Archive for category: Hunger

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Hunger in Barbados: Tackling the Effects of Malnourishment

Hunger in Barbados

Barbados is an eastern Caribbean island that, along with other Caribbean nations, has faced problems with malnourishment. Hunger in Barbados and other Caribbean countries was a major issue between 1990 and 1992 when there were an estimated 8.1 million malnourished citizens in these countries.

However, by 2016, that number decreased to 7.5 million, improving by 7.4 percent. Barbados is also one of the leaders in the Caribbean when it comes to ending malnourishment. Barbados, along with Guyana and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, met the global hunger target set at the World Food Summit in 1996. Hunger in Barbados is nearly gone; the estimated rate of malnourishment in Barbados is less than 5 percent.

Barbados has taken great steps towards ending hunger; however, Barbados has a new problem: childhood obesity. At the National Committee Monitoring the Rights of the Child, Consultant Pediatrician from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Professor Anne St. John gave a speech. She praised Barbados for conquering malnutrition and the illnesses that go along with it, but then said, “now we have gone from under-feeding to overeating, and obesity is a form of malnutrition.”

Dr. St. John also explained that the average Barbadian is now eating 400 more calories a day than they were just 30 years earlier. According to a 2005 study, about 27 percent of students in primary school are obese, which could be a result of these extra calories that mostly come from fat and snacks. Dr. St. John believes that cultural practices and traditions may be a contributing factor to this weight gain in adolescents. She says that some parents claim their child is a picky eater, but some parents take more drastic measures. She has heard stories of parents hitting their children with a belt or ruler if they do not finish their plate or some resort to “shoveling food down the child’s throat”.

Along with the increase in calorie intake, the idea around exercise at a young age has also affected obesity rates. Dr. St. John explained that when children begin choosing classes in the third form, some schools do not have physical education as a requirement, so some students no longer take it. Also, students’ parents are using conditions such as asthma as an excuse to take them out of these classes, when in reality they should stay in, as it helps increase their lung capacity.

Barbados is working on ways to stop this increase in childhood obesity, such as removing mascots from children’s cereal like Tony the Tiger. Children may choose these cereals based on the characters when in reality they are full of sugar and less healthy than alternatives. Educators are also trying to teach children that fruit juices, though they contain fruit in the name, are actually unhealthy based on the added sugars. Like hunger in Barbados, obesity is another issue that Barbadians will be sure to solve.

– Scott Kesselring

Photo: Flickr

3.2 Million Face Extreme Hunger in Somalia

In March 2017, CNN spoke to Fatumata Hassan, a Somali mother struggling for her own survival and the survival of her children as Somalia faces drought, famine and terrorism – all culminating in the hunger of nearly half its population. She has walked over 100 miles to find food – an increasingly common requirement for many Somalis. Extreme hunger in Somalia is far-reaching; 3.2 million Somalis are critically food insecure, and 6.2 million Somalis need humanitarian assistance in general.

Somalia lies on the east coast of Africa, neighbored by Djibouti, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Established in 1960, Somalia is a relatively young country and has often faced instability. In 1991, the ousting of the ruler Mohamed Siad Barre resulted in an ongoing civil war. In the 2000s, pirates and jihadist groups, such as Al-Shabaab, created disruption and military conflict. Finally, in 2012, Somalia reintroduced a formal parliament and the first presidential election since 1967 took place. While these measures have helped to create greater stability in Somalia, Al-Shabaab continues to cause violence within the country.

Great instability within Somalia has not helped it to cope with the drought it has been facing. For two years now, Somaliland and Puntland in northern Somalia have received below-average rainfall. Now, Jubaland in the south is beginning to feel the effects of drought as well. Lack of rain causes crop failure. With little to nothing to eat for the people of Somalia, they cannot spare food to feed their livestock. Locals in Puntland estimate that pastoralists had lost 65 percent of their animals by March of 2017. Loss of livestock equates to a loss of income, meat and milk to nourish children, resulting in increased poverty and extreme hunger in Somalia.

