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Hunger in Rwanda: The Good and the Bad

Hunger in Rwanda: The Good and the Bad
In Rwanda, poverty and hunger continue to pose a major challenge for the rapidly developing country. Based on the UNDP Human Development Index for 2011, the country ranks 166 out of 187 while maintaining one of the highest population densities in Africa. The large population puts a strain on proper healthcare as well as the already limited natural resources of the country. Although the government of Rwanda, together with the World Food Program, has found that nutrition levels and food security have been improving over the last seven years, the situation is still far from optimal.

Some of the major challenges Rwanda faces with regard to poverty and hunger could be solved by foreign aid investments or direct cash donors from developed nations and foreign aid organizations. 83.7% of the population survives on $2 a day or less, and without proper disposable income, it is impossible to support families with proper food, water, and nutrition.

Up to 90% of the population engages in subsistence agriculture. This, combined with the extreme crowding and limited access to land, makes subsistence farming inefficient.

WFP’s country director for Rwanda, Jan Delbaere, weighs in on the topic, explaining that “during 2012, WFP bought 23,000 metric tons of food in Rwanda, mostly for operations in neighboring countries. This is a clear sign that Rwanda is more than self-sufficient for its staple crops. However, households with only a small area of land for cultivation simply cannot afford to access enough nutritious food to live healthy, active lives or to provide for their basic needs from their land alone.”

The WFP remains committed to supporting the government in Rwanda to increase food security and food production programs, and the country itself has chosen to sign the “Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) compact and to secure funding, thus confirming malnutrition and food insecurity as one of the government’s key priorities.” In spite of its food insecurity, Rwanda’s GDP has been growing by 7.2% annually since 2010. With proper investment and aid, these issues can be solved, and the country set further on the right track to stability.

– Sarah Rybak

Source: WFP,Hope in Action
Photo: ESB Blog

5 Ways to End World Hunger

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According to the World Food Program, there are 870 million people that are living with chronic hunger worldwide. The estimated cost of feeding those people is USD 30 billion, a fraction of what the United States allots to the Military and War budgets. While there has been tremendous progress in reducing hunger worldwide, today one in eight people do not get enough food to lead a healthy, active life.

Malnutrition is the number one health risk across the globe, but it is entirely preventable. Listed below are five ways to reduce poverty and help eradicate malnutrition and chronic hunger.

1. Donate to a cause or organization that will make a difference.

2. Learn the facts, spread the word, and build buzz. The more people that are involved and dedicated to ending world hunger, the better. Great sites to surf for facts are UNICEF, USAID and WFP and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

3. Call or write to Congress! A phone call or letter to state representatives and congressmen can persuade them to support bills that will protect and reduce hunger around the world. Learn how to contact state leaders at The Borgen Project.

4. Volunteer. Whether you have the time or the money, volunteering is a great way to fight the good fight and end world hunger.

5. Fundraise! Hold a garage sale, a non-event or start a fundraising website to generate awareness and funds.

– Kira Maixner
Source: WFP, The Borgen Project
Photo: SCH

What Does CRS Do?

What Does CRS Do?
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) was founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States to serve WWII survivors in Europe. The organization now serves over 100 million people in over 100 countries. Their mission is to serve impoverished and disadvantaged people, working in the spirit of Catholic social teaching to promote the sacredness of human life and the dignity of the human person. Although CRS is a Catholic based organization, they help whomever they can regardless of their race or religion, employing Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

CRS works to ease suffering, provide development assistance, and foster charity and justice. They have a set of guiding principles including: the sacredness and dignity of humans, preservation of basic human rights, supporting the social nature of humanity, promoting the common good, subsidiarity, solidarity, stewardship, and strengthening the options of the poor. CRS is governed by a board of directors including clergy, elected bishops, and Catholic lay men and women.

CRS provides both emergency and long-term relief to countries. They work to provide basic necessities, healthcare and education to the poorest and most vulnerable populations in the world. CRS focuses on six key areas of services including: emergencies, hunger, education, health, peace and helping at home.

CRS assists in regions affected by natural disasters and wars, providing water, food, shelter, as well as attempting to bring about long lasting peace if possible. CRS fights hunger through development of agriculture, improved water and sanitation, sustainable work options and through providing microfinance loans to those in need. They build improved educations systems, especially for women and girls and develop community-based health care systems to improve medical conditions. CRS also fights HIV/AIDS and establishes programs to reduce child and maternal mortality.

