Global hunger crisis in 2023 After steadily declining for a decade, world hunger is on the rise, affecting nearly 10% of people globally. From 2019 to 2022, the number of undernourished people grew by as many as 150 million, a crisis driven largely by conflict, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Right now, there is a global food crisis – the largest one in modern history. Since the United Nations World Food Program's (WFP) creation in 1963, never has hunger reached such devastating highs.
The statistics are alarming, and the impact on children is severe. One UNICEF study looked at 15 developing countries and found that every minute, another child will suffer from severe malnutrition. The World Food Program reported that more than 345 million people are facing high levels of food insecurity in 2023.
Current estimates suggest that as of this year, we need donor governments to invest around $37 billion every year until 2030 to tackle both extreme and chronic hunger. Let's start with extreme hunger. We need about $23 billion just this year to meet the needs of people facing starvation and acute malnutrition.
Interconnected issues of poverty, inequity, conflict, climate change, gender discrimination, and weak government and health systems all play a role in keeping nutritious food out of reach for millions of families around the world.
One of the issues that has made Yemen the world's hungriest country for 2022 is its dependence on food imports. Even before the onset of conflict — and a resulting humanitarian crisis — in Ukraine, food prices in Yemen were on the rise due to the depreciation of the rial and rising fuel costs.
Why should I care? We all want our families to have enough food to eat what is safe and nutri- tious. A world with zero hunger can positively impact our economies, health, education, equality and social development. It's a key piece of build- ing a better future for everyone.
The scale of the current global hunger and malnutrition crisis is enormous. WFP estimates – from 79 of the countries where it works (and where data is available) – that more than 345 million people face high levels of food insecurity in 2023. That is more than double the number in 2020.
Ending Hunger by 2025 is among the seven agreed commitment areas of the 2014 Malabo Declaration. This commitment includes action areas of doubling productivity, reducing post-harvest loss by half, integrating agricultural productivity increases with social protection initiatives, and eliminating undernourishment.
The Joseph Effect is a term derived from the Old Testament story about the Pharaoh's dream as recounted by Joseph. The vision led the ancient Egyptians to expect a crop famine lasting seven years to follow seven years of a bountiful harvest.
famine, severe and prolonged hunger in a substantial proportion of the population of a region or country, resulting in widespread and acute malnutrition and death by starvation and disease. Famines usually last for a limited time, ranging from a few months to a few years.
In the current global context, data published by the Global Alliance for Food Security or by UN in The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 confirms the food crisis severity and shows that the world is not on track to achieve Zero Hunger and Malnutrition by 2030.
The world population could be too big to feed itself by 2050. By then, there will be almost 10 billion people on the planet and food demand will have increased by 70 percent compared to 2017. Scientists put the limit on how many people Earth can feed at 10 billion - max!
Which are the least hungry countries in the World as per the latest Global Hunger Index? Eighteen countries, including China, Brazil and Kuwait, shared the top rank with GHI score of less than five in 2021.
The largest global burdens of severe malnutrition are in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which also suffer from high rates of extreme poverty and climate shocks. But, people in any region may face malnutrition if they're poor, displaced, or have other risk factors.
Persistent instability due to adverse climate events, conflict and economic slowdowns all contribute to food insecurity. Although the majority of people suffering from extreme hunger are living in developing countries, the main cause of hunger around the world is poverty.
Hunger and malnutrition are part of an ongoing cycle, as both a cause and effect of many other factors too, like inequality and lack of education. These factors are within our power to change. That's why hunger is also the world's most solvable problem.
If the SDG Goal Zero Hunger is achieved, the world will be free of hunger, malnutrition, and poverty by 2030. To achieve this goal, we need to reduce the number of people who suffer from hunger by 50% and end all forms of malnutrition by 2025.
Undernourishment and hunger make people less productive and more likely to suffer disease. This prevents them from raising their income and improving their standard of living.
In the 2022 Global Hunger Index, Pakistan ranks 99th out of the 121 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2022 GHI scores. With a score of 26.1, Pakistan has a level of hunger that is serious. A YouTube video is embedded here.