Hunger Report 2004 Executive Summary
Are We On Track To End Hunger?
Bread for the World Institute Releases 14th Annual Hunger Report
Executive Summary by Sandra Bunch, Hunger Report Editor
Across the world today, 842 million people are hungry. That means that for every six people who have enough food to eat, one man, woman or child does not. For Rosalba Garcia Ogarrio, a widow and mother of six who lives in Santa Maria Matagallinas, Mexico, it means, “We seldom have money to buy milk and other nutritious foods,” she says. “And sometimes I have very little to give to my children.”
Just a few years ago, the prospect of making dramatic progress against hunger seemed invitingly close. The first half of the 1990s saw hunger cut by 37 million people, putting the world about one-fifth closer to reaching its goal of cutting hunger in half by 2015.
But the world economy since has slowed, and wars and natural calamities undermine progress for millions more. Now the number of hungry people is rising at a rate of 5 million per year. We've lost half of the earlier gains won against hunger. Worse yet, if international communities continue with the attitude of "business as usual," according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the number of hungry people worldwide will not be halved until at least 2050.
Bread for the World Institute's 14th annual report on the state of world hunger not only asks the crucial question, Are We on Track to End Hunger? It also asks, Why not, and how do we get back on track?
Hunger 2004 finds that the world community essentially knows what to do to end hunger: Policies that ensure strong economic growth, especially in rural development and agriculture; and strong social safety nets for people who cannot grow or buy the food they need. But knowing what needs to be done is different from doing it.
30 Years Later
It's been 30 years since the World Food Summit of 1974, when world leaders first committed themselves to end hunger in a decade. Even then, experts agreed that the main obstacle would be political. In 1963, President Kennedy told delegates to the First World Food Congress, "We have the means, we have the capacity to eliminate hunger from the face of the earth in our lifetime. We need only the will."
Failing this initial benchmark, the leaders of the world renewed their commitment in 1996 and set a more limited goal to cut hunger in half by 2015. And while the world as a whole is better off today than it was 30 years ago, it's little consolation to the nearly 800 million people in developing countries struggling every day to work, feed and raise their families.
This failure is incomprehensible. The United States - and arguably the world as a whole - is the wealthiest it has ever been. The world produces enough for everyone. Yet parents still struggle to feed their families.
Falling Behind
The United States also has fallen behind in its fight against hunger. For the third year in a row, food insecurity and hunger have increased in the United States. Poverty also is on the rise.
People are considered food insecure and at risk of hunger in the United States when they do not know where their next meal will come from, or have to cut back on the types and amount of food they eat because they do not have enough money. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's most recent survey, nearly 35 million Americans live in homes at risk of hunger - about 2 million more people than the year before.
The government has promised to cut U.S. hunger and food insecurity in half by 2010. But it now has less than seven years to fulfill this promise and reduce this number by 17.5 million people.
Getting Back on Track
The U.S. government has a crucial role to play in ensuring that no one in the United States or around the world is forced to skip meals or go hungry.
The U.S. nutrition programs are fairly effective at helping to guard against hunger in the United States and move people toward self-sufficiency - but only if the programs are used and administered correctly at state and local levels. For example, food stamps help buffer people against hunger during a job loss or if they have a low-paying job. Yet barely half of people who are eligible for food stamps nationwide actually use them. Cultural and systemic barriers are keeping many people out of this important program. If we are to win the fight against hunger in the United States, we must think more creatively - and inclusively - about how to address some of these problems.
The past two decades also have seen cuts to food stamps and other important social programs. While many charities have expanded their services to help ensure that Americans do not go hungry, they cannot meet this need alone. Even today, food banks and church pantries are hard-pressed to meet the demand of sparsely populated rural areas.
Moreover, if the goal is to help people gain self-sufficiency and climb out of poverty, food likely is only one of their many needs. A single mother in the United States earning twice the minimum wage ($10.30/hour) and paying $800 a month for housing will have $165 a week (after taxes) for food, clothing, transportation, school supplies and health care for herself and two children. It's not enough. And research shows that often a mother will skip a meal or two a week so her children can eat. In more dire circumstances, she and her family may have to skip one or more meals a week.
To permanently reduce hunger, U.S. federal policies must support the efforts of poor people to help themselves by providing opportunities for decent jobs, education and training so they can earn enough to buy the food they need.
A similar integrated approach also is needed to address international hunger and poverty. Because most of the world's poor people live in rural areas, international efforts must emphasize increasing agricultural productivity while also pursuing an integrated approach to rural development that includes health, education, infrastructure, women's and small farmers' needs. Moreover, such agricultural developments should focus on arid, mountainous and other difficult terrains, where the bulk of hungry and poor people now are living. Reducing rural hunger and poverty also should curtail the growing pockets of urban hunger and poverty.
Fortunately, the international community - including the United States - has adopted a new framework for designing and implementing development programs: the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Such an integrated approach is critical if hungry people are to move past temporary fixes to a more permanent self-reliance free from poverty.
That said, the poorest countries still do not have the necessary resources to finance these investments themselves. They need assistance from their richer neighbors. Yet foreign aid levels fell in the 1990s, falling short of what is needed to achieve the MDGs. While no one knows exactly how much it will cost to reduce hunger, international experts do know that it will require much more than the levels of aid now being provided. The U.N. Development Program and World Bank conservatively estimate that it would cost about $50 billion a year to reach the MDGs - with the United States contributing about a fourth of that amount.
But additional aid alone will not be enough. It also must be more effective, meaning that it is better targeted to help the people most in need. The MDG framework is a significant first step in this direction.
We Can Do Better
True, the world is experiencing disturbing setbacks today that seemingly have derailed efforts to cut hunger in half by 2015, but they are not irreparable.
The last century saw significant gains in the fight against hunger. In the past decade alone, 19 countries saw the number of hungry people decline by 80 million. These successes include more prosperous countries like Brazil and China, as well as smaller and poorer countries like Chad, Guinea, Namibia and Sri Lanka.
Though this achievement can be traced to many factors, the role of anti-hunger advocates and the wider advocacy community cannot be overemphasized. Indeed, the world today has a better understanding of hunger and poverty and is more focused on economic growth and investments in rural and agricultural development - all necessary to helping people escape hunger - but the key to fighting hunger has been and will continue to be building the political will necessary to bring about change.