CRS proclaims Peacebuilding as the most important thing they do, lying at the heart of their operations. Conflict resolution, education and prevention are incredibly important to CRS. However, CRS also believes that rebuilding civil society and civic organization encourages good governance and makes governments accountable to their populations.

Some good examples of their programs are their programs to improve agriculture in Latin America. They are connecting farmers with suppliers and vendors to agricultural cooperatives to help the poorest farmers thrive. They have introduced more efficient technology to increase profits by the means of bean processing plants and drip irrigation systems. This method has seen beneficial results in Nicaragua and Ecuador where farmers have seen an additional dollar in profit per pound of cocoa. CRS is looking to expand their programs to Haiti in the wake of their natural disaster. CRS is creating an exit strategy for farmers in poverty by helping them improve their products, expand their markets and become self-sustainable.

– Caitlin Zusy 
Source: CRS Blog, CRS

Grow Africa: Agriculture First

Grow Africa: Agriculture First
The call to end global poverty by the year 2030 has been sounded, but the real question is, where do we focus? Grow Africa is a partnership platform that seeks to accelerate investments in Africa’s agricultural sector by bringing public and private partners together. Their goal is to increase private sector investments, enable multi-stakeholder partnerships, and expand knowledge and awareness of the most effective practices and initiatives.

Because most of Africa’s poorest people live in rural areas on small farms, the goal to increase rural productivity seems a good place to start. The acceleration and improvement of the agricultural sector would lead to a quickening of the process of urbanization. This growth would undoubtedly support economic stability and success. The increased food supply will also aid tremendously in the fight against hunger.

Grow Africa has initiatives in many African countries including Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Rwanda. These programs focus on commercial agriculture, local investments in commodities, and the strengthening of infrastructures such as irrigation canals and hydropower. Their first annual report showed over $3.5 billion in investments across the eight countries supported by Grow Africa. These investments allowed for around $300 million in sales from farmers as well as 800,000 smallholders that were reached and provided with training and sourcing.

While Grow Africa is focused on only one part of the developing world, if their reports continue to be positive and foster growth and development, other organizations and investments would very likely begin to pour into other developing regions such as Asia. In order to ensure long-term economic success, it is important to focus first on the development of agriculture. This focus will allow for a dramatic decrease in hunger-related deaths as well as an increase in economic stability, not only for farmers but for all those living in developing countries.

– Sarah Rybak

Sources: Grow Africa, The Globe and Mail

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Just Falafel & World Food Programme to Raise $1M

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A fast food retail chain in the UAE, Just Falafel, has joined forces with the World Food Programme (WFP) to raise $1 million over the next three years. The money will go to fight hunger worldwide.  Over the next three years, $500 will be donated to the WFP for every new Just Falafel franchise opening worldwide. Franchisees will be encouraged to match the $500 donation, doubling the impact and allowing the WFP to feed twice as many people.

Business predictions estimate over 1,000 franchises will open before the end of 2016. With the matching donation program from both Just Falafel and the franchisees, the goal of raising $1 million is very much in reach.  Nearly 900 million people worldwide do not have enough to eat to lead active, healthy lives.  This makes hunger and malnutrition the number one health risk worldwide and gives organizations like Just Falafel a reason to contribute to fighting hunger.

As estimates report 1 in 8 people in the world are malnourished and many of these in the Middle East and Asia, Just Falafel has a personal connection to the cause.  Giving back to their communities is deeply rooted in the values and mission of Just Falafel. The partnership with the WFP takes that connection one step further and formalizes their commitment to fighting hunger.

WFP’s regional head of private partnerships and business development, Ashraf Hamouda, commended Just Falafel for their initiative and act of generosity to help fight hunger.  The WFP is working hard to end hunger, but they can’t do it alone and partnerships like this allow them to continue to fight.  Social Media will be a major player in Just Falafel’s strategy to raise awareness as well as promote new franchisees.

– Amanda Kloeppel 

Source: Trade Arabia

5 Fun Events to End Global Poverty

5-events-to-end-world-poverty
These 5 fun events are bringing people together with one common goal, to expose and eliminate poverty around the world. Whether the focus is on one specific country, or the world, the magnitude of learning about world poverty and efforts to end it are being multiplied.

