World Poverty and Hunger: How Much Do You Know About It?

The worldwide recession may have all of us thinking about our futures.  The tribulations arising from Greek debt and bailout, the fate of the Euro and the Euro zone are making most of the headlines.  But, for the world’s poor and impoverished, recession is something they’ve had to live with for most if not all of their lives and it rarely makes a headline.

For example, did you know that there are an estimated 925 million people in the world (13.6 percent of the world population) who are hungry (according to worldhunger.org) as of 2010?  Breaking that down: there are 578 million hungry in Asia and the Pacific; 239 million in Sub-Saharan Africa; 53 million in Latin America and the Caribbean; 37 million in the Near East and North Africa; and 19 million in developed countries. The number of hungry people has increased steadily since 1995-97.

Three Main Reason for Rise in Hunger

There are numerous reasons for world hunger’s steady pace and seeming inability of any of the numerous efforts to turn the trend around.  But, three factors seem to be most prominent: 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.

The face of hunger is easily seen, but perhaps no greater image is that of seeing undernourished and/or starving people in places where hunger is a daily struggle. Children who are poorly nourished suffer up to 160 days of illness each year, according to worldhunger.org . Poor nutrition plays a role in at least half of the 10.9 million child deaths each year – that’s five million deaths.

Under-nutrition

Under-nutrition magnifies the effect of every disease, including measles and malaria. The estimated proportions of deaths in which under-nutrition is an underlying cause are roughly similar for diarrhea (61%), malaria (57%), pneumonia (52%), and measles (45%).  In many cases, children are born to suffer from malnutrition because their mothers are already suffering before childbirth. Under-nutrition among pregnant women in developing countries leads to one out of six infants born with low birth weight. This is a risk factor for neonatal deaths, but also causes learning disabilities, mental, retardation, poor health, blindness and premature death.

There is Enough Food

Most surprisingly, perhaps, is that the level of hunger in the world is not because there is not enough food being produced.  Just the opposite is true.  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.

While poverty can easily be said to be the primary cause of hunger the issue goes much deeper.  The causes of poverty include poor people’s lack of resources, an extremely unequal income distribution in the world and within specific countries, rampant and ongoing conflict. According to statistics from the World Bank, there are more than 1.345 billion poor people in developing countries who live on $1.25 a day or less.

So, is the situation improving?  Probably not.  The worldwide recession of 2009-2010 and the very slow international economic recovery since then have only served to make matters worse.

What Can Be Done?

So, when governments and governmental leaders spend endless amounts of time, money, and resources on trying to right their ships of state after years of profligate spending we can all sigh and question their sanity and political will to correct something of their own making.  We can see “occupiers” in various countries and cities who are protesting the status quo.  We can wonder what our future will be should the world slip into a “double dip” recession.  But, for millions of people in the world these are idle questions.  For them, the only consideration is “will I have something to eat today.”  Perhaps keeping that in mind may make world leaders – whether from Greece, Italy, France, Germany or wherever – work a little harder and recognize that their actions are a life and death matter for many people.

Should we be optimistic about their efforts producing meaningful change in the level and pace of poverty and hunger in the world?  Probably not.  But, we, and they, have little choice but to keep trying.

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