Humanitarian efforts are helping alleviate the effects of the drought. Since the beginning of 2017, $667 million has gone to humanitarian aid within the country, helping it to avoid a similar outcome to the fatal famine of 2011, in which 260,000 people perished. However, conditions in camps set up to provide aid deteriorate as the U.N. appeal for donations is only one-third of the way fulfilled.

Stability and long-term investment to build proper infrastructure – such as a proper healthcare system – are necessary for Somalia to fully recover and handle future droughts with less required aid from the international community. These needs are difficult to achieve with most of Somalia’s budget funneled toward security forces needed to fend off Al-Shabaab.

In the future, greater international support and funding could help create stability in Somalia. The World Bank and International Development Association could be instrumental in this process.

For now, donations from the international community are needed to fend off famine and rehabilitate the 6.2 million Somali people struggling to survive. UNICEF and Save the Children both have online donation pages where individuals can help save those in Somalia who are suffering from hunger.

– Mary Kate Luft

Photo: Flickr

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Two Initiatives Targeting Global Food Waste

Global Food Waste

Today, 789 million people — one in nine — are food insecure or undernourished. However, one-third of the food produced annually — 1.3 billion metric tons — is wasted. This adds up to $990 billion in yearly economic loss worldwide due to food waste. Two initiatives, YieldWise and SAVE FOOD, are aiming to reduce global food waste, particularly in developing nations.

In 2016, The Rockefeller Foundation launched YieldWise, a $130 million project, with a focus on halving global food waste by 2030. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. (FAO) partnered with Messe Düsseldorf to launch the SAVE FOOD program. Here is a closer look at both of these initiatives.

YieldWise

YieldWise will initially focus on fixing the broken food chain in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, where approximately half of all crops grown are wasted. Collectively, 70% of citizens in these three countries work in the agricultural sector.

The initiative focuses on four pillars. First, YieldWise links smallholder farmers to markets by facilitating agreements between producers and buyers like Coca-Cola and Cargill. Next, farmers are connected with technology that combats food spoilage, like metal silos provided by the government of Tanzania. YieldWise invests in technology and financial models that extend the shelf-life of food and helps manufacturers promote solar-drying and cold storage units. Finally, the program increases accountability for global businesses by creating tracking tools, so corporations can measure the waste within their supply chains.

The Rockefeller Foundation intends to increase YieldWise’s sphere of influence to include developed countries such as the U.S. and Europe, where food waste occurs on the consumer level. Buyers in developed countries waste approximately 222 million tons of food per year. The entire net food production of Sub-Saharan Africa is only 230 million tons per year. Thus, the developed world wastes almost as much food as is produced in the Sub-Saharan region.

So far, YieldWise has impacted nearly 40,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania and 16,400 metric tons of produce have been sold by smallholder farmers that have been connected to markets through this program.

SAVE FOOD

Similarly, the FAO and Messe Düsseldorf have created an initiative focused on spreading awareness about food waste. SAVE FOOD engages over 900 partners worldwide in developing programs to promote waste reduction.

SAVE FOOD has implemented four major actions to combat global food waste. First, the initiative has formed a worldwide media campaign to raise awareness of the aggregate impact of waste and to circulate solutions. Second, the project has mobilized public and private partnerships to collaborate and develop widespread initiatives. Third, the program leverages field studies and cost-benefit analyses to determine which interventions provide the greatest returns on investment and how best to fix political and regulatory policy. Finally, SAVE FOOD provides anti-waste capacity-building support and training to actors in the food chain.

One of SAVE FOOD’s projects aims to reduce post-harvest waste and improve the quality of crops in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri-Lanka. Poor packaging and storage, little post-harvest infrastructure and improper handling results in crop losses between 20 and 44% in these three countries. Specialists trained in post-harvest practices will extend teachings to actors in the food chain, such as small farmers and farm groups. The overall aim of the project is to reduce post-harvest losses by improving the quality and extending the shelf-life of fresh produce.

