The second goal of sustainable development, according to the UN, is to eliminate hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. To assess where we are in achieving this goal, it is worth analyzing current data and maps based on the latest research, while at the same time looking at the situation in a broader, historical perspective. This will allow us to understand what progress has already been made and where challenges still arise: both locally and globally
The food crisis in the world
Based on data from various studies, we can see the scale of the problem of hunger in the modern world and wonder if one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals — the elimination of hunger by 2030 — is achievable. The following data is taken from the report The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 published by the United Nations.
First of all, we can say that for more than 10 years the food crisis has been getting worse.
More precisely, since 2014. In 2021, 1 in 10 people in the world suffered from hunger, and nearly 1 in 3 (2.3 billion) had limited access to adequate food. The most affected regions are Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South Asia and Latin America. Food supply systems are being undermined by conflict, climate change and growing inequality. In 2021, as many as 828 million people may have suffered from hunger. The war in Ukraine has deepened the crisis, threatening the poorest and most vulnerable groups. Ukraine and Russia, as key exporters of wheat, corn, sunflower oil and fertilizers, stopped supplying grain to areas that normally needed it. The war disrupted exports, causing price increases and problems with access to food in many import-dependent countries. What further aggravated the crisis was, of course, the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected the stoppage of economic traffic in many areas of the world, which caused a lack of flow of food and money.
To solve the problem of world hunger, the international community must act immediately to avoid a global food crisis and its social and political consequences - but the effectiveness of such an alliance is questionable and often associated with a meaningless declaration. How, then, can it be done, on a smaller scale but more effectively, that fewer and fewer places in the world are exposed to hunger?
Locality
Who really plays a key role in ensuring food security? Farmers running small farms, especially in rural areas. They are the ones who provide much of the local food, often working in difficult conditions and without adequate technical or financial support. Despite their enormous importance for the agricultural economy and the fight against hunger, they are among the most vulnerable to socio-economic and climate crises. As we can read in the 2014 report... Family farms account for more than nine out of ten farms in the world and can serve as a catalyst for sustainable rural development. They are stewards of the world's agricultural resources and the source of more than 80 percent of the world's food supply, but many are poor and food insecure. Innovation in family farming is urgently needed to lift farmers out of poverty and help the world achieve food security and sustainable agriculture.
Lack of sustainable development of the food system
In low- and middle-income countries, labor productivity in small farms is very low - on average less than $15 per day (at a constant 2011 value according to purchasing power parity). This means that these farmers earn little, which makes it difficult for them to invest in the development of farms, purchase modern tools or provide education to children.
Gender differences are not unimportant here. The experiences of women in small farms are more difficult. Although research shows that women farm workers achieve comparable productivity to men, their incomes are much lower. In many countries, women farmers earn only 50— 70% of what their men earn. This is due, among other things, to limited access to land, loans, agricultural training and technology. Gender inequality in agriculture exacerbates poverty and hinders the development of a sustainable food system.
Supporting small farms, especially those run by women, is therefore crucial to the fight against hunger, poverty and inequality in the world, which shows at the same time that the country's social policy should address not only metropolitan centres, but also small towns, peripheries and villages.
Other studies
To get a better, broader and more accurate picture, let's look at data from other studies that monitor the hunger situation in different countries around the world. One of the organizations that study hunger rates in individual regions is Global Hunger Index, which measures the level of hunger in countries based on four main components:
Malnutrition: percentage of the population with insufficient calorie intake.
Extermination of children: the percentage of children under 5 years of age with low body weight in relation to height.
Growth retardation in children: the percentage of children under 5 years of age with low growth in relation to age.
Child mortality: mortality rate for children under 5 years of age.
The ranking of countries is divided into categories: low (51 countries), moderate (37 countries), severe (36 countries), alarming (6 countries), extremely alarming (7 countries).
The latest data come from 2024 and it follows that the countries with the highest scores on the scale of hunger threat are respectively: Somalia (44.1), Chad (36.4), Niger (34.1), Sierra Leone (31.2), Zambia (30.7), Angola (26.6), Ethiopia (26.2) - however, it should be borne in mind that according to the research methodology, the data from these countries are incomplete and partially uncertain! Based on these countries, however, we can trace how their situation has changed over the years because the data from 2024 are compared with those of 2000, 2008 and 2016. The country that recorded the biggest decrease in the score is Angola recorded the greatest progress in the fight against hunger among the countries analyzed (by 37.5 points). The least dynamic progress in the fight against hunger of the above countries was recorded in Chadzie (decrease by only 14.1 points).
