Georgia Boyle

Photo: Flickr

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Six Things to Know About Education in Samoa

Education in Samoa
While the Samoan education system has achieved much over the years, the oceanic nation still has room to grow, especially in terms of dropout and retention rates. Here are six facts about education in Samoa.

  1. The Education Sector of Samoa serves a population of approximately 193,000 on a land area of 2,820 square kilometers, comprising the two main islands of Upolu and Savai’i and eight small islands. Samoa is a lower-middle-income country with a GDP of nearly $761 million in 2015, with a life expectancy of 73.4 years and a Gender Development Index (GDI) of 0.956 (in comparison, the U.S. has a GDI of 0.995).
  2. According to a 2012 UNESCO report, 99 percent of adult Samoans are literate, compared to the Pacific average of 71 percent and the global average of 84 percent.
  3. Early childhood education in Samoa is provided mainly by non-governmental organizations. The participation rate remains low, with the actual number assumed to be higher due to community‐run, unregistered pre‐schools. Little is known about how these informal early childhood educations perform or how they compare to federally funded programs.
  4. Primary school enrollment rates are high, and most children go on to complete the full cycle of eight years of primary education. Secondary school participation rates have room for improvement, with 50.6 percent of boys and 69.5 percent of girls of secondary school age attending secondary school. Of those attending secondary school, however, graduation rates were above 90 percent in May 2016.
  5. Recent Samoan national reports highlight education as a critical issue in the perpetuation of rural poverty. The 2013 Samoa Hardship and Poverty Report described a strong correlation between poverty, vulnerability status and the level of education of Samoan citizens. The analysis found that males with no tertiary education in urban areas are more likely to be vulnerable to poverty than other demographics. While only 12 percent of Samoans are formally employed, and most live off of informal wages, low-paid employment opportunities in both formal and informal sectors, which do not require any training beyond a secondary education, tend to be male-dominated and concentrated in urban areas.
  6. Informal educational programs play an important role in the delivery of basic education. These include ‘ā’oga faifeau,’ or religious programs, that supplement regular education and nongovernment organizations that provide second-chance educational programs for dropouts. Samoa’s Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture has recently begun incorporating practical subjects and vocational education and training programs to meet the learning needs of both students and the economy.

Compared to the Pacific community and even a majority of the world population, Samoan schools demonstrate characteristics of effective education programs. However, increased emphasis on secondary school retention and the role of informal and vocational education could possibly improve the quality and effectiveness of education in Samoa.

– Casie Wilson

Photo: Flickr

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Indian Authorities Fight Human Trafficking with New Technology

India_human trafficking
The numbers are startling — in 2015, 9,127 people were reported as victims of human trafficking in India. According to the most recent data gathered by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), this was a 25 percent increase from 2014’s numbers. Fortunately, a new case management system, the Impulse Case Info Centre (ICIC), shows promise in the war against human trafficking.

In early February 2017, authorities in the northern part of India received the ICIC software. Developed by the Impulse NGO Network, an organization created to battle human trafficking, ICIC acts as a clearinghouse to track information on human trafficking cases. A few of the objectives of the ICIC are to maintain information on a victim’s biographical details, their family background, circumstances surrounding their disappearance, suspected trafficker(s) and the investigation’s progress.

Tackling Trafficking with Collaboration

In order to reach these goals, the ICIC connects Indian authorities with their counterparts in the neighboring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar, enabling smoother cross-border investigations.

All governmental entities, law enforcement agencies, civil society organizations and media outlets that partner through the ICIC have access to a database that is shared with Indian Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTU). This increased communication between entities means that there would be no repetition of enforcement efforts, therefore boosting overall efficiency.

“The best feature is the alert mechanism that tells investigators if there are other cases registered involving the same trafficker they are looking for,” said Salomi Thommy of Impulse NGO Network.

ICIC’s Approach

The ICIC software uses a straightforward, yet comprehensive approach. Individual ATHUs have an account in which to report their cases, and the software implements a standardized format for easier use by all contributors. The ICIC then acts as a hub of real-time information and contacts appropriate entities when relevant updates are uploaded.

The ICIC also assists users when trafficking victims are identified and rescued. The software ensures that legal support, victim protection, post-rescue vocational training, counseling and medical care are offered to the individual victim.

