Archive for category: Hunger

,

Understanding Hunger in Swaziland


Southern Africa is currently undergoing a severe drought, induced by a climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean commonly referred to as El Nino. In addition to Southern Africa, several other countries in the region are also experiencing increased food insecurity. In mid-2016, the World Food Programme (WFP) categorized the Southern Africa region as a Level Three Corporate Response – the highest level of emergency. Currently, about 16 million people in the region need emergency humanitarian assistance. Swaziland is one of the countries of concern in the region, especially since it already faces numerous challenges, including poverty, chronic food insecurity, HIV/AIDS and an erratic climate.

Poverty and Hunger in Swaziland

Swaziland is a small landlocked nation, bordered by South Africa and Mozambique, and has a population of 1.2 million. It is a predominantly rural society, with most of the population dependent on subsistence farming for their livelihoods. Maize is the main crop, grown by over 80 percent of farming households.

Poverty is prevalent in Swaziland, with 42 percent of the population living below the income poverty line of $1.90 a day. This is an especially troubling figure in times of food shortages because the poor cannot afford to buy food. Swaziland is a net importer of food and is vulnerable to food price increases in the rest of the region.

As a result, the poor have had to adopt coping strategies like limiting portions, reducing meals, borrowing food and limiting the types of food they eat. Chronic malnutrition is one of the greatest nutritional concerns and presents a major developmental challenge in Swaziland. One in every four children in Swaziland suffers from stunted growth as a result of malnutrition.

HIV/AIDS

Swaziland has a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, with 26 percent of adults infected. The health of people living with HIV is particularly concerning. The disease disproportionately affects main income earners and caregivers. These households are more vulnerable to drops in food production or rising food prices because their income and productivity levels are already lower due to HIV.

Erratic Climate

Swaziland regularly experiences erratic rainfall, recurrent droughts and soil degradation, all of which adversely impact food security. Since 2014, the cropping seasons in Swaziland have been characterized by prolonged dry spells which result in widespread crop losses and reduced yields. The last few years have seen some of the worst maize production on record. The WFP estimates that nearly half the population will face some food insecurity in 2017, while 350,000 people will need urgent food assistance.

These interrelated challenges all contribute to high levels of hunger in Swaziland.

– Helena Kamper

Photo: Flickr

,

Five Facts About Hunger in Rwanda


Rwanda is one of the smallest countries on the African continent. The country is known for many achievements such as being one of the only nations to have a majority of females in the national parliament and making solid progress in reducing political corruption. Despite these milestones, the country also faces rampant hunger. Most of the population of Rwanda lives in rural areas and depends on agriculture for food. Here are five facts about hunger in Rwanda:

Top Facts about Poverty in Rwanda

  1. Low crop yield is not the only factor contributing to hunger in Rwanda. Lack of access to safe drinking water also leads to malnutrition. To help remedy this problem, the Japanese government donated more than $147,000 to two Rwandan anti-hunger organizations to be used to improve water sources.
  2. Rwanda, along with countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar, has made the most progress in alleviating hunger between the years 2000 and 2016. The Global Hunger Index estimates that hunger in Rwanda dropped from 58% to 27% during those years.
  3. Although hunger in Rwanda has been steadily decreasing, there is still plenty of work to be done. In 2015, the World Food Programme estimated that up to 40% of Rwandan children still do not receive the proper nutritional care they need to become successful later in life.
  4. Violent political conflicts in eastern Congo drive many Congolese people to take refuge within the borders of Rwanda, but often these refugees also face hunger in their new homes. In 2016, Congolese refugees in Rwanda complained that U.N. rations made them sick and many starved with few other choices in terms of food.
  5. Another factor that contributed to the presence of hunger in Rwanda was the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The violent conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi people of Rwanda interrupted many farmers’ planting and harvesting routines, causing thousands of people to go hungry.

– Mary Grace Costa

Photo: Flickr

,

WhatsApp Groups Address Food Crisis in Somalia


A food crisis in Somalia has its citizens on the brink of another famine. Waiting on international or government aid is a slow process, so Somalis are turning to each other for support. “Combining 21st-century social media with the age-old clan network, the bedrock of Somali society as well as its safety net,” as Ben Quinn from the Guardian puts it, communities of Somalis around the world are using WhatsApp to sponsor families affected by food insecurity.