Looking Toward the Future

By 2050, the world’s population is expected to grow to 9.7 billion people. Feeding this number will require a 70% increase in food production. To accommodate a growing population, the current global agricultural system must be adjusted to maximize efficiency and prioritize the growth of sustainable practices.

More than half of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals touch upon food availability and nutrition. Minimizing global food waste, particularly in areas with vulnerable populations, works toward achieving these goals. Innovative initiatives such as YieldWise and SAVE FOOD have the potential to improve food security worldwide by redirecting wasted food to undernourished populations and profits to smallholder farmers.

– Katherine Parks

Photo: Flickr

Fighting Hunger in Qatar Through Food Programs

Fighting Hunger in Qatar Through Food Security Programs

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties and initiated an economic embargo of Qatar. This was due to reported Qatari state sponsorship of terrorism and of strengthening diplomatic ties between Qatar and Iran. As a part of the economic embargo, the four nations ceased food exports to Qatar, leading to raised concerns about food shortages and hunger in Qatar.

As a desert nation, Qatar relies heavily on food imports, with 80-90% of food supplies being imported. These imports were greatly affected by the embargo. Despite a rise in food aid from Turkey and Iran, Qatar saw a 40% hit to food imports by the end of June. Many people living in Qatar began to stockpile food as food shortages began and food prices rose. While there have been attempts to mediate the situation, the embargo was still ongoing at the end of September 2017 and is expected to continue into 2018.

While the rise in food prices has slowed and food imports have been coming in from different parts of the world, sustainability is still an issue. Qatar has been attempting to develop sustainable ways of providing its own food since before the embargo. In 2008, Qatar established the National Food Security Program (QNFSP) with the goal of increasing domestic food production. This would reduce the amount of food being imported and increase food security, the ability for all people to have economic and physical access to food, ultimately reducing hunger in Qatar.

The QNFSP has sought technological advances in crop production technologies and irrigation systems. One way this is being done is through the Sahara Forest Project, a pilot program using greenhouses on a one-hectare parcel of land outside Doha to grow crops and make fresh water from seawater. The Qatar Islamic Bank also announced in August that it would fund a 530,000 square meter food security facility to manufacture and store rice, raw sugar and edible oils. In addition, several companies are expanding livestock numbers, with one company seeking to add 25,000 cows in order to meet Qatar’s dairy demand by April 2018.

Another attempt to increase food security is being done through food processing. Food processing allows for longer shelf life and less waste. QNFSP is still working to expand this industry.

Finding ways to increase productivity in agriculture is extremely necessary for Qatar, where only one percent of the land is arable. In addition to investing in technology, private enterprises and the Qatar Development Bank will be investing to financially support unproductive farms, which currently make up 80% of registered farmland in Qatar. With the goal of providing 60% of its food through domestic agriculture by 2024, major steps are being taken to increase food security and decrease hunger in Qatar.

– Erik Beck

Photo: Flickr

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How Mobile Technology Can Help Reduce Food Insecurity

Food Insecurity
Millions of people around the world continue to face extreme hunger with little to no chance of receiving help to alleviate the situation. Resolving food insecurity in vulnerable populations requires vast amounts of information: How many need help? Where do they live? What is causing the food insecurity? Mobile technology may be the solution.

In the past, humanitarian organizations have struggled to help those in need due to untimely food assistance and frequent failures to collect valid information for addressing hunger in remote areas. The fact that most vulnerable populations live in isolated or dangerous areas with little infrastructure made data collection incredibly expensive, risky and often unfeasible.

Today, the World Food Programme (WFP), the largest humanitarian organization working to reduce food insecurity, conducts food security analyses of vulnerable populations through Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping. Through these efforts, WFP can gather usable information about the level of food insecurity in addition to important details that help divert resources to areas where they are most needed. New food security monitoring methods now allow WFP to gather real-time data to properly identify and assess the situation in distant areas that were previously inaccessible.

