This document is the intellectual property of Dr Raywat Deonandan c. 2014 No part may be reproduced without his written permission ([email protected])

2014-10-23

Hunger & Food Security © deonandan

Child Underdevelopment Millennium Development Goal #1

• About 195 million children under the age of five in the developing world – about one in three children - are too small and thus underdeveloped • Nearly one in four children under age five – 129 million – is underweight, and one in 10 is severely underweight. • he problem of child undernutrition is concentrated in a few countries and regions with more than 90 percent of stunted children living in Africa and Asia. – 42% of the world’s undernourished children live in India alone.

"To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger" Target 1: To halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015

Wikipedia

Of the roughly 7 billion people in the world, an estimated 870 million suffer each day from hunger.

But 1.7 billion are overweight or obese

Food: The State of the World

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/ http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm

One third of all food produced (1.3 billion tons) is never consumed. http://www.wfp.org/hunger/causes

• 2008, Canadian news reported food riots in Haiti and parts of Africa • Food shortages are continuing in all parts of the developing world • In 2009: • global dairy prices increased 50% • the NY Times reported that wheat prices are the highest they’ve been in 28 years • The global price of food rose sharply between 2007-9 • Cereal prices doubled • Sugar almost doubled

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Worldhunger.org

Let’s Look at Some Global Factors

Worldhunger.org

• 2009 Global food crisis: – Rice at highest price in 20 years – Global supply of wheat lowest in 50 years (only 5 weeks worth of global reserve is on hand) – Producers (e.g., Khazakstan) restricted exports to ensure supply for domestic populations – Speculators, sensing food shortage, invested in commodities, causing food prices to soar – Climate change is reducing all staple crops – Credit crisis reducing budget of donor agencies

Global Factors • Historic trend of living on arable land • Increasing price of oil has made importing food more expensive 2011 – Wordl Bank Reports – “Agriculture and Poverty Reduction”

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South Asia

India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, and British Indian Ocean Territory

Percentage of World’s Poor Living in Asia

Nation

1990

2005

China 38% India 24% -Rest of South Asia 8%

15% 32% 43%

(Uses World Bank definitions of poor = living on <$1.25/day) half of the world’s poor live in India and China (mainly in India), a quarter of the world’s poor live in other MICs (primarily populous lower MICs such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Indonesia) and a quarter of the world’s poor live in the remaining 35 low-income countries. Source: “Renewed Policy Action for the Poorest and Hungry in South Asia”, Dec 2, 2008, IFPRI

-IDS WORKING PAPER Volume 2012 No 393 http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/Wp393.pdf

www.ifpri.org

Some Key Indicators for Selected Nations

Food Case Study: The State of India • The International food policy Research Institute projects that in the next 20 years, India alone will increase its demand for: – meat by 176% – milk and vegetables by 70% – grain by 27%

• But India is the world’s wheat

2nd

(source: World Food Programme)

Indicator Ag. Prod (%GDP) HDI % Underwt kids <5

biggest producer of

% pop low cal GHI

Meanwhile the total global supply of grains and cereals has actually decreased by 40% over the last 7 years

Inf mort rate (/1000 births)

Percentage of GDP dedicated to producing crops Human Development Index = health, knowledge, and standard of living. Collected by UNDP. Closer to 1.000 the better. Percentage of children under 5 years who are underweight Percentage of the total population considered to be undernourished Global Hunger Index = level of child malnutrition, rates of child mortality, and the proportion of people who are calorie deficient Infant mortality rate per 1000 live births

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A Note About GHI Wikipedia

Some Key Indicators for Selected South Asian Nations (source: World Food Programme)

Indicator

Bangladesh

India

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

Nepal

Ag. Prod (%GDP) HDI % Underwt kids <5 % pop low cal GHI Inf mort rate (/1000 births) Wikipedia

Some Key Indicators for Selected South Asian Nations

Some Key Indicators for Selected South Asian Nations

(source: World Food Programme)

(source: World Food Programme)

Indicator

Indicator

Bangladesh

India

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

Nepal

Ag. Prod (%GDP)

2

Ag. Prod (%GDP)

32%

60

20

11.7

43

HDI

Bangladesh

India

CANADA

SAUDI ARABIA Nepal

0.967

HDI

0.547

0.619

0.551

0.743

0.534

% Underwt kids <5

48%

47

38

29

48

<1

% Underwt kids <5

% pop low cal

<1

% pop low cal

30%

20

24

22

17

GHI

n/a

GHI

25.2

23.7

21.7

15

20.6

Inf mort rate (/1000 births)

5

Inf mort rate (/1000 births)

54

56

79

12

56

<5

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What is “Food Security” • “Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation.” – Wikipedia

The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. Commonly, the concept of food security is defined as including both physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences. In many countries, health problems related to dietary excess are an ever increasing threat, In fact, malnutrion and foodborne diarrhea are become double burden.

Food security is built on three pillars: 1.Food availability: sufficient quantities of food available on a consistent basis. 2.Food access: having sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. 3.Food use: appropriate use based on knowledge of basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation.