Humanitarian organizations like the U.N. have warned that 6.2 million Somalis are on the verge of famine, but foreign aid has been slow coming. Saad Ali Shire, the foreign minister of the Republic of Somaliland, says that Somalia needs immediate aid in the form of life-saving supplies in the next two to three weeks to avoid a declared famine.

Aid organizations are trying to prevent a repeat of the famine that killed 260,000 Somalis between 2010 and 2012. Britain’s Department for International Development gave £100 million to Somalia, but the money only covers a small fraction of the need.

With the response to the food crisis in Somalia lagging, networks around the world are turning to social media to support people in need of life-saving aid. Users of WhatsApp are forming groups and pooling their resources to sponsor Somali families. The groups figure out how much aid they can provide based on the formula that says families can survive on $60 per month.

The group then deposits money into a Dahabshiil bank account. Dahabshiil is an African international funds transfer company that started in 1970. The company was initially set up so that migrants from countries in East Africa could send money back to their family and friends still living there. Dahabshiil now allows groups like the Somali clans to transfer funds during crises in addition to offering banking services to the World Bank, Oxfam, the U.N. and Save the Children.

After WhatsApp groups deposit money into a Dahabshiil account, they nominate a five-person committee to withdraw the money and buy supplies for families — usually powdered milk, rice and water.

The network is growing every day, and members are primarily of the Somali diaspora. Forty-five thousand people in Canada identify their ethnic origin as Somali, and tens of thousands of people in Minnesota are also a part of the Somali network addressing the food crisis in Somalia.

The WhatsApp network is a tremendous start, but some smaller Somali groups are struggling to provide aid of their own resources and are turning to aid agencies for financial support. While prominent humanitarian organizations are doing their best to give aid, the process is slow-moving in a time of urgent need.

How to donate: Ocha, World Vision, MSF, Concern, WFP.

– Rachel Cooper

Photo: Flickr

,

What Is the Definition of Hunger?


For most, hunger is a nagging rumble in one’s stomach that signals lunch or dinnertime. However, for millions of people worldwide, the definition of hunger is a persistent state of physical and psychological harm caused by a lack of nutritional and economic resources.

Characteristics of Hunger

On a global scale, the simplest definition of hunger is a scarcity of food in a country. This occurs when the population of a country quite literally does not have enough to eat. In most developed countries, only a relatively small percentage of citizens suffer from hunger. However, in poorer developing countries this portion of the population can be as high as 73 percent. In fact, almost 98 percent of world hunger happens in underdeveloped countries.

On an individual scale, hunger occurs when a person consumes an insufficient amount of calories to sustain them, called malnourishment. When a person has an insufficient amount of the right kinds of foods to keep them healthy it is malnutrition. In most countries where hunger is a significant social and economic problem, both malnourishment and malnutrition are common. Poverty is the number one cause of hunger since it results in a lack of ability to buy food and pay for the expansion of agricultural programs.

Another definition of hunger involves the mental uncertainty of future access to food; in other words, not knowing where the next meal is coming from. The technical term for this phenomenon is food insecurity. Many organizations working to end hunger, such as Bread.org, seek to achieve the goal of global food security. The World Food Summit defined this as when “all people at all times have access to sufficient safe and nutritious food for an active and healthy life.”

The costs of hunger are far-reaching and have long-term negative impacts on populations. Those who suffer from hunger are more susceptible to illnesses. Children who face malnutrition during their first two years of life experience lifelong consequences. If nutritional needs are not met during this key window of roughly 1,000 days between conception and age two, stunted growth and learning impairments develop.

Hunger Prevention Efforts

Fortunately, great strides have been made to end world hunger. The Millennium Development Goals program was successful in cutting malnourishment in 72 out of 129 countries by half. The current Global Goals for Sustainable Development campaign, which launched in 2016 and is comprised of 193 different world leaders, seeks to provide food security for the remaining estimated 795 million people still suffering from hunger by 2030.

– Dan Krajewski

Photo: Flickr

, ,

10 Facts About Starvation in Africa

Starvation in Africa
In March 2017, the United Nations (U.N.) warned that some 20 million people in South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen face starvation and famine if the international community did not act quickly. This warning refocused attention on the ongoing food insecurity faced throughout the African continent. While the issue is completely preventable, starvation in Africa still exists.