Yankeela Bhutia, head of one ATHU, was pleased with the approach: “We have been able to solve many cases by logging into this system. Many traffickers are crisscrossing the borders in the region and this system makes it easy to track them.”

– Gisele Dunn

Photo: Flickr

The Water Quality in Spain

The Water Quality in Spain
Spain’s tap water is fairly safe to drink, as it is in most of western Europe. Even if the water quality in Spain is fairly safe to handle, there still might be issues Spain needs to work on.

Because of the reduction in rainfall and increasing temperatures caused by climate change, Spain is losing its freshwater quantity. In the last 20 years, Spain lost 20 percent of its freshwater. Experts have said that the figure will rise to 25 percent by 2021 if human practices cannot stop the process of global warming and climate change.

Even though Spain uses 80 percent of its water to irrigate crops, consumer demand is up by 10 percent. Water volume is decreasing while the demand for water is increasing. To solve the problem, Spain would have to reduce the amount of irrigated areas from four million hectares to three million hectares.

Some cities have safer tap water to drink than others. While the major cities Madrid and Barcelona have fairly safe drinking water, there are still cities that might have some problems.

The cities of Burgos and San Sebastian have the best water quality in Spain. Burgos has had the highest scores in water quality in Spanish studies with having low qualities of minerals. Two cities with very poor tap water are Caceres and Huelva. Caceres’ water has been described as no longer being odorless, colorless and tasteless. Huelva’s tap water has been reported to have high levels of aerobes.

Even though cities like Madrid have fairly safe drinking water, reports last updated in 2016 about fluoride levels in the tap water raise warning signs. Though Madrid only has about .3 ppms of fluoride, Vitoria and San Sebastian have the highest amount of artificial fluoride permitted.

Spain has relatively safe drinking water, though it might be losing some of it because of climate change. However, clear regulations and big fixes to agriculture can keep the water quality in Spain in good shape.

– Emma Majewski

Photo: Flickr

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One-Cent Microchip Offers Inexpensive Healthcare Option

One-Cent Microchip
What can you buy for a penny nowadays? Not much, until just recently.

A team of Stanford researchers conducted a study and developed a microchip that can perform multiple, minimally-invasive medical tests. Even better, the microchip takes only twenty minutes to make. This development has the potential to make inexpensive healthcare in developing countries a reality.

The study, which was published on Feb. 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, recognizes the need for new diagnostic technology in developing and resource-limited areas. The scientists noted that technologies would need to be inexpensive, easy to use and applicable to a wide range of medical situations. The team advised that their microchip is simple enough to be operated by non-specialists, yet it integrates multiple steps and analyses, creating viable point-of-care diagnostic testing. The combination of inexpensive health care and ease of use is a major advancement for developing countries.

Minimally Invasive — Redefined

Researchers explained that the affected cells must be isolated from healthy cells in order to diagnose common lethal diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, cancer and HIV. Previously, complicated tools like centrifuges, magnets or membranes were necessary to isolate the diseased cells. With the microchip, the process is simple, cheap, portable, reusable and minimally invasive.

The microchip consists of conductive particles printed on flexible plastic. A regular inkjet printer can be used to print the particles using conductive nanoparticle ink. A separate silicone section reserved for storing the sample sits on top of the chip. The chip only requires a sample size barely a millionth of a liter.

Once a sample is placed on the chip, an electric current is applied, forcing the conductive particles to react. The user can then alter the current as needed to sort the cells in the sample and perform a variety of diagnostic tests. Additionally, drug screens can be conducted with this microchip.

A Penny and 20 Minutes

The Stanford team notes in their paper that manufacturing the chip is considerably less expensive and time-consuming over its predecessors, as the process requires only an inkjet printer. Electrical engineer and lead author of the study, Rahim Esfandyarpour, explained, “We designed it to eliminate the need for clean-room facilities and trained personnel to fabricate such a device.” Creating the microchip takes just 20 minutes, versus up to weeks for other diagnostic tools. The best part is the price — just a penny per chip.
Esfandyarpour recognized that the microchip has great potential to provide inexpensive healthcare in developing countries.

“Enabling early detection of diseases is one of the greatest opportunities we have for developing effective treatments,” Esfandyarpour said. “Maybe $1 in the U.S. doesn’t count that much, but somewhere in the developing world, it’s a lot of money.”