Media attention on the subject of famine in Africa has usually attracted countries such as Somalia and Ethiopia, but the situation of humanitarian disaster in Africa has been equally vocal. Gentlewhich has been going on for years a civil war and according to Global Hunger Index is designated as a country in an “alarming” zone and not an “extremely alarming” zone with 41.2 points. This shows that the media describe those topics that in some sense, although it may sound brutal, are more “attractive” - in the case of Yemen, this “attractiveness” is associated with among others. with the fact that the country, due to its geopolitical position, is a place of intersection of oil interests.
After seeing the report, you should ask yourself the question - why are not all countries there, including Poland? Because this study only covers developing or low and middle income countries where the problem of hunger and malnutrition occurs on a social scale measurable using GHI indicators. Another question that arises is the question of hunger in Palestine, since it is a state not recognized by everyone and therefore a territory with an ambiguous political status cannot participate in the study. Country data for this study are provided by the UN institutions and the World Bank.
The most detailed map with daily update of hunger levels in different regions can be checked at WFP (World Food Programme) — HungerMap.
The situation then and today
On the one hand, we see that in some regions of the world the scale of hunger continues to increase, and global social inequalities in access to food and other goods are becoming more and more extreme. To compare the current situation with the past, it is worthwhile to first consider how we understand the very concept of “hunger”.
In the past, hunger was very often associated with an immediate threat to life and mass mortality. Today, thanks to the development of medical technologies (e.g. parenteral nutrition), logistics and humanitarian aid systems, mortality from hunger has significantly decreased. Despite this, we are still faced with high and persistent levels of malnutrition and chronic food insecurity, which does not necessarily lead to death, but has serious health and social consequences.
The following contributed to the reduction in the number of deaths due to hunger, among others:
- development of transport and food preservation techniques,
- the activities of humanitarian organizations,
- better access to medical care and crisis warning systems.
In the article Extreme poverty: How far have we come, and how far do we still have to go? published on the Our World in Data platform, we find data showing that in In 1820, about 75% of the world's population lived in extreme poverty, which was very often associated with chronic malnutrition and lack of access to basic livelihoods. Currently, this percentage has fallen to less than 10%. This state confirms a quote from UN report:
However, despite these ambiguities, it is nevertheless clear that in recent decades the incidence of severe life-threatening famines has decreased significantly compared to earlier eras.
Although these are not direct data on hunger, they do show how much global living conditions have changed over two centuries and how significant progress has been made despite the challenges that still exist.
What can help fight hunger?
A world based on social inequality is a world in which wealth will be concentrated in certain regions and social strata. This is facilitated by the global economy, like unlimited capitalism and crises of democracy. Technology, on the one hand, helps to save people, for example through the aforementioned intestinal probes, but often turns out to “recommend” the problem instead of solving it at the source. And this source is work at the root and real changes at the legal and political level: solutions to the problem of hunger require a systemic approach. As the reports show FAO and IPES-Food, supporting smallholder farmers, local food production systems and reducing socio-economic inequalities is crucial.
Meanwhile, one of the most important roles is still played by agriculture, and it is its modernization that can improve the situation of hunger in the world. We often forget about the systemic approach that is necessary here. It should coordinate the actions of all stakeholders, from small farmers to producer organisations to government institutions. The second is to tackle deep inequalities and marginalisation, farmers need stable and transparent legal conditions, secure property rights and risk management tools, especially in the context of increasing climate instability. And the last of these points is also connected Ecology and Decarbonisation of Economies, including the agricultural sector (introduction of low-carbon technologies, efficient management of soil and water).
Certainly a big step towards an effective fight against hunger would be a global approach to the responsible use of our planet's natural resources. An excellent example of the tragic consequences of the struggle for raw materials, especially oil, is the already mentioned Yemen, which has become the epicenter of the humanitarian crisis and hunger.
In Europe, there is a growing awareness of the need to switch to other sources of energy, such as nuclear or renewable energy - especially offshore wind energy. We often mention its development and potential on the pages of our portal as one of the companies supporting the Polish offshore sector. Such changes can not only reduce pressure on the environment and natural resources, but also contribute to a more stable and equitable development, which is the foundation of the fight against global hunger.
Sources:
- https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2022/Goal-02/
- https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty-in-brief
- https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/f6b32ac3-74c8-4c4b-ac6b-60a21d74202f/content
- https://hungermap.wfp.org/
- https://www.globalhungerindex.org/ranking.html
- https://ipes-food.org/our-work/
- https://www.fao.org/publications/fao-flagship-publications/the-state-of-food-security-and-nutrition-in-the-world/2023/en