Facts about Starvation in Africa:

    1. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the U.N., some 153 million people (about 26 percent of the adult population) suffered from severe food insecurity in 2014/15 in sub-Saharan Africa.
    2. Food insecurity exists when people do not have adequate access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their needs for an active and healthy life. The issue is thus not the existence of enough food, but the access to food.
    3. There are various interrelated reasons why African states are vulnerable to food insecurity. Several countries in the region remain highly dependent on food imports to ensure adequate food supplies. Thus exposing them to unstable food markets and commodity prices. The African region also has the lowest per capita income in the world and the highest poverty levels. This means that large parts of the region’s populations are unable to cope with rising food prices.
    4. The majority of Africans are also directly dependent on subsistence farming on a continent that is prone to extreme natural disasters, including severe drought and floods. These natural disasters lead to failed crops, as well as insufficient pasture feed and water for livestock. The current El Nino drought has been one of the most intense and widespread in the past 100 years.
    5. The majority of African countries facing acute food insecurities are also experiencing internal conflict. This impedes both access to food and food production. The levels of political instability and corruption result in these states being unable to address food crises, whether caused by rising food prices or natural disasters.
    6. Food insecurity in South Sudan has reached extreme levels. Several parts of the country declared pockets of famine, and nearly 100,000 people face starvation. Limited humanitarian assistance has reached these regions because of recurrent fighting due to civil war.
    7. A famine can only be declared when certain measures of mortality, malnutrition and hunger are met. Namely, at least 20 percent of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope, acute malnutrition exceeds 30 percent, and the death rate exceeds two per 10,000 people per day. The last famine in Africa was in Somalia in 2011, which killed an estimated 260,000 people.
    8. Apart from the three countries highlighted by the U.N., several other African countries are facing acute levels of food insecurity. The World Food Programme classified emergency situations in the Lake Chad Basin (Cameroon, Chad, Niger, including Nigeria) and Southern Africa (Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe).
    9. The Lake Chad Basin faces an acute humanitarian crisis caused by existing challenges of extreme poverty, underdevelopment and climate change. Boko Haram violence only aggravates these challenges. Some 7.1 million people need food assistance, and famine looms in the areas most affected by the crisis in northeast Nigeria. Malnutrition in the region is rising at alarming rates, and more than half a million children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
    10. While the situation in southern Africa has stabilized somewhat in recent months, food insecurity remains widespread following two years of consecutive drought. Some 16 million people in the countries worst-hit by drought will need emergency humanitarian assistance throughout early 2017.

The current levels of food insecurity and starvation in Africa are bleak. Humanitarian assistance is sorely needed to address the food crises in the hardest hit areas. While this would help to address the crisis in the short-term, more attention should also be given to long-term peace-building and food security efforts on the continent to prevent the recurrence of famine.

– Helena Kamper

Photo: Flickr

,

Lack of Infrastructure Compounds Hunger in Djibouti


Djibouti is a small country on the Horn of Africa, in which more than 23 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty. The prevalence of extreme poverty in the Republic of Djibouti is more than seven times higher in rural areas than in the capital, despite rural inhabitants only comprising one-fourth of the total population. These disparities result in a large prevalence of hunger in Djibouti.

An Absence of Agriculture

While a majority of civil strife in Djibouti has been resolved since 2001, a large proportion of the population still experiences the effects of the former social instability. During the recovery period, the rural population often depended almost entirely on emergency food aid, with little emphasis on rebuilding infrastructure. Poor rural Djiboutians lack access to reliable financial services, which are needed for more lucrative business opportunities outside the agricultural field.

With less than 1,000 square kilometers suitable for farming,  Djibouti has a chronic food deficit. Agricultural production accounts for only three percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), so Djibouti imports 90 percent of its food commodities.

This reliance means it is highly sensitive to external economic disruptions and natural disasters such as floods and droughts. Any variation in the international prices has a considerable impact on the poorest segment of the population, who spend 77 percent of their household budget on imported food.

Lack of access to affordable food correlates with high rates of malnutrition in Djiboutian children, currently affecting 29.7 percent of children under five.

Collaborative Solutions

The World Bank’s 2014-2017 Country Partnership Strategy marks a collaboration between the International Development Association (IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). The strategy supports the government’s goal to reduce extreme poverty by 2035. The strategy will also build the infrastructure to benefit all members of the population through harnessing the country’s human and economic potential by reducing vulnerability and strengthening the business environment.

By improving long-term infrastructure and opening markets for poor rural communities, rural citizens may eventually escape poverty and subsequently hunger in Djibouti.

