Author: Margie Morris

The world is off track to end hunger, so what’s the solution?

The world is off track to meet its own deadline for ending hunger. For the first time in many years, the estimated number of undernourished people has actually gone up rather than down. It now stands at slightly more than 800 million undernourished people worldwide, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. One of the internationally agreed upon Sustainable Development Goals is to get hunger to zero by 2030, so there is a long way to go. Other indicators like stunting in children under five years of age do show modest decline, but on the current course it would still take 42 years to achieve zero stunting. Clearly, something needs to be done to accelerate the rate of change.

Hunger remains a universal problem.

Can We End World Hunger by 2030?

The world is off track to meet its own goal of ending hunger by 2030, and it’s not clear if anyone in power will ever be held accountable for the shortfall. Just over two years ago, the international community committed to ending hunger as the second of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since then, there have been a few individual successes and reforms, but there is little overall evidence that developed and developing country governments are mobilizing to make the end of hunger a reality. If anything, the goal is slipping further from view.

This note, part of the Ending Rural Hunger project at the Brookings Institution, provides a brief overview of major developments in food and nutrition security (FNS) over the last year. It is accompanied by the release of the revised and updated Ending Rural Hunger database, available at endingruralhunger.org, which allows users to dig into the details on the state of rural hunger in 152 developing countries and the international and domestic actions of 29 developed countries in support of global FNS.

The takeaway from this analysis is that without stronger accountability systems, we are unlikely to see the policy improvements and increased investments that will be needed to achieve SDG2.

Poor diet is a factor in one in five deaths, global disease study reveals

Malnutrition is due to eating poorly; eating the wrong amounts and kinds of foods – either overeating, and under-eating.

A recent comprehensive study done by the the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, compiled data from every country in the world. Poor diet is a factor in one in five deaths around the world, according to this study.

Millions of people are eating the wrong sorts of food for good health. Eating a diet that is low in whole grains, fruit, nuts and seeds and fish oils and high in salt raises the risk of an early death, according to the huge and ongoing study Global Burden of Disease.

The study, based at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, compiles data from every country in the world and makes informed estimates where there are gaps. Five papers on life expectancy and the causes and risk factors of death and ill health have been published by the Lancet medical journal.

In pictures: The first 1,000 days of hunger

BBC has posted an educational photographic essay on the first 1000 days of hunger. Across Ghana, the irreversible effects of child malnutrition can be seen among thousands of children affected during their critical first 1,000 days of life. This is the time in a child’s life that will determine their health as adults, their ability to learn in school and to perform in future jobs.
A group of photographers and researchers organized by UBELONG went to Ghana to uncover the complex stories behind this problem. See: http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-40555452

Meals on Wheels Client Asks Congress to #SaveLunch For Millions of At-Risk Seniors

With Congress in the midst of its annual appropriations debate, Meals on Wheels America launched a video vignette featuring Carol – a real Meals on Wheels client living in Whitehall Township, PA – in an effort to influence the important funding decisions that put millions of seniors at risk. Carol joins the nationwide Meals on Wheels network in making an appeal to Congress to #SaveLunch by protecting and increasing the critical federal funding sources upon which 8 out of 10 local Meals on Wheels programs rely. Assuring adequate federal funding for social programs like Meals on Wheels is not only vital to the health and well-being of at-risk seniors, but it is essential to the health and vibrancy of our nation,” said Ellie Hollander, President and CEO of Meals on Wheels America. “With community-based Meals on Wheels programs serving 23 million fewer meals today than in 2005, we are already losing ground in keeping pace with an exponentially increasing need. The time to act to save lives and money is now.”
Click on the news article video to hear Carol’s story.

Unmasking hidden hunger in the developed world

The word hunger generally calls to mind starving children in developing countries. Unfortunately, this type of hunger is still very much a reality. However, malnutrition is much more complex. Many children who consume enough food, and even obese and overweight children, may be malnourished because they consume the wrong kind of foods—those that lack the essential vitamins and minerals required for growth and development. This “hidden hunger” can lead to irrevocable damage to the child and adversely affect communities and the economies of entire nations.

A G-20 Challenge: How Do We Get More Food from Less Water?

Agriculture strains the world’s supply of fresh water. The question is how do we feed a hungry planet without tapping out the water supply? The link below describes the topic of water that will be brought up at the upcoming G-20 meeting in Germany covering optimal country policies and water preservation strategies for agriculture and for human use.
https://www.yahoo.com/tv/g-20-challenge-more-food-144900358.html

Starving civilians and suicide bombings: The terrible truth of liberating Mosul

Conflict can contribute to hunger and starvation. It is happening in Mosul, Iraq.

“Don’t open the door under any circumstances,” shouts Iraqi special forces soldier Salem, as his Humvee climbs over the wreckage of Mosul’s Old City. “Daesh run out from houses and side streets and blow themselves up anytime.”

Large military vehicles were never supposed to be part of the battle for the Old City – its ancient streets are too narrow. But the intensity of the airstrikes in the final stages of the offensive against so-called Islamic State has been so great that armoured bulldozers now plough their way through.

Hundreds of people trapped in the southern Philippines city of Marawi are on the verge of starvation

Hundreds of people trapped in the southern Philippines city of Marawi are on the verge of starvation after four weeks of fighting between the army and Islamist militants.

“They have been saying that they are already starting to eat cardboard boxes just to stop hunger,” said Maurico Civiles of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. “They may die of starvation and lack of drinkable water.”

The U.N. asked for billions to avert four hunger crises. The money didn’t arrive

NAIROBI — At the beginning of this year, the United Nations made one of its boldest requests ever for funding. It needed billions of dollars to fund a humanitarian response, said Secretary General António Guterres, or as many as 20 million people might starve to death.

Five months later, the results of that appeal are dismal. The United Nations has raised about a third of its goal, and there’s little reason to believe that much more is coming.

The funding is for four countries facing massive hunger crises: South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen. Of the $6.1 billion requested for those countries, only $2.2 billion, or 36 percent, has been pledged.

In each crisis, according to aid officials, the lack of funding has led to a reduction in food assistance for those in need. It remains unclear how many lives have been lost because of the lack of funding, but the United Nations has recently unveiled stark statistics about the unmet need.

This month Guterres warned that a Yemeni child dies every 10 minutes of preventable causes such as conflict, hunger and disease. UNICEF has said that more than 275,000 children across Somalia are facing severe malnutrition. In South Sudan, the United Nations says that 2,800 people are fleeing worsening violence and looming famine every day.

“It means, quite simply, that large numbers of people, particularly children, will suffer and die,” said Andrea Tamburini, chief executive of Action Against Hunger.