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Contributions from
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Hong Kong: near failure
Strengthened individual, weakened state
Budget crisis averted
Fewer landmine victims
Health services:
passing by the poor
NGOs claim Iraq
is selling oil reserves
More people infected with HIV
French NGOs take stock
of government action
Millennium Goal still a long way off
01/2006
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[ Hunger ]
Millennium Goal still a long way off
Six million children worldwide die from the consequences of malnutrition and undernourishment every year, according to the recent report “The state of food insecurity in the world 2005” published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The number of hungry people has been reduced slightly since the early 1990s, from 824 million to 815 million in 2002. Over the same period, the ratio of hungry people to the world population decreased from 20% to 17%.
The report stresses that the international community must do more to halve the share of the world’s population that is undernourished by 2015. Achieving this UN Millennium Development Goal is still a long way off.
If the current trend continues and efforts are not stepped up, only Latin America and the countries of the Caribbean will be able to meet the target. From 1992 to 2002, the proportion of undernourished people in Latin America decreased from 13% to 10%; in Asia from 20% to 16%. In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the ratio also decreased – from 36% to 33% and from 26% to 22% respectively. However, the number of hungry people has grown in absolute terms in these two regions over the past ten years, as population growth was above average.
Aside from poor economic growth, the FAO lists infectious diseases such as AIDS and malaria, as well as political instability and poor governance among the most significant reasons for the fight against hunger’s slow pace. Hunger also hampers success in other areas such as education and health.
FAO Secretary General Jacques Diouf therefore considers the fight against hunger the key to achieving the other Millennium Development Goals. The FAO recommends investing more in productivity- and income-boosting measures as well as improving access to food for particularly vulnerable groups such as women and children. For example, investing in food storage or cultivating school gardens might serve this purpose.
The report assigns a high degree of responsibility to the developing countries. At the same time, the FAO is appealing to the international community for more aid and is calling for the removal of trade barriers as well as further debt relief.
Antje Mangelsdorf
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