An effective blend of traditional methods and technological advancements help WFP’s analysts collect pertinent data. For example, face-to-face assessments provide a baseline that gives WFP the necessary information to more accurately plan food assistance efforts as well as providing the ability to further monitor the area for possible concerns. However, these assessments are time-consuming and challenging to conduct in far-off areas and those susceptible to a sudden collapse in food security. To address this, WFP often resorts to another, more efficient method.

Mobile Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (mVAM) offers the unique opportunity to continuously monitor an evolving situation. Using common mobile technology such as texting or live voice calls to collect real-time information on household incomes, potential risks, food consumption and other crucial information remain central to WFP’s efforts to develop risk management strategies. This type of monitoring also emphasizes market prices and rainfall patterns to flag potentially deteriorating situations to ensure that assistance is provided promptly if it is needed.

WFP can also use mVAM’s automated two-way communication to relay new information to people in a cost-efficient and effective manner. Another substantial benefit offered by mobile technology is the drastic reduction in expended resources. WFP will save 50 percent of the money that was previously used for data collection in addition to reducing the time for survey turnaround by 83 percent.

With the explosion of mobile phone and Internet access in developing countries, particularly those in Africa, smartphones and messaging services could serve as a vital support system for the food insecure, including refugees. WFP’s Food Bot, designed to be widely accessible, works on various platforms such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram. It can even be altered to fit onto other messaging services. To help ease costs in developing countries, people also now have access to low-data usage apps like Facebook Lite and others. mVAM was first used in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to access unsafe areas but quickly expanded to other countries.

Actionable information is one of the most critical components of humanitarian efforts, as organizations desperately need to know exactly what is happening and what people need if they wish to adequately support vulnerable areas. During the Ebola crisis, information from texts and calls helped identify the communities struggling the most without risking the safety of analysts. African farmers suffering from severe droughts were able to notify WFP of the worsening food security in their area through mVAM. While the Iraqi province of Anbar experienced violent internal conflict, continuous information about the food security and other needs of those displaced streamed in through mobile phones. There are dozens of more examples of the successes of WFP’s mobile technology platform.

The mVAM program provides WFP with a more concrete and precise understanding of the nature of food insecurity in communities around the world, equipping them with the information they need to rapidly and effectively help those in need. This type of basic technology can be utilized to aid remote areas in nearly every situation, whether it is during a drought, an infectious disease outbreak or even political conflict. As the world’s number of phone and Internet users steadily increases, other humanitarian organizations could undoubtedly utilize more robust data-collecting platforms to better deliver various forms of aid to the millions in need.

– Akhil Reddy

Photo: Flickr

Organizations Fighting Hunger in Cameroon

Organizations Fighting Hunger in CameroonWedged between the Sahara Desert and the Savanna is a semi-arid, poverty-stricken country that is barely 50 years old. Since gaining its independence in 1960, the Republic of Cameroon has been ravaged by debt and political turmoil, remaining largely underdeveloped through the decades.

The few roads linking rural areas to urban centers are rickety and inefficient; though on the decline, the country’s rural population still topped 40 percent in 2015. Falling investments, poor infrastructure and Boko Haram insurgency have thrown Cameroon into an economic and existential crisis of an unprecedented scale – 2.6 million of nearly 24 million people are food insecure and chronic malnutrition affects one third of children under the age of five. The country is ranked 68 out of 104 on the 2015 Global Hunger Index.

Reducing abject hunger in Cameroon has become a priority for humanitarian organizations. The World Food Programme (WFP) works with local ministries and food banks to provide critical nutrition sources to the 230,000 Nigerian refugees and displaced Cameroonians in the Far North. The organization aims to install cash for work programs in the country and feed 500,000 people this year.