– Casie Wilson

Photo: Flickr

, ,

Italy Helps Fight Hunger in Ukraine With Donation of €1 Million


Amidst facing a humanitarian crisis and lack of mine regulations, Ukraine received aid totaling one million euros from Italy through the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF to help those impacted by the actions in Eastern Ukraine in 2017. The donation will help the WFP provide basic necessities and humanitarian assistance Ukrainians need to combat hunger, while also fighting against their own government and people.

Among a population of 45.2 million, more than 4.4 million Ukrainians have been impacted, and more than 3.8 million still need humanitarian assistance.

Who the Donation Will Help Most

“Our contribution to WFP and UNICEF operations will help ease people’s suffering, in particular for the most vulnerable, providing food assistance, increasing knowledge and building safe behaviour practices to deal with the risk of mines,” said Davide La Cecilia, the Italian Ambassador to Ukraine in a press release published by the WFP.

Thanks to Italy’s donation, UNICEF will help protect 500,000 children and their guardians from the dangers in mines by supporting the mine risk education program.

The WFP plans to help those who do not receive assistance from other humanitarian actors and further small-scale recovery activities, such as providing food, to aid local citizens. UNICEF will use the funding to promote children’s education programs and for families living in areas close to the contact line, which divides the government and non-government controlled areas and where the fighting is most intense.

Giancarlo Stopponi, WFP deputy country director in Ukraine, said, “WFP greatly appreciates Italy’s support at a time when communities across Ukraine continue to experience the negative consequences of the conflict.”

The WFP has been aiding those experiencing hunger in Ukraine since 2014 by providing emergency food services to internally displaced citizens in Eastern Ukraine, handing out monthly food packages and food assistance. To this day, about 850,000 of most Eastern Ukraine’s most vulnerable people have received food from WFP, despite attempts to bar humanitarian staff.

Ongoing Efforts to Battle Hunger

The program plans to continue its efforts, aiming to assist 220,000 citizens in Eastern Ukraine. These people both rely on and need WFP’s food assistance, along with their other operations, such as the Logistic Cluster Support to the Humanitarian Response in Ukraine.

In 2017, UNICEF has appealed to the U.S. for $31.3 million to be used towards combatting hunger in Ukraine. The money will be used for health and nutrition needs, education, water, hygiene and sanitation, and protection for those most vulnerable to the conflict, such as children and families.

– Mary Waller

Photo: Flickr

, ,

The Battle Against Hunger in Côte d’Ivoire

Hunger in Côte d’Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire continues to experience aftershocks of the military coup in December 1999, which turned into an all-out civil war in 2002, leading to the creation of a North and South Côte d’Ivoire. This resolution was supposed to be disbanded in 2010, but there was a conflict over the results of the election for the new leader of the unified government, complicating the transition of power. This threw the country into another five months of the war. The political unrest in Côte d’Ivoire has created widespread economic instability and food security issues.

Following the conflicts in 2011, President Alassane Ouattara adopted the National Agricultural Investment Program (PNIA), and the National Development Plan (PND) in an effort to alleviate the widespread hunger in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as to repair social relations between the polarized country. The country is ushering into a new era of human rights, job creation, availability of social services, sustainable resource consumption and poverty reduction. This new phase, which will run until 2021, and is focused on decoupling agriculture from deforestation by using more sustainable farming methods, is projected to create 400,000 jobs. This shows that the aid given will cultivate lasting economic growth for the country.

Unfortunately, despite all the positive forward momentum in the government, Côte d’Ivoire still ranks in the bottom tenth percentile of the United Nations Development Programs Human Development Index. Twenty-three percent of the population lives below $1.25 per day. Primary school enrollment is at 50 percent. And there is still widespread hunger in Cote d’Ivoire, with 13.3 percent of the population experiencing undernourishment in 2016, and 30 percent of children under 5 years old experiencing growth stunting. The country received a global Hunger Index Score of 25.7 out of 100 in 2016.

So what’s being done about it? The World Food Program opened up a Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation to save lives and combat hunger in Côte d’Ivoire. The program has opened a school breakfast program that has fed 571,000 children. Action Against Hunger (ACF) has also started a program that has successfully provided food to 792,688 people and helped 848,698 people gain access to safe water and sanitation.

Difficulties for the future will depend on the influx of foreign aid to sustain these development projects. However, it is clear that Côte d’Ivoire is on the right track. It has reached a period of stability and has been able to focus inward on lowering hunger in Côte d’Ivoire and raising the quality of life. Things look bright for the country’s future.