– Gisele Dunn

Photo: Flickr

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Four Facts about Poverty in Macedonia

Poverty in Macedonia
The small landlocked European country of Macedonia, located north of Greece, has only been officially declared an independent nation since 1991 after winning independence from Yugoslavia. During this short time, the population of Macedonia has struggled with the spread of poverty and remains among the ten poorest countries in Europe. Here are four facts about poverty in Macedonia:

  1. Nearly one-third of Macedonian citizens are poor. A calculated 30.4 percent of people in Macedonia live below the poverty line. Macedonia’s national population is just over two million people, which means a shocking 600,000 individuals are currently living below the poverty line. This is more than double the rate of poverty in the U.S., which measured at 13.5 percent in 2015.
  2. Political and ethnic tensions are contributing factors to the widespread poverty. Suspected government corruption in elections and ongoing prejudice between the Albanian and Macedonian populations prevent the stability necessary for economic improvement. As one Western diplomat claimed while choosing to remain anonymous, “When people have no money, they try to find someone to blame. In Macedonia’s case, ethnic groups blame each other for their misfortunes.”
  3. Unemployment is a major cause of poverty in Macedonia. The rate of unemployment in Macedonia was 23.4 percent in 2016, rendering one in four people unable to find work. The shift from a Yugoslavian command economy, in which the central government mandated many aspects of the market such as prices, incomes and investments, to the modern democratic economy, subject to volatile influences such as supply and demand, has left many citizens without job opportunities.
  4. Children may suffer the effects of poverty in Macedonia more than the adults. Even as progress is made to reduce the national poverty level, families with young children have far higher rates of poverty compared to the national average. According to a comprehensive study by UNICEF, the rates of poverty in Macedonia among households with children increased from 49.3 percent in 2002 to 66.6 percent in 2007. This is especially true among small-scale farmers in rural areas, who comprise 40 percent of the poor in Macedonia.

Future efforts to improve the economic standing of Macedonia will depend largely on expanding the job market and improving local infrastructure. Foreign investors may be able to solve both problems, especially from the United Kingdom and from Germany, as Macedonia continues to stabilize its new governmental structure and appeal to other European countries for support.

– Dan Krajewski

Photo: Flickr

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Three Ways Blockchain Can Help the Poor

Blockchain
Many people have heard about bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that has more than doubled in value over the past year. However, few are familiar with blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin. Blockchain creates a tamperproof public ledger of transactions, thus removing the need for a trusted third party between strangers. Because it is public and contains multiple nodes, the blockchain is practically impossible to corrupt. The potential applications for blockchain are promising and diverse. Blockchain could revolutionize the financial industry, as well as the healthcare sector. There are at least three ways blockchain can help the poor.

  1. Blockchain can be used to establish identity. According to UNICEF, there are more than 200 million children under the age of 5 that are unregistered. More than 80 million of these belong to the least developed countries. Lack of identification can perpetuate the cycle of poverty and increase the risk of exploitation. Children without birth certificates can be denied access to education and healthcare. Later in life, lack of identity can hinder employment or access to assistance programs. In some countries, failure to register is due to governmental red tape. Thankfully, groups like ID2020, BitNation and OneName are already working to use blockchain to help the unidentified poor.
  2. Blockchain can improve healthcare for the poor. Paper-based medical records are onerous, but especially so in developing countries where people frequently relocate due to economic or political instability. Also, it can be difficult to keep track of vaccination history, particularly during the early years of life. Pediatric vaccines often require multiple administrations along a specified timeline. Blockchain technology would help maintain a more accurate record of which vaccines have been administered and are still due to be administered to a child.
  3. One of the ways blockchain can help the poor is by altering the flow of money. Most of the money pouring into developing nations is not from foreign aid, but rather from remittances. On average, more than eight percent of the more than $400 billion of remittances sent to developing countries each year is lost to fees. Because blockchain removes the middle man, the cost of sending remittances would drop significantly. Since more funds would be reaching their target recipient, senders would be motivated to send even more, thus further increasing the cash flow into developing nations. Just as blockchain would help to ensure that remittances make it to their intended recipient, it would also help to ensure foreign aid is used appropriately. Since donations would be part of a public ledger, they would not be susceptible to diversion by corrupt individuals.

These are just a few of the many ways blockchain can help the poor. The technology also holds promise for improving access to credit and establishing land ownership, among a myriad of other applications. It’s no wonder that more and more people are expressing interest in the blockchain.

– Rebecca Yu

Photo: Flickr