WFP’s comprehensive program board aims to benefit a host of communities. Its Food by Prescription Programme (FPP), for example, assists malnourished HIV-infected people. Another initiative hopes to supply school meals to 55,000 children in rural schools every year – at once diminishing hunger and incentivizing school attendance. One of the most effective tools the WFP employs is air transport services. The U.N. Humanitarian Air Service imports food to 41 humanitarian agencies fighting hunger in Cameroon.

The Food and Rural Development Foundation (FORUDEF), a NGO founded by citizens of Cameroon in 1998, seeks to promote higher living standards and economic growth primarily by boosting education and advocacy in the Southwest, where many lack access to basic sanitation facilities. After establishing community latrines to distribute anti-malaria medication – to dampen immediate health threats – FORUDEF began pioneering the region’s first nutrition program to lower malnutrition and deficiency-related illnesses.

FORUDEF founders believe that access to education can allow individuals to become knowledgeable and self-reliant, eventually overcoming poverty through their own efforts. In partnership with Bees Abroad UK, the organization brought beekeeping to the Akwaya and Buea regions, creating jobs for locals and unlocking growth potential. FORUDEF also opened workshops to train ambitious Cameroonians into successful beekeepers who can then introduce future generations to the trade.

The efforts of organizations such as the WFP and FORUDEF have made great strides in fighting hunger in Cameroon thus far, and they give hope that progress can continue to be made on this front.

– Claire Wang

Photo: Flickr

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“Chowberry” App Reduces Food Waste

ChowberryChowberry is an app combating hunger and food waste in Nigeria. The app was invented by Nigerian software developer Oscar Ekponimo. According to the Nigerian Tribune, Ekponimo has partnered with the program Project FoodAccess to connect impoverished Nigerians and non-governmental organizations with cheap food.

Chowberry works through several steps. The first step involves local grocery stores. As the store’s food products near their expiration dates, the stores begins reducing the food prices each day. The app alerts Nigerians and food organizations about the lowered food prices. Project FoodAccess specifically matches the food with families they register need it the most. These include families with young mothers and female breadwinners.

Chowberry helps to alleviate the problem of hunger, which affects Africa as a whole and Nigeria in particular. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 223 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were hungry or malnourished from 2014 to 2016. Nigeria itself has been declared unable to feed its entire population by the World Food Programme.

Ekponimo himself has a personal experience with hunger. After his father had a stroke and could not work, his family could not afford to feed themselves. Chowberry has given Ekponimo the opportunity to help others going through similar situations.

The app has had a significant impact within different areas in Nigeria. The three-month trial run has fed 200 families and 150 orphans. Many Nigerians have requested that the program expand to more communities.

Chowberry also has assisted the 20 participating grocery stores. Food that would have been thrown out before now gets sold to families in need at a profit to the store. The helpful software has gained international recognition as well, winning the Rolex Award of Enterprise in 2016.

Ekponimo hopes that he can expand Chowberry to feed the hungry in other African countries. With continued innovation from people like Ekponimo, technology like Chowberry could be used to help put an end to hunger in Africa and around the globe.

– Cortney Rowe

Photo: Flickr

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Quality of Life Uncertain for Refugees in Kenya

Refugees in KenyaKalobeyei is a town located in the northwestern part of Kenya that was built by the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) along with the local government of Turkana county. The town was designed as a location where refugees could become integrated with the local community and where this integration would benefit shared services and markets, thereby reducing the cost for Western aid donors. Unfortunately, this has not exactly worked out as planned for refugees in Kenya.

There have been quite a few issues that have risen since the town’s creation. The most prominent of these issues is that Kalobeyei was established just as South Sudan’s civil war greatly intensified, causing many refugees in Kenya to arrive with hardly anything more than the clothes on their backs, as well as without the proper resources that would help them make an attempt at a new life.

The World Food Programme provides $14 per month as a cash allowance to each refugee, which is supposed to cover up to 80 percent of an individual’s needs in the town. This may not be enough to live off of due to the current conditions these refugees are left in after the civil war, especially since Kalobeyei is hosting nearly 40,000 refugees, including individuals from places such as South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.

