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For most of us, hunger is short-term, with a simple and foreseeable solution:
easy access to a wide array of food and nutrition choices. But for over 850
million people in the world, hunger is a daily, inescapable reality.
According to the World Food Program, "one in nearly seven people do not
get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life, making hunger and
malnutrition the number one risk to health worldwide—greater than AIDS,
malaria and tuberculosis combined." Not only are the risk factors facing
malnourished people dramatic, the results are catastrophic. Estimates indicate
that 53 percent of deaths among pre-school age children in the developing world
are due to complications caused by malnutrition on top of diseases such as
measles, pneumonia and diarrhea.
"Hunger and malnutrition are the underlying cause
of more than half of all child deaths, killing nearly 6 million children each
year."
—Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
"The world has the resources to address all the problems [of hunger]
with the technology and the global wealth that exists. However, do we have the
will and commitment to do so?" The many causes of hunger and malnutrition
seem simple; yet ending hunger remains difficult to achieve. In order to
understand the elusive solution, we need first to examine the interconnectedness
of the root causes of persistent famine and malnutrition.
Poverty is at the core of the world hunger crisis. The regions across the
world that are subjected to extreme poverty conditions are at more risk to have
their terrible situation exacerbated by outside forces such as natural disasters
and war/conflict, thereby further deepening their difficult situation.
"In short, the poor are hungry and their hunger
traps them in poverty."
—World Food Program
As time goes on, it becomes more and more difficult for individuals,
communities, and countries to come out from underneath the heavy blanket of
poverty. As the World Food Program states: "The poverty/stricken do not
have enough money to buy or produce enough food for themselves and their
families. In turn, they tend to be weaker and cannot produce enough to buy more
food." They are caught in a horrible cycle.
Natural disasters cause famine, hunger, and poverty in areas of the world
that are already predisposed to crisis. In regions where food production and
availability is only marginally sufficient to provide a sustainable food supply
for its population, this precarious predicament intensifies when drought or
other natural disasters wipe out entire crops. Once a region's food production
and supply has been severely degraded, it becomes increasingly necessary for
that region to import food and supplies. However, many of these countries lack
the funding and supportive government infrastructure that will allow for the
necessary, life-saving food and supplies to be brought into the country.
As significant and devastating as natural disasters are as an impetus for
famine, humans and their activities are increasingly responsible for sustained
hunger emergencies. Since 1992, the proportion of short-term and long-term food
crises that can be attributed to human causes has more than doubled, rising from
15 percent to more than 35 percent. All too often, these emergencies are
triggered by conflict.
"The world's poorest countries are
disproportionately likely to be at war."
—The Economist
 As with natural disasters, once a region is in a state of emergency, getting
needed resources into the area can be extremely daunting. And, to make matters
worse, "The world's poorest countries are disproportionately likely to be
at war. Studies suggest that poverty and economic stagnation cause conflicts,
and conflicts, of course, aggravate poverty..."
Regions that are already at more risk of being negatively impacted by human
generated conflict are more likely to suffer. And, taken further, food
"becomes a weapon. Soldiers will starve opponents into submission by
seizing or destroying food and livestock and systematically wrecking local
markets. Fields and water wells are often mined or contaminated, forcing farmers
to abandon their land."
Physical suffering is only the initial impact of hunger and famine on
impoverished individuals. Over time, every aspect of normal life is compromised
and drastically diminished for entire families and communities. This
"behavioral shift [creates] an emotional analogue in apathy (including
reduced appetite) and irritability. The costs are obviously reductions in work,
in socializing, and, for children, in the interaction with their environment
that contributes to their learning and development."
As communities fall prey to hunger, the effects of poverty deepen, spreading
through entire regions and countries. In fact, "whole populations may be
forced to migrate in search of food, in the process disrupting development
potential in a locality or region and encouraging political disorder and
conflict." Eventually, chronic, widespread hunger destroys generations of
individuals who are trapped in a life which is full of sadness and almost
insurmountable barriers.
"The most reliable defense against war seems to be
economic growth."
—The Economist
Like you, we want to help solve the global and yet very personal
problem of hunger. Although it does seem an overwhelming task, there is hope. As
Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics states: The tendency to
think of growing more food as the only way of solving a food problem is strong
and tempting, and often it does have some rationale. But the picture is more
complex than that, related to alternative economic opportunities and the
possibilities of international trade. As far as lack of growth is concerned, the
major feature of the problems of sub-Saharan Africa is not the particular lack
of growth of food output as such, but the general lack of economic growth
altogether (of which the problem of food output is only one part). The need for
a more diversified production structure is very strong in sub-Saharan Africa,
given the climatic uncertainties, on the one hand, and the existence of other
fields of productive activity, on the other. The often-advocated strategy of
concentrating exclusively on the expansion of agriculture — and specifically
food crops — is like putting all the eggs in the same basket, and the perils
of such a policy can be great.
We must continue to alleviate the immediate suffering of the hungry by
sending food to families in need, but simultaneously we must move toward
economic solutions that will end the poverty cycle. The path to long-term
life-saving economic stability and growth will come through a concentrated
effort by a committed group of world citizens working together to cultivate
peace.
About Our Projects
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Emergency relief services that assist people affected by conflict or
disaster
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Sustainable economic development that integrates agriculture, health,
housing and infrastructure, economic development, education and environment,
and local management
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Civil society initiatives that promote citizen participation,
accountability, conflict management, and the rule of law
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Poverty