hunger crisis essay

Opinion: We Can End Hunger, Here's How

The international community has embraced eliminating hunger by 2030. But with more than 600 million people still likely to suffer from hunger in 2030, we're far from reaching that goal. We're making progress against hunger, the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization writes, but not enough to end it.

Social Studies, Economics

Feeding a Family

a mother feeding her 10 children in Kenya

Photograph by Dominic Nahr

This article was originally published October 16, 2015, written by José Graziano Da Silva, UN Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization. The international community has embraced a new goal, the eradication of hunger by 2030. That makes us the zero-hunger generation with a shared commitment to make hunger history. As we commemorate the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s birth 70 years ago and celebrate World Food Day, we are reminded of FAO’s mission to ensure food security for all, everywhere. The zero-hunger goal requires us to accelerate our efforts to eliminate hunger and poverty. FAO monitors 129 countries and 72 of those have halved the number of people experiencing undernourishment between the years of 1991 and 2014 and have achieved the Millennium Development Goal. (Since the release of this op-ed, the UN Millemmium Development Goals, have been replaced by the UN Sustaianable Development Goals or SDGs. Eliminating hunger is the second goal, or  SDG 2 .) Progress, however, has been uneven: Some 800 million people continue to suffer hunger, and almost a billion live in extreme poverty. We need to break out of the cycles that trap people in poverty and hunger. In a business-as-usual scenario, more than 600 million people are still likely to be hungry in 2030. That’s a long way from zero. A Pro-Poor Posture Eradicating hunger requires commitment —political will. It will require sustained efforts in many areas, particularly pro-poor investments in rural areas, where the majority of the world’s most vulnerable live. Economic growth alone will not suffice; it needs to be socially inclusive to ensure sufficient access to food for all. Pro-poor public investments include infrastructure benefitting small family farms, ensuring sustainable agriculture, reducing post-harvest food losses, strengthening land and water rights, and making sure that the poor and marginalized —whose ranks include many women and youth—have fair access to credit, farm inputs including seed and fertilizers, and the extension services that provide training and advice to rural, small family farms. Road improvement projects in South Asia's Bangladesh, to cite an example, increased agricultural wages by 27 percent and greatly increased school enrollment for local children. Such investments can break the self-perpetuating cycle of rural poverty. Beyond Short-Term Tactics Along with more pro-poor investments , we need to promote wider and deeper use of social protection programs to lift people out of poverty permanently by ensuring people do not slip back into it. Social protection refers to programs to provide basic needs. Providing a social protection floor ensures basic needs for all. Social protection schemes can take many forms, including guaranteed employment in public works, cash or in-kind transfers to eligible beneficiaries, and school feeding programs. If well designed, they enable the poorest to undertake activities to earn more, rising above the poverty line. In 2013 alone, social protection measures took around 150 million people out of extreme poverty. The growing acceptance and proliferation of social protection in the developing world implies the recognition of their ability to immediately address poverty and hunger. Such schemes work and are affordable, especially compared to the cost and price of doing nothing. Social protection offsets income shortfalls so that vulnerable households can avoid livelihood and food security shocks (sudden, unexpected loss of food from climate change or a geopolitical crisis), which are particularly hard for rural households that are dependent on agriculture to recover from. But it can do much more: It can help millions of family farmers and rural laborers move beyond short-term survival tactics and enable them to invest more in productive activities as well as their children’s health and education. Time is money, and that is no less true for the poor. Today, we know that even relatively small monetary transfers to poor households, when regular and predictable, helps them pursue other income-generating activities. Far from creating dependency or reducing work effort, social protection strengthens livelihoods . Increasing the purchasing power of the poor also benefits the wider community by increasing business opportunities, triggering a virtuous local economic growth cycle, which is especially welcome in typically neglected rural areas. But social protection programs, on their own, will not be enough. We need to integrate them with pro-poor agricultural investment programs to derive more effective collaborations. Political commitment , partnerships, and adequate funding are key to realizing this vision. Policies and plans for rural development, poverty reduction, food security , and nutrition need to promote pro-poor investments and social protection to fight poverty and hunger, together with a broader set of interventions, notably in health and education. We know what to do. We have the tools. Now we’ve made the pledge. So we must be the zero-hunger generation.

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Global food crisis: Let’s move from ‘despair to hope and action’, urges Guterres

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In the face of the growing hunger crisis, the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization stressed on Friday, ahead of World Food Day , the need to “harness the power of solidarity and collective action” to build a sustainable world with enough to eat for everyone.

Director-General QU Dongyu led the ceremony at FAO Headquarters in Rome, declaring that with food security worsening, and risk of serious levels of hunger in Asia and Africa at an all-time high, the world must “leave no one behind”.

‘A challenging moment’

In the face of global crises, global solutions are needed more than ever. As individuals, we can play an important role in ensuring that no one is left behind. We must all be the change. Share this thread to help spread the word! #WorldFoodDay https://t.co/VgrbCoP9Pe Food and Agriculture Organization FAO October 14, 2022

Sending a special message to the event, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was taking place “at a challenging moment for global food security”.

A staggering three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet; the war in Ukraine has triggered surging food, fertilizer, and energy prices; and the most vulnerable are being battered by the pandemic, climate crisis, environmental degradation, conflict, and deepening inequalities.

“The number of people affected by hunger has more than doubled in the past three years”, he said, adding that “almost a million people are living in famine conditions, with starvation and death a daily reality”.  

Be the change

Referring to this year’s theme, Leave no one behind. Better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life , Mr. Guterres said that farmers need to access reasonably priced fertilizers to ensure enough food next year.

Governments, scientists, and civil society need to work together to make nutritious diets available and affordable for everyone and financial institutions must increase support to developing countries.

“Together, we must move from despair to hope and action” the Secretary-General said. “On World Food Day and every day, I call on you to be part of the change”.

Multiple threats

The commemoration took place at a time when global food security faces multiple threats, pushing food, energy and fertilizer prices sky high amidst climate crisis and long-standing conflicts.