There have also been many complaints from the refugees in Kenya who are currently residing in Kalobeyei. Refugees say that little to nothing that they were promised has been offered in the town. They have found themselves in an isolated camp where both food and water are in short supply and that residents are at the mercy of thievery that goes on within Kalobeyei. One resident of the town—an Ethiopian refugee—said, “When they brought us here, we were told that the place would be like a community village with many development projects, a school, clinic, market and almost everything close by,” but there is close to nothing within the settlement that is within walking distance.

When the UNHCR’s office in Kenya heard of this story, communications director Yvonne Ndege had a drastically different description of what life was like residents of Kalobeyei saying that the town was in fact not built in a remote area and had markets, water tanks and primary schools on-site, as well as stating that “there is no heightened security situation or security threat at Kalobeyei or Kakuma.” She went on to explain that refugees had the option to visit the camp before relocating and that perhaps they “may have had different expectations,” despite having viewed Kalobeyei in advance.

Whatever the case may be, it is wise to be empathetic and understanding toward refugees in Kenya when it comes to these situations—having to relocate yourself and your family is never easy, and struggling in a new environment does not make anything less difficult. Hopefully, the UNHCR will empathize and refugees in Kenya will be able to resolve and overcome the issues with Kalobeyei, for the town is meant to only do good.

– Sara Venusti

Photo: Flickr

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The Success of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program

Pantawid

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (Bridging Program for the Filipino Family) is a national initiative that serves as the Philippine government’s flagship program in its campaign against poverty and hunger in the country. The program is modeled after the conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs implemented in Brazil (Bolsa Familia) and Mexico (Oportunidades), a model which provides aid to poor families by supplementing low household incomes.

Under the program, household beneficiaries receive 500 pesos ($10 USD) per month and 300 pesos ($5 USD) per child every month for the duration of the academic year. For households with three children, cash grants can amount to as much as 15,000 pesos ($300 USD) annually.

Household eligibility is determined through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction, which locates the poorest municipalities in the country. Households in municipalities with a poverty incidence rate higher than 50 percent are automatically put on a list for eligibility assessment, while other households who may be eligible can apply for assessment. Local representatives from the Department of Social Welfare and Development assess the economic situation of the household by obtaining information on home facilities and assets, the education and livelihood of the household head and the household’s income.

To stay eligible for the transfer payments, households must spend a portion of these grants on pre-natal and post-natal care for pregnant women, regular checkups and vaccines for children aged 0-5 and bi-annual deworming pills for children aged 6-14. They must also have an 85 percent monthly attendance rate for children subsidized by the program and attend family development sessions, which involve discussions on responsible parenting and health.

The program has done wonders for the poor in the country, especially for households from the country’s 16 poorest provinces. In these provinces, most of which are in the southern island group of Mindanao, 37 percent of families were reported to be hungry due to insufficient income or unemployment. Most of the areas in Mindanao are also marked by civil unrest, where almost no opportunity for stable employment is available. In the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), half of the population lives below the country’s poverty line, earning just over 30 pesos ($.60 USD) a day. 58 percent of households were reported to be unable to access or acquire food.

With these rates of poverty and hunger incidence, the former Aquino administration made it a point to make the poorest provinces its priority areas for rapid development and investment. As of August 2015, a vast number of Pantawid beneficiaries are from ARMM, with 448,757 people enrolled in the region (around 10 percent of active beneficiaries). The rest of Mindanao has around one million beneficiaries, while 20 of the 25 top Pantawid beneficiary provinces were on Aquino’s list of priority areas.

Almost a decade after the program started, the Pantawid has grown from a startup welfare project to the third largest CCT program globally, with 4,353,597 active beneficiaries. It has done well in its effort to diminish poverty rates in the Philippines. The 2013 Annual Poverty Indicator Survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority revealed that the national poverty rate of 25 percent could have increased by 2 percent without the program, while the extreme poverty rate would have risen 1.4 percent without the Pantawid’s benefits.