1. The Borgen Project’s “Downsizing Poverty” Online Auction– Taking place from April 12 to April 28, the online auction boasts numerous items from trips to Mexico, artwork, outdoor passes, electronics, to the flag flown at the Obama’s 2013 Inauguration, online bidders from around the world can help the completely volunteer-organized and -run Borgen Project stop global poverty. Proceeds from this event will assist the Borgen Project in marketing initiatives to build public and political support to reduce poverty.

2. Concern Worldwide US Leadership Network Meeting – On May 9 in Chicago, IL, Concern Worldwide US will host an event to bring together young, like-minded professionals to connect and discuss the elimination of extreme poverty in developing countries. Participants will enjoy their first beverage on Concern Worldwide US while the rest of the proceeds from this event will benefit various projects supported the organization.

3. The Bretton Woods Committee 30th Anniversary Annual Meeting – Themed “Can the IFIs, Business, Government, and Society End Poverty in a Generation?” this conference will bring together representatives from multilateral, non-profit, and government organizations such as Oxfam America, The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. The dialogue will encompass the “development ecosystem” and how it is changing and how these organizations can support and assist those countries at the bottom of the pyramid. This event will take place on May 15 in Washington, D.C..

4. UNICEF’s Next Generation Photo Benefit – On May 17 at the Milk Gallery in New York City, photographers (both professional and amateur) and givers will come together to raise funds for UNICEF’s Next Generations Colombia Project. The theme of this event is “Seeing ZERO” and guests will have the opportunity to partake in a silent auction alongside an open bar, enjoying hors d’oeuvres and music.

5. Devendra Banhart Concert Tour –This spring and summer at concerts across America, Oxfam will have outreach tables as well as volunteer opportunities to generate awareness to end world hunger and start saving lives. Visit Oxfam to view a complete list of events.

– Kira Maixner

Source: The Borgen Project, Concern Worldwide US, Bretton Woods Committee, Unicef USA, Oxfam America
Photo: United Nations Information Center Washington

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Can Converting Cellulose Into Starch Solve World Hunger?

Can Converting Cellulose Into Starch Solve World Hunger?
When considering the most pressing issues confronting global poverty in the next 30 to 40 years, none are more alarming than the food shortages predicted to accompany a worldwide population of over nine billion people. In an effort to ameliorate future food insecurity, more and more research funding has been allocated towards finding sustainable, nutrient-dense complex carbohydrates capable of meeting the caloric demands of a greatly expanded populace. Quite astonishingly, in a turn of events that have even researchers optimistic about future food security challenges, scientists have recently discovered a way of converting cellulose into starch.

Researchers at Virginia Tech’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, along with their College of Engineering devised an ingenious method of converting cellulose into starch by utilizing a process involving cascading enzymes. Basically, enzymatic reactions transform cellulose – an abundant carbohydrate contained in the cell wall of plants – into amylose and ethanol, which means that absolutely nothing goes to waste. The potential of the cellulose to starch conversion opens up exciting new frontiers in the fight against world hunger, as humans generally derive 20 to 40 percent of their daily caloric intake from complex carbohydrates such as starch.

In regards to the process of converting cellulose into starch, Associate Professor of Biological Systems Engineering Y.H. Percival Zhang remarked that “Cellulose and starch have the same chemical formula, the difference is in their chemical linkages. Our idea is to use an enzyme cascade to break up the bonds in cellulose, enabling their reconfiguration as starch.”

Scientific breakthroughs such as converting cellulose into starch serve to unlock the potential of feeding the entire world’s population without the necessary land, water, and fertilizer usage that wreaks havoc on the earth’s delicate ecosystems. Furthermore, by harnessing the scientific technology necessary to transform something as abundant as plant cellulose into a viable human food source, future challenges such as global food security are looking much more surmountable.

– Brian Turner

Source: Science Daily
Photo: National Geographic

Stunting: Why Fighting Hunger is Important

Stunting: Why Fighting Hunger is Important
In a conference held in Ireland, Anthony Lake, the executive director of UNICEF, reminded us why fighting hunger is so important. A recently released UNICEF report stated that more than a quarter of children under the age of five are permanently stunted from malnutrition. Children who are permanently stunted lack the physical and intellectual capacity to achieve their full potential. If the 165 million children been exposed to better nutrition, breastfeeding, and clean water in their first two years of life, they could have reached normal brain and body development.