Moreover, the knock-on effect of COVID continues to highlight how interconnected economies and lives have become, as 970,000 people risk famine  in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

FAO’s latest  The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World  report illuminates that hunger worldwide is on the rise.

Raising their voices

A message read on behalf of Pope Francis reminded that people “are not just numbers, data or an endless stream of statistics”.

Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development ( IFAD ) said the day should be a call to ramp up action to “help small-scale farmers in rural areas, who supply food to their communities and countries…despite inequality, vulnerability, and poverty”.

World Food Programme ( WFP ) chief David Beasley described the food availability crisis as his “gravest concern”, saying “the world must open its eyes to this unprecedented global food crisis and act now to stop it spinning out of control”.

Celebrating the day

Events in Rome included an exhibit featuring photos taken from space by European Space Agency astronaut and FAO Goodwill Ambassador Thomas Pesquet, which highlights the climate crisis.

FAO’s first-ever  Achievement Awards were handed out to people whose actions are transforming agrifood systems, and a Junior World Food Day event was held with a host of Food Heroes .

Awareness-raising events on the global fight against hunger will continue to take centre stage in the coming week.

Meanwhile, FAO’s Hand in Hand initiative continues to work to accelerate agrifood system transformation by eradicating poverty , ending hunger , and reducing inequalities .

It aims to promote decent rural employment, foster gender equality, social protection, end child labour, and support rural and Indigenous Peoples - custodians of much of the earth’s biodiversity.

Click here to watch the ceremony.

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World Hunger Facts

There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone on the planet. Yet as many as 783 million people still go hungry.

Global hunger crisis in 2023

Nearly one in ten people around the world go to bed hungry each night, a crisis driven largely by conflict, climate change, and chronic inequality.

Children Suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition

Of Child Deaths Worldwide Are Due to Hunger & Related Causes

Children Die Each Day from Illnesses Caused by Dirty Water and Unhygienic Living Conditions.

What is hunger?

Hunger is more complicated than empty bellies. It’s a multifaceted problem with many root causes and far-reaching impact. The first step to ending the global hunger crisis is to understand what it is and why it exists in a world of plenty.

Who does hunger affect?

An overwhelming majority of the world’s hungry people reside in the developing world, where extreme poverty and lack of access to nutritious food often leads to malnutrition. Women and children are particularly vulnerable.

10 Hunger Facts

Due to the severe drought in Somalia, Mumina has no food and no breastmilk left to feed her youngest baby.

Today, we made dried tamarind. You crush the tamarind until it’s a sticky paste. Then you add ash and cook it. We’ll eat it this evening. It’s not healthy at all, but at least we have something warm in our bellies.”

— Tsiharatie, a mother of seven children in Madagascar

Both me and my child were very weak. We do not have enough food - just a bit of rice, wheat, and flour, nothing else. Pregnant women here face the risk of death, and they face many other risks. They do a lot of work, and they have no choice because there is no one else to work.”

— Nadia, a mother of five in Afghanistan

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Venezuela's revolution of hunger: a photo essay

Economically destroyed, socially unstable and now hungry, Venezuela is undergoing turbulent times. Photographer Ignacio Marín has been covering the crisis since May 2018. He talks about his images and his experience

F or a time the “Saudi Arabia” of South America, today Venezuela more closely resembles Syria. Economically destroyed and socially unstable, the country is now fighting an ever more alarming spectre: hunger. In the slum of Petare in the metropolitan area of the capital, Caracas, refrigerators remain empty, supermarket queues grow longer and the necessity of procuring something to eat drives young people to violence.

Community volunteers serve food to children at a kitchen run by Alimenta la Solidaridad, a local NGO working in Petare, in February 2019.

A member of a kidnapping gang watches through the window to avoid a potential police raid. He is 15 years old and joined the gang to support his family.

Many come together in armed gangs, plunder houses and shops, rob food from passersby and are paid in foodstuffs. Unsustainable inflation has caused prices to double week after week; today, nine out of 10 Venezuelans do not feel they have the sufficient resources to buy food. For some time now the government has been trying to remedy this through the “Clap” plan , which distributes food to civilians. But this does not seem to be enough and hunger is now one of the greatest threats to Venezuela’s fragile national security.

The IMF predicts Venezuela’s inflation rate will reach 10 million per cent in 2019. Hunger is forcing more and more people to get food through violence.

A woman stares at her empty fridge at her house in Petare. Right, Mayra Castro, 37, prepares food in her improvised home. Her youngest daughter died of hunger when she was only one year old.

According to the last national survey of living conditions (Encovi), 80% of homes in Venezuela are food insecure; for many families, even the most basic items such as tomatoes or beans are out of reach.

A grandmother feeds her grandchild at a charity kitchen run by volunteers and an NGO. Often, one person sacrifices their meal so that other family members can eat more.

According to a 2018 report by the international NGO federation Cáritas, 65% of the children they had worked with were suffering from various levels of malnutrition.

A woman gives food to a girl at a charity-run kitchen for children in Petare. Right, fish ready to be cooked.

Men unload Clap boxes containing basic food supplies in Petare. Clap boxes are one of the measures implemented by Nicolás Maduro’s government to fight what they term as the “economic war”.

About 87% of households now receive Clap’s subsidised food, yet it is never clear when the next cargo of boxes will arrive. It has been highly criticised by the opposition as a tool for ensuring the votes of the poorest members of society.

Children look for food in a rubbish dump in an alleyway behind a large shopping centre. According to Cáritas, 53% of families have had to look for food in unconventional places, often meaning among rubbish.

The Maduro government is distributing free boxes of food, but this plan (C lap) has not proven to be enough to solve the crisis. Almost 90 per cent of Venezuelans do not have the economic resources to buy food. (Source: Encovi)

Robberies have become a major cause for concern; they often become homicides when victims who resist are killed.

