World Hunger is Still an Issue

The issue of world hunger seems to have taken the sidebar due to all the crazy things that have been happening in the world in the year. To begin with it is important to define hunger. Hunger can be associated with food deprivation or undernourishment (For Action Against Hunger). In a scientific way it is referred to when someone has less than 1,800 calories per day (For Action Against Hunger). The cause for hunger is often related to food security. Food security describes food availability, access, and utilization (For Action Against Hunger). Therefore, one needs to have access to enough safe and nutritious food to be able to function properly everyday to be considered food secure (For Action Against Hunger). The world has the possibility of feeding the whole world yet, world hunger has not stopped. There are more than 690 million people still going hungry (For Action Against Hunger). It would be thought that the issue being so big would have been dealt with and would be decreasing but actually it is on the rise, affecting 8.9 percent of people globally (For Action Against Hunger). It has been on the rise since 2015 (United Nations). One in nine people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life (United Nations). The risk of hunger is greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined (United Nations). There are 8 percent of the population in North America and Europe who have issues with Hunger (United Nations). Africa has the most with 20 percent (United Nations). Latin America and the Caribbean have been rising on the scale of hunger although its prevalence is still below 7 percent (United Nations). In Asia the population that is undernourished is 12 percent (United Nations). World hunger can be closely linked with poverty.

The interactions of social, political, demographic, and societal factors causes the lack or the change in poverty therefore of food scarcity for some people (For Action Against Hunger). The UN gives the information of: “For two decades, leading up to the millennium, global demand for food had increased steadily, along with growth in the world’s population, record harvests, new technologies, improvements in incomes, and the diversification of diets.” (United Nations). Due to Rising production and stronger growth in demand since 2004 the prices for food has risen (United Nations). The increase of oil priced in 2007 caused increases in fertilizer and other food production costs. (United Nations). A key event caused certain key importers purchasing grains at any price to maintain domestic supplies (United Nations). This event was the global economic crisis in 2008 and 2009 which undermined food security in many countries (United Nations). Over the years, the UN Security Council found that a big result of the food crisis was related to conflicts (For Action Against Hunger). It is often at its worst when the conflict is prolonged and institutions are weakened (For Action Against Hunger). In 2020, it is also found that it is even worse with conflicts related to climate-related shocks (For Action Against Hunger). More and more, natural disasters related to climate change have challenged countries with food security and availability (For Action Against Hunger).

The UN had a goal to have a Zero Hunger Target by 2030 but this goal would not be achieved (United Nations). In 2008, the High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis was established by the UN (United Nations). The goal of the Task Force is to “promote a comprehensive and unified response of the international community to the challenge of achieving global food and nutrition security.” (United Nations). The UN put in place in the 2000s the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to fight poverty which remained in place until 2015 (United Nations). It was the most successful anti-poverty movement in history (United Nations). The goal of the Millennium Development Goals was to reduce by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty (United Nations). This was achieved in 2010 when the deadline for this achievement was meant to be in 2015 which is a greater progress (United Nations). This caused for undernourished people in the developing regions fell by almost half (United Nations). This improvement does not change the fact that world hunger has been back on the rise. There is the need for more awareness and progress to be made with the issue. It has been put on the back road for a while due to all the extreme situations happening in the world right now. Although, these extreme situations are also related to being a cause for the hunger in the world. Covid does not help in the situation due to all the restrictions put in place and the lockdowns to try and stop the risk of spreading. Therefore, there is even more need to stop the increase of hunger and stop it completely.