| LOUISVILLE — Although political leaders have the means to reverse the trend, world hunger is increasing, with an estimated 842 million people going to bed hungry every night, according to a report issued April 14 by the Bread for the World Institute.
In its 14th annual report on global hunger, Are We on Track to End Hunger?, the institute says the international community is losing ground in efforts to reach goals set in the mid-1990s to reduce hunger by half in the United States by 2010 and globally by 2015.
“We know what needs to be done to turn the corner in the battle against hunger,” said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World Institute, a non-profit anti-hunger organization. “The problem is not a lack of food. Hunger is a political problem, and people need to demand change from their elected officials.”
The institute, in Washington, DC, studies hunger and development issues and seeks justice for the poor. It is a partner of the Christian anti-hunger group, Bread For the World.
The Presbyterian Church (USA) Hunger Program is one of the sponsors of the report, which assesses hunger in this country and abroad, outlines current policy, and explores what has gone wrong in the effort to relieve hunger and how to get back on track.
The institute contends that the world community “knows what to do” to spur economic growth, especially in rural development and agriculture, and to help hungry people feed their families and increase their incomes.
“But knowing what needs to be done is different from doing it,” the report says, adding that the United States must play a vital role in the battle against global hunger.
Between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s the proportion of hungry people in developing countries dropped from about one-third to one-sixth. In the first half of the 1990s, the number of people suffering from hunger was reduced by 37 million. In the past decade, the number of hungry declined by 80 million in 19 countries.
Since then, however, the sluggish global economy, war, natural disasters and dwindling political will have put the issue of world hunger on the back burner for many governments, and the number of people experiencing hunger is increasing by 5 million per year, according to Are We on Track to End Hunger?
In 2002, nearly 35 million people in the United States, including 13 million children, lived in homes not consistently able to put food on the table. The report contends that this is incomprehensible at a time when the United States, and arguably the world, are wealthier than ever. The world produces enough food for everyone, it says, but many go unfed.
“It’s a tremendous disappointment that, after years of seeing the number of hungry people in the world slowly decline, in the last year it has actually begun to grow,” said the Rev. Gary Cook, coordinator of the Presbyterian Hunger Program. ... Within the last couple of years we’ve begun to lose ground, because we’ve lost the will to make it a top priority.”
The international community and the United States have adopted a new framework for development programs that promise to go past temporary fixes to more permanent solutions.
“It’s been good to see the administration expressing its commitment to provide new development assistance that would help us work toward reducing those (hunger) numbers again,” Cook said. “But it’s important that all of us make sure that the Congress and the administration follow through on those promises by actually allocating the money to make it happen.”
According to the institute, a successful anti-hunger strategy must combine long-term, sustained investment in reducing poverty with relief of the immediate food and nutritional needs of the hungry. If the current “business as usual” attitude persists, the report says, the number of people experiencing hunger won’t be sliced in half before 2050.
Cutting that number in half by 2015 — from about 800 million to 400 million — was one of the goals announced during the World Food Summit of 1996. Soon thereafter, U.S. leaders vowed to cut domestic hunger in half by 2010, reducing the number of people in homes at risk of hunger from 30.4 million to about 15.2 million, 1.26 million more than in 2001. Now, it says, the number is 35 million.
According to the report, some countries still face acute food shortages, but many more struggle to provide jobs to people so they can earn enough to feed their families.
Reducing domestic hunger
The report says polls have found that likely svoters in the U.S. favor candidates who commit themselves to the fight against hunger. A resounding 94 percent of respondents in one poll said they thought it was important to pay forfund anti-hunger programs in the United States.S., even in times of budget deficits and economic hardshipally tough times.
It says innovative programs in Oregon have increaseding its food stamp participation rate from 14 per cent of those eligible to in two years 84 per cent in two years. The hunger rate in Oregon declined in 2002 despite increasing poverty and higher housing costs.
In the United States.S., an array of nutrition programs is available to help peoplethose who struggle with hunger, but nearly half receive no assistance from the three largest anti-hunger programs: food stamps, school lunches and the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).
U.S. efforts to feed its poor must be expanded, it says, and additional money has to be allocated for the purpose.
Some officials have said churches and charitable organizations should take on more of the burden of fighting hunger, but Bread for the World Institute says that, while food banks and soup kitchens are stretched beyond their means.
The institute says private donations to such initiatives total $2 billion to $4 billion a year, while the $44 billion spent on federal programs still leaves too many people behind.
“Clearly, if the United States.S. is to meet its goal of cutting hunger in half by 2010, our nutrition programs must be retooled and reformed to not only modernize and strengthen the current initiatives, but also to extend their reach to those people falling through the cracks,” “Beckmann said. “It is up to our political leaders to make this happen.”
Are We on Track to End Hunger urges the U.S. government to pursue four specific reforms domestically: increase participation in federal assistance programs; make the programs more cost-efficient while guarding their integrity; meet participants’ nutritional needs in addition to providing more food; and integrate the programs better with each other and with successful community-based efforts.
The long-term answer, the report says, is supporting the efforts of poor people to help themselves by providing jobs, education and training so that they can earn enough to buy the food they need. Reducing global hunger
Reducing global hunger
The report says a similar integrated approach is needed to address international hunger and poverty — a combination of efforts to improve agricultural productivity with rural-development programs emphasizing improvements in health, education and infrastructure and addressing the needs of women and small-scale farmers. It says reducing rural hunger and poverty would also relieve hunger and poverty in cities.
Despite the recent setbacks, it says, much can be accomplished if political leaders move hunger and poverty issues to the top of their political agendas.
In the developing world, the report says, providing food in emergency situations is vital, but a development agenda designed to reduce hunger will do more to strengthen people and communities. It says such an agenda would include: educational opportunities for girls (more than 100 million children in the developing world, 60 million of them girls, have no access to basic education); mosquito-net programs to prevent malaria; medications for people with HIV/AIDS (and improvements in education and prevention measures); and making efertilizers and drip irrigation available to farmers.
A sustained anti-hunger development strategy is only one component of an effective partnership with poor countries, according to the report, which says fair-trade policies and debt relief also are essential. Trade and debt are also central. It says, for example, that U.S. subsidies cost Mali $43 million cotton export income in 2001, while U.S. development assistance totaled only $38 million that year; and that African nations spend $14.5 billion each year on debt repayment while receiving $12.7 billion in aid.
The report is available in its entirety at the Bread for the World Web site. It also can be ordered through the Presbyterian Marketplace, or by phone (toll-free) at (800) 524-2612.
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