A police officer registers suspects during a raid. Below, a policeman confiscates a knife during a night patrol, and, right, a policeman searches a homeless man suspected of stabbing a person in order to rob him.

Roxana Gutierrez, 19, watches over her son. When she and her husband Carlos, 20, had steady jobs, it became harder for them to find food, which pushed Carlos to begin stealing motorcycles. He is now serving a prison sentence, and Roxanna is pregnant with their second child.

People queue up in the morning in front of a small market to try and buy food. Endless queues have become a daily reality for Venezuelans. In many cases, the cargo doesn’t arrive or is not enough.

Have you noticed a deterioration in the conditions for ordinary people in the time you have been covering the crisis?

Absolutely. One thing that struck me in 2018 was the endless queues to buy what scarce food was left. Some people would queue during the night so they could buy some chicken or rice. Now, on my second trip to the country in January and February, I wanted to photograph some of those lines again, but it was impossible: people have so little money now that they can no longer afford to go to the supermarket. There are no lines anymore. This is just one example but there are many.

Blackouts are constant in Caracas. At least two people have died in hospital after the electricity was off for several hours. Medical supplies are gone. Pharmacies are empty.

With a population of over one million people, the neighbourhood of Petare in Caracas is Venezuela’s most dangerous slum. The majority of violent crimes occur in the slums, home to the most vulnerable and hardest hit by the crisis.

And I actually think that this never-ending spiral of economic collapse is changing everything. The rhetoric of the socialist revolution that Chávez started was sustained on the premises that everything was serving one ultimate goal: to serve the people, the poorest of the poor, and achieve social justice. Everything, from the mass government nationalisation of private assets and industries to the increase of the military and security forces, people were told, was done to serve that end. There were murals of Chávez in every street and he was the people’s hero.

A political mural shows the eyes of former President Hugo Chávez.

But now, the economic free-fall under Maduro’s administration is hardest hitting for those same people. While the rich and middle class can migrate or earn in dollars, the poorest are the ones suffering from hunger and the rise of violence. So the same people that once cheered Chavez are revolting against Maduro. For the first time, there was a protest in a barrio ( slum neighbourhood). The government responded to the protest by sending the FAES – a special armed force called an “extermination group” by some human rights NGOs. They killed 43 people, according to Provea, a local NGO. So, now, even the barrios , the strongholds of the chavismo (chavezism), are somehow revolting against Maduro’s government.

The crisis has turned Venezuela into one of the most violent countries in the world: at least 73 Venezuelans are murdered every day.

A tense calm holds on the streets of the José Félix Ribas slum after a search by special forces in January for people who had protested on the day Juan Guaidó declared himself president in charge

How has the political crisis for the Maduro regime affected the security situation?

The political crisis has meant more instability and also repression. As said above, dozens have been killed after participating in demonstrations. At the same time, the economic crisis has meant prices doubling every week. Even employed people with steady jobs can’t afford to buy the most basic goods. The last Encovi survey reported 89.4% of respondents said their household income was not enough to buy food and 61% reported sleeping hungry at night. Another report from Cáritas found the average family required 98 times the minimum wage to afford adequate food to subsist.

Riot police stand ready at the entrance of Caracas’ main university in January 2019.

In a country where virtually all crimes go unpunished and money is worth less than the paper it is printed on, crime becomes a viable solution to hunger. Fathers go out at night to steal motorcycles. Gangsters recruit youngsters by paying them in food. Crime and insecurity are on the rise. Robberies and kidnappings have become a major industry.

Juan Guaidó attends a Sunday service at the Chacao church a few days after proclaiming himself interim president of Venezuela. At the church he was acclaimed as “my president” by his supporters.

Many are leaving the country - do you think Juan Guaido provides hope?

I believe he does, both in Venezuela and abroad. He was recently on a tour to other Latin American countries and the Venezuelan diaspora was cheering him, many crying that he would help them come back to their homes. People are desperate and they have found in him a symbol. It is part of the process that has turned him from an unknown politician a few weeks ago to a sort of messiah today. I believe that one of the pictures I took of him in a church in Caracas, with all the international and local media in front of him, illustrates this. It will be very hard to meet their expectations …

A woman cries during the funeral of her husband, Keiber Cubero, 25. Father to a little girl and struggling to find food, Keiber went to rob a restaurant with two friends during the night. They were caught and killed by police officers while fleeing the scene.

How do you personally approach covering a story which is one of so much fear and desperation for so many people?

Personally, I take on this sort of project with a major feeling of respect and a huge feeling of responsibility. I understand that most of the situations I witness are truly uncomfortable moments for my subjects – garbage picking, at a funeral, behind bars – and yet they allow me to photograph them in exchange for their message being spread.

Keiber Cubero’s body is carried by friends to the cemetery.

The family of Keiber Cubero prays in front of his coffin.

Keiber Cubero’s wife and daughter give the last goodbye. Right, family members mourn the death of Yoveiker Mendoza, 17, killed by a branch of Venezuela’s special forces.

For example, I was able to take pictures during the funeral of a young man named Keiber Cubero. I am sure his family was heartbroken and it was hard to have a camera pointing at them (I am sure it would be hard for me if that ever happened to me). But they allowed me to be there because they felt that what happened to Keiber wasn’t fair, and that it had to be known. I always feel the responsibility of having to deliver on my end, of making sure that the story is told. It happened with Keiber, but it’s the same with pretty much every subject in the story.

Prisoners beg for food and water at their cells in a police station. Many said they had regular jobs but turned to crime because of the impossibility of bringing food home.

Is there a moment or a photograph that particularly stands out in this feature that you can talk about?

I think that the one taken at the police station, with the hands coming out from the bars, is quite shocking. I was only able to take a few frames because we had very little time. It was extremely hot and humid inside and there were no windows or sources of light beyond a small lamp at the end of the cells. I was also able to talk with the inmates, and most of them told me what I was trying to tell with my story: that many people are forced to turn to crime in order to survive.

