The global hunger crisis is manifold with the complexity of the factors that lead and motivate it, and with the increase in the number of hungry people, the international community must raise the level of preparedness to properly deal with the crisis and save the lives of millions of people. According to the annual report issued by the United Nations, in 2021, the number of undernourished people rose to 828 million last year, an increase that appeared as a result of the uneven recovery from the consequences of Covid-19, which resulted in high commodity costs. and contributed to the deepening of the food crisis for many around the world, to become about a tenth of the world in connection with a fierce and unprecedented hunger crisis, aggravated by the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian war since February of this year. However, this crisis is not the result of changes that the world has witnessed during the past two years only Rather, the burden is shared by many other factors, on top of which are the repercussions of climate change, the spread of conflicts and the resulting conflict over resources.
indicators of the crisis
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s announcement on July 30, 2022 that his country is officially going through a famine, and his call for a quick local and international response, came to demonstrate the nature of the challenge that countries are now facing. As the indicators that confirm the fact that the world is facing a hunger crisis have increased, it is expected to worsen unless appropriate solutions are found to combat it, and they are as follows:
1- High rates of global poverty: During the past two years, poor countries around the world witnessed unprecedented poverty rates, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the setback it caused in international efforts to reduce poverty, which was exacerbated by high levels of inflation and the consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war. With the confluence of these factors, it is expected, according to World Bank estimates, that the number of poor will range between 75 million and 95 million by the end of this year 2022 .
2- The increasing number of people receiving aid : The Food Security Program announced that about 2.8 million affected people will be assisted during 2022, of whom 1.8 million people will receive emergency food assistance. These numbers are in line with expectations that support will be provided to about 1,684,507 people in about 37 regions and 156,560 people in about 5 regions; This makes the total of those in need of emergency support to about 1,841,677; In order to avoid falling into the critical stage, which is acute hunger.
3- Geographical spread of hunger globally: Africa is the worst continent in the world in terms of the proportion of hungry people; More than 20% of its population is at risk of hunger, followed by Asia and Latin America; Where the percentage of hunger in each of them is close to 9%. While levels of hunger and food insecurity in North America and Europe remain below 2.5% in recent years. Perhaps this is largely due to the paralysis of the Horn of Africa due to drought after four consecutive rainy seasons. As a result, 18.4 million people were exposed to severe food insecurity, which raises fears of a repeat of what happened in 2011, when lack of intervention led to a famine in Somalia that killed 260,000 people, half of whom were children under the age of 5 years.
4- The high number of children affected globally: The world is facing the worst global food crisis in decades, threatening the lives of millions of children, due to the economic, political, geopolitical and climate crises; In Somalia, for example, reports go to the increasing number of severely malnourished children, which is expected to reach 1.5 million by the end of this year. In response, Save the Children announced the allocation of about $28.5 million to 19 countries to address urgent hunger emergencies, which represents the largest cash disbursement ever from its humanitarian fund.
According to Mthulisi Dube, a nutritionist who works with Save the Children’s Emergency Health Unit in Turkana, northern Kenya, at least 229,000 children across northern Kenya are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, putting their lives at risk. In Afghanistan, about 9.6 million children suffer from hunger every day.
Key factors
Several factors contributed to the exacerbation of the global hunger crisis, thus forming the accumulation of a crisis that extended over decades. Here is a look at the most important of those factors:
1- Gender inequality: Of the 828 million food insecure people in the world today, nearly 60% of them are women and girls, while about 31.9% of all women in the world suffer from moderate or severe food insecurity. This is more than men, of whom the percentage of hungry is estimated at 27.6%. This can be traced back to the unequal treatment between the sexes and the gap between them in work, education and salaries; What makes women fall into a cycle of deprivation, poverty and hunger. Moreover, girls and women in poor countries bear the brunt of the hunger crisis, with increased risks of sexual and gender-based violence, particularly during food distribution; This puts them at greater risk of child and adolescent labour, forced marriage and sexual exploitation.
2- The role of climate change in harming crops: the drastic change in weather patterns is contributing to the deepening of the global hunger crisis; In regions such as South Sudan, for the third year in a row, massive floods destroyed crops; This has left an estimated 63% of the population facing high levels of acute food insecurity.