– Joshua Ward

Photo: Flickr

,

Hunger in Ecuador — Assistance is Still Needed

Hunger in EcuadorEcuador, a country in Latin America with a population of 18.4 million, is classified as an upper-middle-income country. However, one in three children in Ecuador is malnourished, the second-highest rate in the region.

Ecuador’s Hunger Crisis

  • Poverty– According to the latest statistics, Ecuador has made progress in reducing the poverty rate, which has decreased to 26% in recent years. However, it is still high in rural areas, with 40% of people living below the poverty line. The high levels of poverty in the country have led to a surge in crime and violence, as many young adults see crime as their only way out of poverty. 
  • Effects on Children– The alarming prevalence (14%) of malnourishment in the population has resulted in a concerning 23% of children under the age of 5 experiencing stunted growth. This condition has a detrimental impact on the learning and cognitive development of nearly one in five of these children, posing a significant threat to their overall well-being and future prospects. 
  • Worsening Food Insecurity– Food insecurity has increased in recent years, rising from around 20% before the pandemic to 33% in 2020. This is due to the global economic crisis, the influx of refugees from Venezuela and Colombia, natural disasters, food waste and the worsening security situation in the country. Around 900,000 tons of food is wasted or lost annually. The government passed a law recently to ensure safe-to-eat food is donated at designated places and incentives in the form of tax deductions, etc, are provided to the donors.  

Efforts Underway

The World Food Programme (WFP) provides food assistance to around 300,000 people. The organization is also working in collaboration with the government to end malnutrition by focusing on pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under 2 to help reduce malnutrition and stunting in the population. The WFP is actively engaged in strengthening the capabilities of governmental institutions, equipping them with advanced tools and expertise to combat the ongoing crisis effectively.

In addition to the WFP’s efforts, Tetra Pak and the Ministry of Education have launched a collaborative pilot program to provide schoolchildren in targeted regions with 200 ml of nutritious milk daily, five days a week. The program’s goal was to combat malnutrition and reduce school dropouts. Following its success, the program has been formalized into legislation and implemented nationwide.  

Looking Ahead

Despite all efforts, Ecuador still faces immense challenges in reducing hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. The international focus and assistance on Ecuador have decreased recently because it is an upper-middle-income country, further exacerbating the problems. The need of the hour is to assist Ecuador in dealing with these issues by providing aid and assistance and helping it achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 of zero hunger. 

– Dustin Jayroe
Photo: Flickr
Updated: October 1, 2024

,

Hunger in Sudan


Famine has been officially declared as people are dying from hunger in Sudan. The United Nations has said the situation is “desperate” in the Southern state.

Nearly 100,000 people are facing famine so serious that they are at risk of dying in the Southern Unity State of the country. One million people are currently on the border of famine and almost five million are in need of some type of humanitarian aid.

On February 22, 2017, the United Nations spoke out about the rising crisis of hunger in Sudan is leading to rising deaths. Five million South Sudanese do not have an adequate amount of food and that number is expected to rise. Over one million of those are severely malnourished children who are at immediate risk of dying.

South Sudan is a country of around 12 million people in Northern Africa. Around 80 percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas, with more than 30 percent of the children under the age of five being undernourished. The average life expectancy is 55.7 years.

South Sudan became an independent nation from the Republic of Sudan in 2011 but has faced a civil war since 2013 that continues to this day. Many aid workers in the country have faced violence because of the ongoing war, with some even having been forced to leave the country.

The United Nations and its humanitarian partner organizations want to assist nearly six million people in 2017 in South Sudan, as well as other countries struggling with the same crises. The situation is expected to get worse in the coming months, due to the height of the lean season, if something is not done immediately. Emphasis has been placed on the fact that these types of issues are stemming from disputes, therefore they are preventable.

Some organizations working to provide aid for hunger in Sudan are UNICEF (The United Nations International Children’s Fund), FAO (The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), Action Against Hunger, and WFP (The World Food Programme). These organizations work to provide a variety of types of support to those who are affected. UNICEF, focusing specifically on children, is working to provide treatment for children facing extreme malnutrition. FAO is working to make food more secure and to increase incomes. Action Against Hunger is working to provide emergency care and treatment. WFP is working to provide nutritious school meals, general nutritional support and provides money transfers for displaced people in need of food.

– Shannon Elder

Photo: Flickr