Prisoners crammed into their cells at a police station. Although prison overcrowding has been an issue for decades, the Venezuelan prison system has now reached the point of collapse.

Children play on a football pitch in Mamera, one of the most dangerous slums in Caracas. The lack of food is also causing an educational crisis, since many mothers refuse to take their children to school on an empty stomach.

The Venezuelan people seem to be incredibly resilient in the face of such difficult hardships as a lack of basic resources – how do you think people are able to cope?

They are indeed incredibly resilient, but I think they are growing more desperate by the minute. Millions weren’t able to cope and left the country while others who were left behind are suffering from mental disorder and depression. Wherever you go there are only two topics: the crisis and the hyperinflation. The economic aspect has become such a huge part of everyone’s life it is making people crazy.

A young girl walks past a pavement where, a few minutes earlier, a man had stabbed three people with a kitchen knife.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — World Food Crisis — World Hunger: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions

World Hunger: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions

• Categories: Hunger World Food Crisis

About this sample

Words: 541 |

Published: Jan 29, 2024

Words: 541 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Causes of world hunger, the consequences of world hunger, potential solutions to world hunger, overpopulation and limited resources, poverty and unequal distribution of resources, effects on human health, social and economic implications, improve agricultural practices, address underlying causes of poverty.

• World Food Programme, & International Fund for Agricutural Development. (2020). “2020 Global Report on Food Crises.” United Nations Publications.
• Kaye, B.L. (2009). “The Impact of Poverty on Education.” Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education, 2(5).
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2015). “Addressing Poverty and Well-being.” OECD Publishing.

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The Crime of Hunger: Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis

This article is a part of “ Famines as Mass Atrocities: Reconsidering Violence, Memory and Justice in Relation to Hunger ”. A project funded by the Swedish Research Council, led by Camilla Orjuela and Swati Parashar from the School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University.

In this article I pay attention to hunger, which after a long decline, is once again on the rise. Approximately 135 million people across 55 countries are suffering from acute food insecurity (FAO 2020). Famines have been the topic of debates for decades, and our understanding of their causes has shifted from the Malthusian perception of scarce resources and population growth to political processes. Famines are human-made, and can be regarded as crimes (Marcus 2003; de Waal 2017), and a case in point is Yemen (WPF 2019). The country is currently in the midst of a crisis of mass hunger where actors such as Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels have implemented deliberate policies aimed at exacerbating and controlling people’s hunger (MERIP 2018; McNeill 2017; WFP 2019).

In a previous case study of Yemen’s mass hunger, I analysed the context using the concept of famine crimes (Marcus 2003) in combination with Tyner’s (2018) conditions of actor intentionality. The three levels were ability, opportunity, and awareness (Ibid., 200), and were chosen to analyse the causes and perpetrators of the country’s hunger. The aforementioned research constitutes the foundation of this article about mass hunger and human accountability. The article will first, from a scholarly perspective, discuss hunger in order to illustrate how human involvement can engender it, and thereafter apply this understanding of starvation to what is perhaps the defining crisis of hunger of our time – Yemen.

Scholars studying famines have suggested that starvation should be conceptualized as a crime and one of the more salient proposals outlines famine crimes with four degrees of severity (Marcus 2003; de Waal 2017; Tyner 2018; Conley and de Waal 2019). The first degree is the most intentional and the fourth is the least intentional:

• When famine is used as a tool of genocide to exterminate people purposefully.
• Instances when famine is inflicted in pursuit of other objectives.
• When governments and institutions are aware of the harm caused by famine yet remain indifferent.
• When governments are unable to respond to the crisis of famine effectively.

The concept of famine crimes remains an academic contribution with no legal consequence for actors responsible for faminogenic behaviour [1] . According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, it is illegal to starve civilians deliberately, but famine legal cases are uncommon due to the lack of a comprehensive legal foundation (Dopplick 2009; DeFalco 2011). For example, according to the categorizations mentioned above, famine crimes were arguably committed in 1967-1970 during the Nigerian-Biafran conflict, due to an enforced blockade against Biafra (Mudge 1970). Yet, there were no tangible legal proceedings to determine famine perpetration in the conflict’s aftermath, as in all, or almost all cases of starvation.  

Despite the lack of legal ramifications, it is analytically valuable to apply the concept of famine crimes to cases of mass hunger in order to identify actors and their possible accountability. It also facilitates an understanding of the causes of famines – the political choices behind the hunger. The conceptualization of famine as a crime is useful when applied to individual cases of mass hunger. It enables us to tease out the characteristics of starvation and facilitates a debate about who is responsible for inflicting hunger. Therefore, the idea of famine crimes needs to be continuously acknowledged and used in discussions about hunger to achieve a shift in the common perception of what causes hunger. The discussions might also lay the ground for the establishment of a legal framework in the future. The impact of such a framework would not only have the effect of deterrence for possible perpetrators but also debunk the myth that famines are “…the result of natural disasters, not human misconduct” (Marcus 2003, 280). Moreover, a comprehensive legal framework would empower the international community to investigate possible criminal behaviour for prosecution (Ibid.).

It is important to acknowledge that famines are not necessarily the result of a breakdown of a system or distribution network, but instead often the result of successfully implemented policies by actors with political, military, and economic interests. If we recognize that hunger is caused by human involvement, it becomes increasingly clear that we need to talk about hunger in a language of mass atrocities, with perpetrators and victims – famine crimes and not natural disasters. Scholars have stressed that this language transition will contribute to the general understanding of famines as human-made and thus change the way we deal with these political events (Edkins 2007; de Waal 2017).

While natural factors such as insect infestations and weather conditions can play a role in causing famines, it is structural factors such as long-term poverty and corruption which can severely impact nutrition levels in a country. Additionally, hunger can be caused by more direct factors stemming from political choices and conflict such as economic blockades, and destruction of infrastructure, and restricted mobility. Mass hunger is both an outcome, and a political process, of deprivation, which often can be traced back to actors responsible for driving the development through actions or inactions that “…impede the capacity of targeted persons to access the means of sustaining life” (Conley and de Waal 2019, 699).