The same report reveals that the poverty gap index—the gap between incomes of poor families and the national average—fell by 61 centavos per peso cash grant just five years after the program’s onset.

Several domestic and international organizations have expressed their praise of the Pantawid. A study by Dr. Anticeto Orbeta and Dr. Vicente Paqueo of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies suggests that besides the benefits of additional household income, the Pantawid has actually increased the desire for work in household heads and has increased school participation and performance in children aged 5-14.

Such is the trust of the World Bank in the long-term success of the Pantawid that in early 2016, it bestowed upon the Philippine government a 21-billion-peso ($43 million USD) loan to be allotted to the program.

Incumbent president Rodrigo Duterte, a staunch enemy of his predecessor Aquino, has reinforced his commitment to the program. During his presidential campaign last year, Duterte promised to give one sack of rice to each Pantawid beneficiary household. His government is now working towards giving 600 pesos worth of rice allowances on top of the original cash grant allotment.

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is the first of its kind. Many anti-poverty initiatives have failed to produce the desired results, and almost none have united leaders from all political fronts to root for its success. Despite the great divisiveness that has characterized contemporary Philippine politics, all agree that the eradication of poverty and hunger is something to work towards, and that the campaign to do so should be a top priority.

– Bella Suansing

Photo: Flickr

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Hunger in Montserrat

Hunger in Montserrat

Located in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, Montserrat is a tiny British overseas territory with a population of less than 6,000. After a series of volcanic eruptions in the late 1990s, the island became more difficult to reach. Even today, it is relatively isolated compared to other tourist-oriented Caribbean islands, but there are a growing number of tourists coming to see the “Caribbean Pompeii”.

The economy of Montserrat today is based mostly on service and construction due to the impact of both Hurricane Hugo and the severe volcanic eruptions that began in July 1995. The city of Plymouth was covered with ashes and boulders, and even though it is not completely reconstructed, it is still officially the capital of the island. Approximately two-thirds of the inhabitants fled the island to escape hunger and general insecurity in Plymouth area. Some of them still live in poor housing, struggling with their economic situation after the loss of their homes, incomes and family members.

The economic downturn after the hurricane increased unemployment, reduced working hours and increased pressure on household budgets. There is widespread criticism of the government’s performance, ranging from the failure to control prices or reduce taxes to the perception that administration only takes care of their own employees.

A 2007 study of poverty and hardship called “Montserrat Survey of Living Conditions” (MSLC) and research undertaken by the World Bank showed that economic factors are the main causes of poverty in Montserrat. According to the International Comparisons of Poverty table, 36 percent of the population is poor and 34 percent are food insecure. Children are the most vulnerable in general, and make up a third of the population affected by hunger in Montserrat.

Hunger in Montserrat is caused by high food prices, low wages and lack of employment opportunities. Many families are struggling to buy food every day and educate their children. This stress is made worse by high rates of criminal behavior, domestic violence and drug abuse. Because of the situation, many inhabitants have left the island to find work or to join their families in Britain.

Even though there are no opportunities for rapid economic growth in Montserrat, some government initiatives in the past few years, like the establishment of the Montserrat Development Corporation, promise to be beneficial for everyone.

The Department of Agriculture has several potential projects in the works, and there are plans to increase the number of small companies. The Ministry of Health and Wealth offers a number of services to the poor and vulnerable, including social assistance in cash and counseling for the poor.

Even though the general number of people affected by hunger in Montserrat remains high, some overall progress has been made in lowering the rate of extreme poverty. Most households have access to basic services and women are being empowered with educational programs. The government elected in 2014 is now investing in geothermal energy, tourism and sand mining. In an interview with The Guardian, premier Donaldson Romero declared that the “long, hopeless period” that started after the eruptions is finally over.

– Edita Jakupovic

Photo: Flickr