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25 November
2003
Berlin/Madrid/Rome/Paris/Washington, DC
-- Hunger is on the rise again after falling steadily
during the first half of the 1990s, according to the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization's (FAO) annual hunger report.
"FAO's latest estimates
signal a setback in the war against hunger," says
The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003 (SOFI
2003). Given the rate at which hunger has declined
since 1990 on average, the World Food Summit goal of reducing
the number of undernourished people by half by 2015 cannot be
reached.
After falling by 37 million during
the first half of the 1990s, the number of hungry people in
developing countries increased by 18 million in the second half
of the decade.
According to Hartwig de
Haen, FAO Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social
Department, "the goal can only be reached if the recent
trend of increasing numbers is reversed. The annual reductions
must be accelerated to 26 million per year, more than 12 times
the pace of 2.1 million per year achieved during the
1990s."
Each year SOFI assesses
the state of hunger in the world and looks at how much progress
is being made in reducing hunger. The publication also
highlights where countries stand in their battle to defeat
hunger and looks at what methods are producing success stories
and what problems are preventing success in other regions and
countries.
842 million
undernourished
Worldwide, FAO
estimates that 842 million people were undernourished in
1999-2001, the most recent years for which figures are
available. This includes 10 million in industrialized
countries, 34 million in countries in transition and 798 million
in developing countries.
Regionally, only
Latin America and the Caribbean had a decline in the number of
hungry since the mid-1990s.
Only 19
countries, including China, succeeded in reducing the number of
undernourished throughout the 1990s, says the report.
"In these successful countries, the total number of
hungry people fell by over 80 million."
At the other end of the scale are 26 countries where
the number of undernourished people increased by 60 million
during the same period.
Twenty-two
countries, including Bangladesh, Haiti and Mozambique, succeeded
in turning the tide against hunger. In these countries,
"the number of undernourished declined during the
second half of the decade after rising through the first five
years," the report said. "In 17 other
countries, however, the trend shifted in the opposite direction
and the number of undernourished people, which had been falling,
began to rise. This group includes a number of countries with
large populations, among them India, Indonesia, Nigeria,
Pakistan and Sudan."
According to
the report, several countries in Central and West Africa have
seen their numbers of hungry people rise due to conflict.
In a number of successful countries,
including China, progress slowed after dramatic gains in
reducing hunger had been made in the early 1990s. Having reduced
chronic undernourishment to moderate or low levels, the report
says, "these countries can no longer be expected to
propel progress for the developing world."
Recent available figures for countries in transition
showed an overall increase of 9 millon between the period of
1993-95 to 1999-2001.
New insights
about hunger
According to Mr. de
Haen, "the SOFI project has provided us with many
insights about hunger. Through SOFI we are learning more every
day about what works to reduce hunger and what causes increased
numbers of people to suffer from undernourishment. We are now
in a position to make very specific recommendations that
countries can follow to alleviate hunger and malnutrition
sustainably."
According to the
report, preliminary analysis suggests that countries with
significantly higher economic and agricultural growth had the
most success in reducing hunger. Other factors that contributed
to success include lower population growth and higher levels of
economic and social development. Those countries with a high
prevalence of chronically hungry people are also afflicted by
frequent food emergencies and high rates of HIV/AIDS.
In fact, the report says, the southern African food
crisis of 2002-2003 showed that "hunger cannot be
combated effectively in regions ravaged by AIDS, unless
interventions address the particular needs of AIDS-affected
households and incorporate measures both to prevent and to
mitigate the spread of HIV/AIDS."
Some 60 to 70 percent of farms have suffered labour
losses as a result of HIV/AIDS, and lacking the labour,
resources and know-how to grow staple and commercial crops, many
households are now cultivating survival foods. Others have
abandoned their fields entirely.
SOFI 2003
also looks at the impact of water on food security and hunger,
calling drought "the single most common cause of severe
food shortages in developing countries." Africa stands
as a stark example of this, being both the driest continent in
the developing world and the continent with the most prevalent
hunger.
FAO reports that achieving food
security in countries where water is scarce and the environment
is fragile may rely on what is known as "virtual
water," through the import of food from countries with
an abundance of water. For example, FAO calculates that to grow
the amount of food imported by Near Eastern countries in 1994
would have taken as much water as the total annual flow of the
Nile at Aswan. In such conditions, says FAO, "it may
make sense to import food and use limited water resources for
other purposes, including growing high value crops for
export."
Trade
highlighted
SOFI 2003 also
includes a six-page special feature: Trade and food
security: the importance of agriculture and agricultural trade
in developing countries.
"International trade can have a major impact
on reducing hunger and poverty in developing
countries," says FAO. "Overall, countries
that are more involved in trade tend to enjoy higher rates of
economic growth."
Agriculture and
agricultural trade play a particularly important role in both
the national economies and the food security of developing
countries. "Countries where more than 15 percent of
the population goes hungry spend more than twice as much of
their export earnings to import food as more food-secure
countries," according to the report.
"But," says FAO, "their
poverty and limited trading activities constrict both their
export earnings and their ability to buy more food on
international markets."
Anti-Hunger Programme
The report details successful hunger reduction
programmes in Brazil, Panama, Kenya and Viet Nam. It also urges
the wider adoption and support of the global Anti-Hunger
Programme that FAO has proposed recently.
The Anti-Hunger Programme outlines a twin-track
approach that advocates a combination of measures that increase
the agricultural productivity in poorer rural communities with
action to give hungry people immediate access to the food they
need.
The FAO-proposed Anti-Hunger
Programme sets out priorities and budgets for action in five
areas: improving agricultural productivity in poor rural
communities; developing and conserving natural resources;
expanding rural infrastructure and market access; strengthening
capacity for knowledge generation and dissemination; and
ensuring access to food for the most needy.
"Ultimately," said Mr. de Haen,
"success in reducing hunger will depend on mustering
the political will to engage in policy reforms and invest
resources where they can do the most good for the poor and
hungry.
"That's
why," said Mr. de Haen, "FAO has endorsed
proposals to build an International Alliance against Hunger. An
alliance that would start at sub-national and national levels
bringing together governments, civil society organizations, the
private sector and concerned individuals to mobilize the
political will, technical expertise and financial resources
needed to reduce the number of hungry people by at least half by
2015."
Contacts:
Rome
John
Riddle
Information Officer, FAO
john.riddle@fao.org
(+39) 06 570 53259
Berlin
Erwin
Northoff
Information Officer, FAO
erwin.northoff@fao.org
Cell: (+39) 348 252
3616
Madrid
Nuria Felipe Soria
Information Officer, FAO
nuria.felipesoria@fao.org
Cell: (+39)348870
4641
Paris
Gilles Hirzel
Regional Information Officer,
FAO
gilles.hirzel@fao.org
Cell: (+33) 680
754 543
Washington
Michael Hage
Regional Information Officer,
FAO
michael.hage@fao.org
(+1) 202 468
8800
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