World Hunger Education

Welcome to the World Hunger Education Site.

 

Facts and ideas will change, so check back for updates.

 

The 2008 Book of Discipline 632.4b(21) directs the Conference Board of Global Ministries “to support the United Methodist Committee on Relief’s World Hunger/ Poverty Ministry by encouraging annual conferences to appoint an annual conference hunger coordinator and form an annual conference hunger committee that relates to the annual conference board of global ministries.”  Don and Caroline Kluver are the volunteer coordinators.  You can contact them at cdklu@netscape.net – 712.732.7901 with your questions.

 

WORLD HUNGER

 

What are the causes of hunger?

 

Poverty is the principal cause of hunger. The causes of poverty include poor people's lack of resources, an extremely unequal income distribution in the world and within specific countries, conflict, and hunger itself. As of 2008 (2005 statistics), the World Bank has estimated that there were an estimated 1,345 million poor people in developing countries who live on $1.25 a day or less.  Progress in poverty reduction has been concentrated in Asia, and especially, East Asia, with the major improvement occurring in China. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people in extreme poverty has increased.

 

Hunger Notes believes that the principal underlying cause of poverty and hunger is the ordinary operation of the economic and political systems in the world

 

Conflict is a cause of hunger and poverty. At the end of 2005, the global number of refugees was at its lowest level in almost a quarter of a century. Despite some large-scale repatriation movements, the last three years have witnessed a significant increase in refugee numbers, due primarily to the violence taking place in Iraq and Somalia. By the end of 2008, the total number of refugees under UNHCR’s mandate exceeded 10 million. The number of conflict-induced internally displaced persons (IDPs) reached some 26 million worldwide at the end of the year.

 

Hunger is a cause of poverty. By causing poor health, low levels of energy, and even mental impairment, hunger can lead to even greater poverty by reducing people's ability to work and learn.

 

Climate change is increasingly viewed as a current and future cause of hunger and poverty. Increasing drought, flooding, and changing climatic patterns requiring a shift in crops and farming practices that may not be easily accomplished are three key issues

 

The target set at the 1996 World Food Summit was to halve the number of undernourished people by 2015 from their number in 1990-92. (FAO uses three year averages in its calculation of undernourished people.) The (estimated) number of undernourished people in developing countries  was 824 million in 1990-92. In 2009, the number had climbed to 1.02 billion people.  So, overall,  the world is not making progress toward the world food summit goal, although there has been progress in Asia, and in Latin America and the Caribbean. (Updated May 7, 2010) 

 

 

Malnutrition

 

No one really knows how many people are malnourished. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, in their most recent estimate, released on October 14, 2009,  says that 1.02 billion people are undernourished, a sizable increase from its 2006 estimate of  854 million people. The increase has been due to three factors: 1) neglect of agriculture relevant to very poor people by governments and international agencies; 2) the current worldwide economic crisis, and 3) the significant increase of food prices in the last several years which has been devastating to those with only a few dollars a day to spend.  Nearly all of the undernourished are in developing countries. 

 

Children are the most visible victims of undernutrition.  Children who are poorly nourished suffer up to 160 days of illness each year. Poor nutrition plays a role in at least half of the 10.9 million child deaths each year.  Undernutrition magnifies the effect of every disease, including measles and malaria. Malnutrition can also be caused by diseases, such as the diseases that cause diarrhea, by reducing the body's ability to convert food into usable nutrients.

 

According to the most recent estimate that Hunger Notes could find, malnutrition, as measured by stunting, affects 32.5 percent of children in developing countries.  Geographically, more than 70 percent of malnourished children live in Asia, 26 percent in Africa and 4 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean. In many cases, their plight began even before birth with a malnourished mother. Under-nutrition among pregnant women in developing countries leads to 1 out of 6 infants born with low birth weight. This is not only a risk factor for neonatal deaths, but also causes learning disabilities, mental, retardation, poor health, blindness and premature death.

The world produces enough food to feed everyone. World agriculture produces 17 percent more calories per person today than it did 30 years ago, despite a 70 percent population increase. This is enough to provide everyone in the world with at least 2,720 kilocalories (kcal) per person per day (FAO 2002, p.9).  The principal problem is that many people in the world do not have sufficient land to grow, or income to purchase, enough food. 

 

Development Assistance

An increase in U.S. development assistance is essential to help meet the urgent needs of the poorest countries.  Countries struggling with extreme poverty do not have the resources to adequately finance their own development.  U.S. development assistance has made a big difference to millions of people in poverty. A well that provides clean drinking water for a village may cost a few hundred dollars, but the benefits far exceed that sum in terms of improving people’s health, increasing the productivity of workers, and allowing girls to attend school rather than walking hours each day to find other sources of water.

 

'We Know What's Best for You'

Just as important as more spending on development is better spending. What does “better” development assistance mean? A key element is allowing developing countries to have more say in how U.S. assistance is used. Currently, priorities are largely determined in Washington, DC. When given the opportunity to express their own priorities, poor countries opt to put resources into agriculture and infrastructure.

Dictating priorities from Washington runs counter to what we know about how to deliver effective assistance. “We know what’s best for you” doesn’t help countries move toward self-reliant, sustainable progress on hunger and poverty. Making sure recipient countries can participate in deciding where and how their assistance is used will get better results.

Understandably, U.S. policymakers and the public worry about corrupt governments absconding with resources meant to help poor people. But there is little chance of this happening the way U.S. assistance is currently administered: project-focused (for example, building a school, providing HIV drugs) and implemented through contractors, international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as CARE, Catholic Relief Services, and World Vision, or the many qualified local NGOs that have been vetted.

Recipient governments are generally not involved, except that they are expected to guarantee sustainability once the NGOs step aside. Cutting out the host country at the start may help ensure that corruption is minimized, but it also makes it difficult—if not impossible—to achieve sustainability and scale up successful development projects.

Working with and through governments, while often more time-consuming and difficult to coordinate, is more effective in building needed capacity and ensuring that the results are greater than the sum of individual efforts. There will be exceptions—for example, countries with urgent humanitarian needs whose governments have indeed proven corrupt

 

Assistance Needs to be Flexible

U.S. development assistance is structured to address specific issues and accomplish projects with set parameters, so budget accounts are set up to channel program funds into specific line items.

 

As one doctor explained, “Once we get people on medicine, we’re able to get them out of bed and back on their feet. But soon we realize they haven’t got any food, and the success of the drugs depends on good nutrition. We do what we can to get them some food, but then we realize they haven’t got any income to purchase food on their own.”

In a perfect world of development assistance, there would be programs with the mandate and resources to work with people with AIDS to help them earn income to buy food and other necessities. But this isn’t the case.  We could simply lament the lack of money for nutrition assistance and income-generation activities, or we could press for U.S. development assistance programs to become more flexible.