In the case of Yemen, years of pervasive poverty, unemployment, and poor political governance in combination with a violent civil war has resulted in what the UN calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the world (UN News 2019). A forecast for 2020 by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN) has predicted increasing levels of acute food insecurity due to the combined effects of the conflict and a macroeconomic crisis (FSIN 2020, 194). This prediction was made before the coronavirus outbreak, which, together with the current crisis of mass hunger, results in an even more dire medical emergency (Leijon 2020) [2] . In 2019 before the pandemic, 20 million people in Yemen were food insecure (FAO 2019). Of a population of approximately 30 million, roughly two-thirds were experiencing some degree of hunger, and about 24 million people were reliant on relief aid (UN News 2020).

There are, thus, complex constellations of actors and motives which drives Yemen’s widespread hunger. Yemen’s civil war erupted in 2015, has killed and displaced thousands and is still ongoing. Direct violence has damaged civilian infrastructure, and belligerents of the conflict have restricted people’s mobility through checkpoints and economic blockades, severely disrupting medical infrastructure and food supply chains (Mundy 2018; WFP 2019; HRW 2019).  One major cause of the mass hunger in Yemen is the destruction of civilian infrastructure by actors of the conflict. A few, yet salient, key actors include Saudi Arabia which backs the internationally recognized government of Yemen and heads the Saudi-Coalition, and the anti-government Houthi rebels. Admittedly, the conflict in Yemen consists of a much more complex array of actors and interests worthy of analysis, yet this is not the focus of this article.

Even before the start of the war, Yemen’s infrastructure was underdeveloped with unreliable access to electricity and poor transport networks which created a dependence on expensive generators and fuel. These conditions inhibited the competitiveness of firms and has been made much worse by the ongoing conflict (Moyer et al. 2019, 23). Discriminate and indiscriminate targeting of civil infrastructure by the different sides of the conflict has resulted in damages. As a consequence, food distribution networks and access to health services and basic utilities have been severely disrupted. The loss of crucial societal infrastructure has increased Yemen’s vulnerability to famine and disease and increased the country’s reliance on external humanitarian aid (Alles 2017). The belligerents of the civil war have also imposed national economic blockades and domestic checkpoints which restricts and controls people’s movement within the country. The combination of politicization of humanitarian aid, where donors can be selective to which territories aid is rendered, and large transfers of arms from the international arms trade makes Yemen’s hunger crisis a confluence of human policies and interests.

The destruction of infrastructure cannot be blamed on natural disasters or coincidences but has been carried out by a range of actors pursuing their interests (Høvring 2019). Both proxy and directly involved actors have contributed to, and continue to drive, the crisis of hunger in Yemen through systematic policies (Cumming-Bruce 2019). People are being starved through blockades, checkpoints, and destruction of infrastructure vital to food supply chains and medical assistance (Thornberry 2018). The nature of the hunger crisis and its avoidable hunger-related deaths make the topic of actor accountability highly relevant. While there, to varying degrees, are many actors involved, this article focuses on two of the largest actors directly involved: Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels.

Saudi Arabia and the coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the internationally recognized government against the anti-government Houthi rebels. According to Martha Mundy, who has conducted field and archival research in Yemen, there exists compelling evidence showing that the strategy of the Saudi-Coalition has been to obliterate domestic food production (Mundy 2017). Saudi Arabia has repeatedly conducted airstrikes which have destroyed both military and civilian targets such as hospitals, farms, roads, and residential areas. These tactics by Saudi Arabia have effectively turned starvation into a weapon of war by depriving the population of healthcare services and food distribution networks. Further, Saudi Arabia also has destroyed fishing boats and detained and killed fishers (WPF 2019, 9).

The Houthi rebels has used similar tactics by launching ballistic missiles towards Saudi Arabia and shelling targets within Yemen – both civilian and military (Mundy 2018; Barrington and El Yaakoubi 2019). These actions indicate intentionality and political interest where the actors actively contribute to the increase of food insecurity, and it could be argued that there are power and political advantages in controlling the production and distribution of food. The situation in Yemen bears similarity with the historical example put forward by Hopma: during the Middle Ages, the control of food exerted power over people, specifically walled cities under siege, were forced to surrender because of food deprivation (Hopma 2017).

Actor accountability is a somewhat controversial topic as the concept of famine crimes, as previously mentioned, is not currently backed by legal provisions. It is also somewhat difficult to provide evidence of the intentional starving of civilians under current international law. However, if there is to be any hope for ameliorating current famines and diminishing the risk of future famines through deterrence, we need to talk about the actors responsible for faminogenic policies. Thus, it becomes relevant to discuss the involved actors along the conditions of intentionality presented by Tyner (2018). Arguably, Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels have both the opportunity and the ability to either prevent or exacerbate the hunger in Yemen. They also show an awareness of the faminogenic consequences of their behaviour, due to their continued actions.

Thus, if we apply the theories of famine crimes and actor intentionality on the case of Yemen, it is possible to identify examples of varying degrees of famine crimes being committed. Saudi Arabia’s and the Houthi rebels’ actions could be construed to fit into degree two of famine crimes as their violent actions implemented to stop the opposing side have had severe repercussions for food production and distribution in Yemen. This categorization could be a useful tool in establishing potential future accountability. As Conley and de Waal (2019, 720-721) argue, the clarification of criminal liability concerning faminogenic practices might provide recompense for victims and act as deterrence for future crimes. Even if it does not, it is a vital embarkation towards a shift in our understanding and interaction with hunger. Conley and de Waal (2019, 721) also argue that although criminal prosecution for famine crimes might seem like a distant reality, the stigmatization of faminogenic practices could potentially alter what is deemed acceptable in the political and social sphere.

