Hunger Notes Basics: Understanding Global Hunger
Hunger is not having enough nutritious food. To end global hunger, nutritious food needs to be affordable and available to everyone.
WHES has created several resources ideal for students, educators, and others looking for a general overview of global hunger.
As part of our Hunger Basics series, you you will find:
- A fact Sheet
- Explainer Video
- Infographics
- Quick Facts
FACT SHEET: Understanding Global Hunger (updated August 2024)
This comprehensive guide provides an in-depth overview of global hunger, delving into its causes, effects, and key definitions. Spanning 13 pages, the report is enriched with stories and the latest global hunger statistics from 2023. Accompanying the guide is a companion video and downloadable graphics, making it a valuable resource for those looking to understand the complexities of global hunger.
Download and read the fact sheet, then test your knowledge with a hunger quiz!
VIDEO: Ask an Expert
In this short video, Steve Hansch, World Hunger Education Service board member, Hunger Notes author, and global health expert, explains global hunger, discusses a few causes, and tells you how to get involved in humanitarian work.
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INFOGRAPHIC: Hunger at a Glance (2023)
QUICK FACTS
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Defining Hunger
Hunger and food insecurity are the two main terms to describe and track global hunger.
Global hunger is about quality, not just quantity. It’s the long-term lack of the right kind of nutritious food.
Food Insecurity means not always having access to the food people need for a healthy life.
→ Moderate: Skipping meals occasionally.
→ Severe: Going days without food.
→ Acute: Sudden, urgent food shortages.
Hunger is not having the right kind of enough. When food is too expensive or unavailable, low-income families make hard choices about what they eat, or if they can eat at all.
The Real Cost of Eating Healthy
Globally, a nutritious diet costs about $3.96 a day. In regions of Africa where hunger is disproportionately the highest, people who live in extreme poverty ($2.15 a day) can’t afford a healthy diet.
Why Are People Hungry?
Consumer Behavior: People’s food choices and their interactions with food production influence hunger. A growing demand for cheap processed foods changes what kind of food is produced. There are not enough available fruits and vegetables for a healthy diet in almost every region of the world. Unsustainable farming also reduces production, harms the environment, and heightens hunger
Climate Change: Unpredictable weather, rising temperatures, and natural disasters disrupt farming and decrease nutrients in crops. Environmental degradation, floods, and droughts cause a reduction in the food supply and decrease land available to farm.
Conflict: Wars displace people, disrupt the food supply and create vicious cycles of hunger and poverty. Conflict is both a cause and effect of hunger.
Poor Governance: In countries with poor governance, institutions are weak and mismanaged, reducing the resources available for essential services like healthcare, education, and food distribution.
Poverty: Low–income families, who spend the majority of their income on food, are vulnerable to higher prices and when supplies are low. People who live in extreme poverty can’t afford a healthy diet.
Inequality: Gender discrimination is a leading cause of hunger. Inequality disproportionately increases hunger in all marginalized communities who have unequal access to power and resources, such as income, work, education, and land.
Everyone has a stake in ending global hunger, which has far-reaching effects on the safety and prosperity of the world.
Global Hunger’s Ripple Effect
Individual Impacts
Global hunger harms health, shortens lifespan, and perpetuates poverty. Malnutrition impairs children’s brain development and growth, limiting their future potential.
National Impacts
Hunger produces a less educated workforce, weakening national economies and fostering instability. Humanitarian crises, like mass migrations, cost billions globally without addressing the core issues of hunger.
Global Impacts
Hunger and instability compromise global safety, with conflicts potentially crossing borders and prompting migration. Disruptions in food supply can elevate food and fuel prices, causing inflation that affects every nation.
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INFOGRAPHIC: The World’s Most Affected Regions
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The Road to Zero Hunger
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals provide a blueprint to end hunger by 2030.
Some ways we can work to end hunger include:
- Integrate peace building in conflict zones.
- Boost climate resilience.
- Support the vulnerable.
- Make nutritious foods affordable.
- Address poverty and inequality.
- Encourage healthy eating habits.
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The Vision of a Hunger-Free World
It is possible to make nutritious food widely available and affordable to everyone.
Knowledge is the key to fighting hunger. By increasing our knowledge of what works and scaling up our actions to reduce hunger, we can end global hunger in our lifetime.
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LINKS FOR FURTHER READING
Bread for the World, The 2020 Hunger Report: Better Nutrition, Better Tomorrow https://hungerreport.org/2020/
Feed the Future (website) https://www.feedthefuture.gov
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024. https://www.fao.org/publications/home/fao-flagship-publications/the-state-of-food-security-and-nutrition-in-the-world/en
The United Nations, The 17 Goals: Sustainable Development Goals (2023, website) https://sdgs.un.org/goals
United States Agency for International Development, The Story Telling Hub (website) https://www.usaid.gov/stories
The World Bank, Poverty. (2023, website) https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty
World Food Programme: Drivers of Hunger (2023, website) https://www.wfpusa.org/drivers-of-hunger/
World Health Organization, World Health Statistics 2023: Monitoring Health for the SDGs https://www.who.int/data/gho/publications/world-health-statistics
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World Hunger Education
Service
P.O. Box 29015
Washington, D.C. 20017 -