According to United Nations agencies, extreme weather from the far right where the floods are to the far left where the severe drought, especially in poor countries, contributes to the escalation of threats to the food supply, and thus the global hunger crisis; In Morocco, for example, drought this year has affected wheat crops, as well as maize fields in Zimbabwe. With governments at risk of recession, it has become difficult for them to extend support to poor families.
Moreover, smallholder farmers face serious problems in maintaining their cultivated areas due to climate change, especially as they are no longer able to afford additional inputs to production, if their crops are damaged; This puts the lives of millions at risk.
3- The spread of conflicts and conflicts around the world: Conflicts play a major role in exacerbating the hunger crisis in conflict regions and countries; The majority of the population loses their jobs once the conflict erupts, and may be displaced from their lands, as basic goods become more expensive; Some citizens are forced to sell their assets in order to be able to buy the food they need, and with the end of their money, they face hunger again. Logistically, emergency food distribution is more difficult in conflict situations.
According to Mohamed Bah, Niger’s country director for Plan International , food consumption in Niger has already deteriorated in almost all regions, emergency thresholds set by the World Health Organization have been exceeded for acute malnutrition, and 9.7 million people are expected to suffer. of food insecurity in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, as armed conflict continues to expand. This crisis is also evident in the case of Burkina Faso. The attacks of armed groups on civilians, for looting and destroying crops, stealing livestock and extortion practiced in collecting money from the local population, contribute significantly to the starvation of hundreds of thousands of families, as well as damaging markets in those areas. So as not to become unable to work or to work at a slower pace.
4- The negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic: the high cost of food resulting from the outbreak of COVID-19 and the disruption of supply chains associated with global closures in order to contain the epidemic; To the difficulty of purchasing basic commodities in light of their high prices and the difficulty of accessing them at the same time. Despite the gradual recovery from the consequences of the pandemic that the world witnessed during the past year, some regions and poor countries continued to suffer from hunger and food insecurity. According to the United Nations report issued on July 6, 2022, it is expected that about 670 million people will remain undernourished by 2030, despite the economic recovery that the world is expected to witness in the coming years.
5- The repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian war: Although food prices have stabilized in recent months, they are still much higher than they were in 2021; The Russo-Ukrainian war contributed to global food price inflation—particularly grain prices such as wheat—as export restrictions in many countries exacerbated global increases in food prices. This is evident, with the monthly UN food price index rising to a record high shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine and 73 percent higher than it was two years ago.
The war has disrupted crop production and trade in Ukraine, which is one of the largest exporters of grain and vegetable oils, and crippled its sales abroad, and even now, low-income countries whose populations were already suffering from acute malnutrition and increasing numbers of deaths, especially in sub-Saharan Africa major, from food shortages and food insecurity.
6- The funding of food programs has shrunk: The high cost of meeting the food needs of millions around the world, in light of the lack of funding, has forced relief agencies, such as the World Food Program, to curb aid, and according to what the United Nations World Food Program announced on June 20, 2022, it He will have to make further cuts to the food rations provided to refugees very soon; This is a result of the multiplication of humanitarian needs around the world and insufficient funding, which has effectively forced WFP to make deep cuts to the daily meals provided to the hungry in the Sahel and elsewhere.
collective action
All in all, the world is facing a hunger crisis that threatens the lives of millions of people at the present time, which makes the need for governments, decision makers and international organizations to act, a humanitarian duty and an inevitable necessity, in light of the exacerbation of the current humanitarian crisis. In that context, the World Bank is seeking to take serious steps as part of a comprehensive global response to the ongoing food security crisis, in the form of projects in the fields of agriculture, nutrition, social protection, water and irrigation estimated at $30 billion, according to what the World Bank stated on May 18, 2022. This will include efforts to encourage food and fertilizer production and provide support to families with a lower standard of living. In addition, the Global Alliance for Food Security was convened in partnership with the World Bank Group and the G7 Presidency on May 19, 2022, which aimed to catalyze an immediate response to the growing global hunger crisis.