In Yemen, involved actors have actively sought to deprive the population of access to basic services and food by destroying infrastructure that provides it, which result in the mass hunger being a political process of deprivation. The hunger can, therefore, be considered as preventable as years of poor political governance and enduring conflict is taking its toll on the country’s infrastructure and food supply chains. However, it is likely that the actors and belligerents are unwilling to sacrifice their interests for the good of Yemen’s population. Since the concept of famine crimes highlight human accountability, involved actors can be identified, and their intentionality established.

Consequently, in the future, actors could be held accountable for their arguably faminogenic policies which have had adverse effects on Yemen’s hunger. As Marcus (2003, 280) postulates, a more comprehensive legal codification of famine crimes will not only deflate the myth that famines are natural occurrences but would also allow for identification and prosecution of criminal behaviour. The examination of the mass hunger in Yemen contributes to our understanding of hunger as a public crime based on human intentionality and political actions. Mass hunger does not just happen – it is inflicted. The situation in Yemen exemplifies the effect of human involvement and shows that mass hunger is actor-driven and not a natural phenomenon.

[1] A term devised by David Marcus (2003, 245) with the definition of “creating or aiding in the creation of famine”

[2] Also read the research project’s four-part blog series on hunger at the University of Gothenburg’s School of Global Studies blog: https://www.blogalstudies.com/

Alles, Larissa. 2017. ‘Missiles and Food: Yemen’s Man-Made Food Security Crisis’. Oxfam. https://doi.org/10.21201/2017.1299.

Barrington, Lisa, and Aziz El Yaakoubi. 2019. ‘Yemen Houthi Drones, Missiles Defy Years of Saudi Air Strikes’. Reuters , 17 September 2019. https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1W22EQ.

Conley, Bridget, and Alex de Waal. 2019. ‘The Purposes of Starvation Historical and Contemporary Uses’. Journal of International Criminal Justice 17 (4): 699–722. https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqz054.

Cumming-Bruce, Nick. 2019. ‘War Crimes Committed by Both Sides in Yemen, U.N. Panel Says’. The New York Times , 3 September 2019, sec. World. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/world/middleeast/war-crimes-yemen.html.

DeFalco, R. C. 2011. ‘Accounting for Famine at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: The Crimes against Humanity of Extermination, Inhumane Acts and Persecution’. International Journal of Transitional Justice 5 (1): 142–58. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijr001.

Dopplick, Renee. 2009. ‘Inside Justice | Famine and International Criminal Law Under the Rome Statute’. 2009. http://www.insidejustice.com/intl/2009/04/27/famine_rome_statute/.

Edkins, Jenny. 2007. ‘The Criminalization of Mass Starvations: From Natural Disaster to Crime against Humanity’. In The New Famines: Why Famines Persist in an Era of Globalization , by Stephen Devereux, 367. New York: Routledge.

FAO. 2019. ‘FAO and the Crisis in Yemen : FAO in Emergencies’. 2019. http://www.fao.org/emergencies/crisis/yemen/intro/en/.

———. 2020. ‘FAO – News Article: Global Report on Food Crises Reveals Scope of Food Crises as COVID-19 Poses New Risks to Vulnerable Countries’. 21 April 2020. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1271868/icode/.

Food Security Information Network (FSIN). 2020. ‘2020 Global Report on Food Crises: Joint Analysis for Better Decisions’. Rome, Italy and Washington, DC: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); World Food Programme (WFP); and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://www.fsinplatform.org/global-report-food-crises-2020.

Hopma, Justa. 2017. ‘Famine Doesn’t Just “happen” – and Those Who Cause It Must Be Held to Account’. The Conversation. 19 January 2017. http://theconversation.com/famine-doesnt-just-happen-and-those-who-cause-it-must-be-held-to-account-71519.

Høvring, Roald. 2019. ‘YEMEN: The Man-Made Disaster Must End’. Norwgian Refugee Council. 25 February 2019. https://www.nrc.no/news/2019/february/yementhe-man-made-disaster-must-end/.

HRW. 2019. ‘Yemen: Houthi Landmines Kill Civilians, Block Aid’. Human Rights Watch. 22 April 2019. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/22/yemen-houthi-landmines-kill-civilians-block-aid.

Leijon, Johan. 2020. ‘Yemen’s Dual Burden of Starvation and COVID-19’. School of Blogal Studies – University of Gothenburg (blog). 14 May 2020. https://www.blogalstudies.com/post/yemen-s-dual-burden-of-starvation-and-covid-19.

Marcus, David. 2003. ‘Famine Crimes in International Law’. The American Journal of International Law 97 (2): 245–81. https://doi.org/10.2307/3100102.

McNeill, Sophie. 2017. ‘“Catastrophic” Yemen Crisis Grows as Blockade Cuts Red Cross and UN Aid’. Text. ABC News. 8 November 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-08/yemen-crisis-grows-as-port-closure-blocks-aid/9128598.

MERIP. 2018. ‘Yemen Dispatch | MERIP’. Middle East Research and Information Project:Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971 – ‘Yemen Dispatch’. 30 January 2018. https://merip.org/2018/01/yemen-dispatch/.

Moyer, Jonathan D, David Bohl, Taylor Hanna, Brendan R Mapes, and Mickey Rafa. 2019. ‘ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF WAR: On Development in Yemen’. UNDP , 72.

Mudge, George Alfred. 1970. ‘Starvation As A Means Of Warfare’. The International Lawyer 4 (2): 228–68.

Mundy, Martha. 2017. ‘Empire of Information: The War on Yemen and Its Agricultural Sector’. Middle East Centre (blog). 19 June 2017. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2017/06/19/empire-of-information-the-war-on-yemen-and-its-agricultural-sector/.

———. 2018. ‘Report: Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War – World Peace Foundation’. World Peace Foundation. https://sites.tufts.edu/wpf/strategies-of-the-coalition-in-the-yemen-war/.

Parashar, Swati, and Camilla Orjuela. 2020. ‘Famines, “Slow” Violence and Gendered Memorialisation’. In Routledge Handbook of Feminist Peace Research , 1 Edition. New York: Routledge.