Lake has urged that fighting hunger is important because children who are permanently stunted will suffer increased vulnerability to illness and early death. In order to combat this, UNICEF believes children need increased access to Vitamin A, iron, and folic acid in the womb, as well as a balanced diet and clean drinking water in the first two years of life. UNICEF argues that the minimum requirements should without question be universally available to every child on the planet.

If a child is permanently stunted from hunger, their brain never properly develops. It is unfixable. While we can fix hunger later, once a child is permanently stunted there is no going back. These children will be at a disadvantage in school. They will not learn at as quick of a pace, nor as much as their peers. This is a clear violation of the child’s human rights. And worst of all, it is something that can be corrected.

Formats such as UNICEF conferences, while not always providing the brightest or happiest news, raise awareness. Learning statistics and facts behind global hunger and poverty have the power to motivate society to get more involved. Technology and international cooperation and funding can help put an end to this problem.  The permanent stunting of children serves as a reminder of why fighting hunger is important.

– Caitlin Zusy
Source: Medical Xpress
Photo: CNN

Mealmatch: Social Media Fighting World Hunger

Mealmatch: Social Media Fighting World HungerSocial media is a powerful tool and two young entrepreneurs have harnessed its power to fight world hunger. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, around 925 million go hungry each day. In light of that number, Dustin Tessendorf and Joseph Tuson from Arizona developed the social media app Mealmatch.

Mealmatch is using social media to fight world hunger in a very, easy way. The app is downloaded to users’ phones and when they eat or drink at participating restaurants, they can check-in and the restaurant donates $.30 per meal to a charity. While $.30 may not seem like a lot,  it is the average cost of a meal in Africa and it can make a big difference if enough users download the app. Currently, the money from donated meals goes to over a dozen charities in Africa and two in  Chandler, Arizona. All the information about the charities is easily found on the Mealmatch website.

The benefits to restaurants are few other than positive advertising which can go a very long way. Despite this, about 40 restaurants have signed up to participate in the program. When a restaurant participates in a charitable cause, it gains them continued support and recognition. As the founders put it, “Business can no longer get away with exploiting the world for money.”

While Mealmatch is currently limited to Arizona, there is potential for growth across the United States.  Social media is powerful and two young entrepreneurs are proving that with a little creativity, it can be used to fight global hunger with the ease of checking in at a restaurant you are already visiting.

– Amanda Kloeppel

Source: Phoenix New Times

Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index Rankings

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The Institute of Development Studies has released new rankings for the Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI). The index ranks countries by political commitment to tackling hunger in developing countries from most commitment to the least. Guatemala has topped the list, and Guinea-Bissau has finished last.

Guatemala managed to rise to the top by way of, “policies ensuring access to drinking water and improved sanitation, complementary feeding practices and ensuring over nine out of ten pregnant women receive visits from health officials at least once before delivery.”

Guatemala has made budgetary strides to ensure their country can achieve lower chronic malnutrition rates by the year 2016. At present, Guatemala has an alarming rate of child stunting, and the IFPRI has expressed deep concerns over the country’s hunger situation. While the current situation in Guatemala remains less than ideal, progress is being made, and things are improving.

On the other hand, Guinea-Bissau, who also has alarming hunger and malnutrition rates, has shown little political commitment to improve their situation. They have failed to invest in agricultural improvements, and their nutrition policies need a great deal of work.

It is important to note that GNI is not a major determining factor for the hunger and nutrition commitment index. Several wealthier countries, such as India and Nigeria, actually rank lower than countries with lower GNIs, such as Malawi. The important thing is that countries show strong political commitment and use of resources to reduce hunger and malnutrition.

The index compiles a score based on 22 indicators of political commitment to reducing hunger and malnutrition. These indicators include political policies and programs, legal frameworks, and public spending.

Researchers believe the hunger and nutrition commitment index is important because of what it brings to light.  The index shows what governments are doing well, or what they are failing to do. It has the capability to be a catalyst for change and accountability. It could have the ability to mobilize civil society and the international arena to demand more from governments worldwide.

– Caitlin Zusy
Source: Guardian