Sustainable Food Systems

There is a great deal of debate around food security with some arguing that: 1.There is enough food in the world to feed everyone adequately; the problem is distribution. 2.Future food needs can - or cannot - be met by current levels of production. 3.National food security is paramount - or no longer necessary because of global trade. 4.Globalization may - or may not - lead to the persistence of food insecurity and poverty in rural communities.

What Is The Role of Gender Here? • Women manage household economics

Economic Vitality – ensures that the people who are producing our food are able to earn a decent living wage doing so. This ensures that producers can continue to produce our food. Human Health & Social Equity – ensures that particular importance is placed on community development and the health of the community, making sure that healthy foods are available economically and physically to the community and that people are able to access these foods in a dignified manner.

Household Economy • A typical family in Bangladesh:

– Five people per household, each earning $1/day – -> $5/household/day

• Women do not manage incoming cash “Giving women the same access to physical and human resources as men could increase agricultural productivity, just as increases in women’s education and improvements in women’s status over the past quarter century have contributed to more than half of the reduction in the rate of child malnutrition.” -Uisumbing & Meinzen-Dick, “Empowering Women to Achieve Food Security”

Environmental Health – ensures that food production and procurement do not compromise the land, air, or water now or for future generations.

“the low status of women …and their lack of nutritional knowledge are important determinants of high prevalence of underweight children…“ -UNICEF, 2006

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Household Economy • Household energy – Heating, cooking, etc

• Food

• 50 cents

• $3

• Everything else – Clothes, books, education, medicine, rent, etc

• • • •

World Food Programme’s Official Plan for South Asia Combat malnutrition and invest in human resources; Help improve immediate food security for selected target groups; Maximize the active participation of women in projects; Advocate joint forest management; Help strengthen distribution channels for locallyproduced food grains; Increase agricultural production and create employment.

Causes of Hunger....

Global prices of oil, rent, food go up

Medical expenditures go down Poor health

Food consumption goes down

• $1.50

So What Can Be Done? • •

Household Economy

So What Can Be Done? International Food Policy Research Institute’s Official Recommendations for South Asia • expand emergency responses and humanitarian assistance to food-insecure people • eliminate agricultural export bans and export restrictions • undertake fast-impact food production programs in key areas • change biofuel policies • calm markets with the use of market-oriented regulation of speculation, shared public grain stocks, strengthened foodimport financing, and reliable food aid • invest in social protection • scale up investments for sustained agricultural growth

Poverty is the principal cause of hunger. The causes of poverty include poor people's lack of resources, an extremely unequal income distribution in the world and within specific countries, conflict, and hunger itself. As of 2008 (2005 statistics), the World Bank has estimated that there were an estimated 1,345 million poor people in developing countries who live on $1.25 a day or less.This compares to the later FAO estimate of 1.02 billion undernourished people. Extreme poverty remains an alarming problem in the world’s developing regions, despite some progress that reduced "dollar--now $1.25-- a day" poverty from (an estimated) 1900 million people in 1981, a reduction of 29 percent over the period. Progress in poverty reduction has been concentrated in Asia, and especially, East Asia, with the major improvement occurring in China. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people in extreme poverty has increased

Worldhunger.org

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Conflict as a cause of hunger and poverty. At the end of 2005, the global number of refugees was at its lowest level in almost a quarter of a century. Despite some large-scale repatriation movements, the last three years have witnessed a significant increase in refugee numbers, due primarily to the violence taking place in Iraq and Somalia. By the end of 2008, the total number of refugees under UNHCR’s mandate exceeded 10 million. The number of conflict-induced internally displaced persons (IDPs) reached some 26 million worldwide at the end of the year

Harmful economic systems are the principal cause of poverty and hunger. Hunger Notes believes that the principal underlying cause of poverty and hunger is the ordinary operation of the economic and political systems in the world. Essentially control over resources and income is based on military, political and economic power that typically ends up in the hands of a minority, who live well, while those at the bottom barely survive, if they do.

Worldhunger.org

Worldhunger.org

Climate change Climate change is increasingly viewed as a current and future cause of hunger and poverty. Increasing drought, flooding, and changing climatic patterns requiring a shift in crops and farming practices that may not be easily accomplished are three key issues.

Hunger is also a cause of poverty. By causing poor health, low levels of energy, and even mental impairment, hunger can lead to even greater poverty by reducing people's ability to work and learn.

Worldhunger.org

Worldhunger.org

Take-away message

Micronutrients

Quite a few trace elements or micronutrients--vitamins and minerals--are important for health. 1 out of 3 people in developing countries are affected by vitamin and mineral deficiencies, according to the World Health Organization. Three, perhaps the most important in terms of health consequences for poor people in developing countries, are:

• Food security = access, availability, use • Global hunger index • Challenges include market orientation and climate change • Direct link between food and health • Indirect link via household economics

Vitamin A

Vision/growth

Iron

Anemia

Iodine

Mental health

Worldhunger.org

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[email protected] www.deonandan.com

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