Thornberry, Emily. 2018. ‘The Famine Facing Yemen Is a War Crime – It Must Be Investigated | Emily Thornberry’. The Guardian , 22 November 2018, sec. Opinion. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/22/famine-yemen-war-crime-civilians-saudi-coalition.

Tyner, James. 2018. ‘Famine, Violence, and the Intentional Politics of Letting Die’. Political Geography 62: 199.

UN News. 2019. ‘Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen Remains the Worst in the World, Warns UN’. UN News. 14 February 2019. https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/02/1032811.

———. 2020. ‘Funding Shortfall Affecting Critical Water, Sanitation Services in Yemen’. UN News. 12 June 2020. https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/06/1066192.

Waal, Alex de. 2017. ‘The End of Famine? Prospects for the Elimination of Mass Starvation by Political Action’. Political Geography 62 (January): 184–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2017.09.004.

WFP. 2019. ‘World Food Programme to Consider Suspension of Aid in Houthi-Controlled Areas of Yemen | World Food Programme’. 20 May 2019. https://www.wfp.org/news/world-food-programme-consider-suspension-aid-houthi-controlled-areas-yemen. WPF. 2019. ‘Accountability for Starvation Crimes: Yemen – Yemen’. ReliefWeb. 2019. https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/accountability-starvation-crimes-yemen.

Further Reading on E-International Relations

• Opinion – Escalating Conflict Endangers Prospects of Peace in Yemen
• The Human Cost of Remote Warfare in Yemen
• Opinion – The Centrality of Yemen’s Tribal Politics in Peace Efforts
• Opinion – Civil War’s Splinters Indicate a Fractured Future for Yemen
• Geopolitics of the Lebanese Crisis: Economic and Energy Perspectives
• Opinion – The Contours of the Saudi Arabia-Pakistan Relationship

Johan Leijon is a recent graduate from the Master’s Programme in Global Studies at Gothenburg University. He has a keen interest in democracy, security, and conflict resolution. He recently worked as a research assistant at the project “ Famines as Mass Atrocities: Reconsidering Violence, Memory and Justice in Relation to Hunger ” which this article is a part of.

Marianna Karakoulaki

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Essay on world food crisis (with diagrams and tables).

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Essay on World Food Crisis!

Socrates said that the best sauce for food is hunger. Today, as in the age of Socrates, there is no lack of hunger sauce. There is widespread concern about the relationship between population and food supply throughout the world. Numerous actions have been proposed. Jean Mayer, the famed nutritionist, holds that a 10 per cent decrease in meat consumption by Americans would release enough grain to feed 60 million people.

The concern about the relationship between population and the food supply is not new. Sir Thomas Malthus predicted in 1798 that population would continu­ally increase faster than the food supply, causing chronic food shortages. Today, in much of Asia, Africa and Latin America the food problem looms large. The prospect of world famine is held before us with hundreds of millions of people starving.

The world food crisis is caused primarily because of unequal distribution. Enough food is available to provide at least 4.3 pounds of food per person per day world­wide. The problem, therefore, is not of production but clearly of access and dis­tribution.

The average calories available (2807 per person per day) exceed aver­age requirements (2511 per person per day) worldwide. The other reasons of food shortage cited are population explosion and numerous other reasons like war, droughts, floods, earthquakes, and the like.

India has a serious hunger problem which gets worse each day. Only a few years ago, the food situation appeared fairly bright. There was an agricultural boom, with food production doubling from 1950 to 1970. Yields increased, stocks of food were built up, and India produced more food than it consumed as weather and technology contributed to bumper yields in a Green Revolution. Today, however, the hunger problem in India commands the world’s attention.

There are two kinds of food insufficiency:

Undernourishment and Malnutrition. Both of these are global problems.

(1) Undernourishment:

Undernourishment occurs when the body does not consume enough food or enough calories to support its needs. As a result, the body begins to break down its own stored fats and proteins.

Like malnutrition – the result of a diet that is lacking in certain nutrients (such as protein or vitamins) – undernourishment is common in poor countries. Both lead to a reduction in mental and physical efficiency, a lowering of resistance to disease in general, and often to deficiency diseases such as beriberi or anemia. In the developing world, lack of adequate food is a common cause of death.

In 1996, an estimated 195 million children under the age of five were under­nourished in the world. Undernourishment is not just a problem of the develop­ing world only. There were an estimated 12 million children eating inadequately in the USA in 1992. According to UN figures there were 200 million Africans suffering from undernourishment in 1996.

Millions of people, including 6 million children under the age of five, die each year as a result of hunger. Of these millions, relatively few are the victims of Famines. Far more die unnoticed, killed by the effects of chronic hunger and malnutrition, a “covert famine” that stunts their development, saps their strength and cripples their immune systems.

The Fig. 2.5 below shows the scale of undernourishment.

(2) Malnourishment:

Malnourishment is the lack of the minimum amount of fluids, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, minerals and other nutri­ents essential for sound health and growth.

Faulty nutrition may result from poor diet, lack of appetite or abnormal absorption of nutrients from the gastrointestinal tract. Whether in their mildest or most severe form, the consequences of poor nutrition and health result in a reduction in overall well- being and quality of life, and in the levels of development of human potential.

Malnutri­tion can result in productivity and economic losses, as adults afflicted by nutritional and related disorders are unable to work; edu­cation losses, as children are too weakened or sickly to attend school or to learn prop­erly; health care costs of caring for those suf­fering from nutrition-related illnesses; and costs to society of caring for those who are disabled and, in some circumstances, their families as well.

Malnourished children who survive childhood thus face diminished futures as adults with compromised abilities, productivity and health. This loss of human potential is all the more tragic in societies with little economic capac­ity for therapeutic and rehabilitative measures, and has the unfortunate effect 01 worsening their economic plights.

By one reckoning the worldwide loss of social productivity associated with four overlapping types of malnutrition — nutritional stunting and wasting iodine deficiency disorders and deficiencies of iron and vitamin A — amounted to al­most 46 million years of productive, disability-free life.

With an aim to produce more, intensive irrigation involved as part of the agri­cultural technology following the Green Revolution has resulted in soil alkalin­ity and depletion of soil micronutrients. Efforts at correcting this through peri­odic soil testing and soil repletion have been tardy. Depletion of soil iodine is part of this problem and is reflected in the diminished content of iodine in foods and water.

Hunger hotspots:

As of July 2003, 36 countries around the world faced serious food emergencies requiring international food assistance. The causes of these food shortages were varied and complex. All the countries affected in 2003 had experienced food emergencies for at least two consecutive years. Many had been plagued by se­vere food shortages for a decade or longer.

In southern Africa, food production has started to recover from the severe drought that reduced harvests by as much as 50 percent in 2001/2002. But several coun­tries in the region still face severe shortages and all must contend with the long-term impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Further to the north, pre-famine conditions have been reported in Eritrea and parts of Ethiopia, where crops have withered, livestock are dying from lack of water and grazing, and millions of people need emergency food aid. Several Asian countries have also been fac­ing the effects of harsh weather, including drought and unusually cold snows winters in Mongolia.

Although drought and other natural disasters remain the common causes of food emergencies, an increasing proportion are now human-induced in several countries in Central and West Africa, civil strife has disrupted both food pro­duction and access to food.

Even developments in international commodity markets can trigger food crises in countries that depend heavily on agricultural exports or food imports. The collapse of coffee prices has been a major cause of increased food insecurity in Central America.

Overall, conflict and economic problems were cited as the main cause of more than 35 percent of food emergencies during 1992-2003. The recurrence and per­sistence of emergencies highlights a number of countries that could be consid­ered as “food emergency hotspots”.

Thirty-three countries experienced food emer­gencies during more than half the years of the 17-year period between 1986 and 2003. Many conflict-induced complex emergencies are persistent and turn into long-term crises. Eight countries suffered emergencies during 15 or more years during 1986-2003. War or civil strife was a major factor in all eight.

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The Hunger Problem in the Modern World Definition Essay

Analysis of hunger, causes of hunger, works cited.

Hunger is one issue that falls under food insecurity. In fact, it is the biggest problem facing any people in modern society. Failure to get enough amount of energy in a day as recommended by world organizations such as Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is defined as hunger. An individual could be hungry for a day, a whole year, or several years. The persistent growth of hunger results to a state where there is no surety of accessing adequate amount of food.

This impairs the normal health and development of people. Hunger makes a nation weak because people become tired, weak, malnourished, and in most cases, they lose concentration. The continued lack of food is dangerous, as the health specialists hold that under such circumstances, the body feeds on itself. This means that food stored in the body is converted to nutrients for use. This is where fats are converted metabolically to give energy. These conditions lead to death in extreme circumstances.

Statistics from FAO show that in 2010, nineteen million people from developed countries were hungry. Latin America and the Caribbean had fifty three million people without food, and East Africa and North Africa accounted for thirty seven million people (Dole 17). Sub-Saharan Africa had the largest share of two hundred and thirty nine million out of the nine hundred million people who went without food in the world.

Children are the most affected group. They are malnourished, which affects their health as UNICEF estimates that children in such conditions spent almost half of the year being sick. Deaths in children associated with malnutrition account for almost five million of the eleven million child deaths yearly. The impact of this is immense in Asia and Africa.

The causes of hunger are many and are common in all areas that are affected. Poverty is one of the leading causes of hunger in the world. The resources all over the world are inadequate while those that are available are poorly distributed. The UN report indicates that more than two million people in the world lived below one dollar a day in the year 2005. The same report highlighted that slightly more than a billion people were undernourished. Poverty remains the main cause of hunger despite the efforts made to alleviate the condition.

The reasons for persistent hunger in the world are the harmful economic systems. The current political and economic systems control all the resources yet the principal foundations of those systems are based on power, military, and economic supremacy (Diamond 23). These systems ensure that the resources are controlled by few and as such, the majority is left to suffer.

In other parts of the world such as Asia and Africa, hunger is caused by armed conflicts. Civil strives are frequent, which mainly arise from competing interests in political power circles and persistent military coups. The number of refugees is beyond manageable levels. This situation calls for countries to divert the resources that would be helpful in other sectors to taking care of the refugees.

Conflicts result to poverty since people do not get time to settle and engage in food production activities. Climate change stands out as both a natural and manmade cause of hunger. Disasters that include floods, drought, and changing weather conditions have been mentioned as the factors behind the ever-changing patterns of climate and therefore farmers in the world are not able to make the right farming decisions.

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs &Steel: the fate of human societies . New York: Norton publishers, 1999. Print.

Dole, Bob. Ending hunger: A challenge to persons of faith . New York: Augsburg Fortress, 2010. Print.

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• The humans of the hunger crisis

Photos by Sebastian Rich

Climate-driven drought and flooding have created a cycle of horror and hunger across the horn of africa and neighboring countries. on world humanitarian day, unicef pays tribute to a few of the many healthcare and community workers, humanitarians, and moms and dads working to save and protect the lives of children living on the frontlines of the climate crisis., photographer sebastian rich caught up with some of them during his travels to south sudan and somalia on behalf of unicef and the european union. their life-saving work is being supported by the european union’s civil protection and humanitarian aid operations (echo)..

Betty Achan, 50, has been looking after some of South Sudan’s most vulnerable children for the better part of 30 years – many of those spent in Juba’s only children’s hospital. Becoming a nurse was her calling. “Sometimes I sleep here,” she said. On this particular day, she had 20 tiny patients and their worried parents, with more coming. Not all children make it, and it’s emotionally draining, but Betty keeps going. “If we don’t come, all these children will die. We have to come,” she said.

Outside in the hospital courtyard sits Dhieu Deng, 28, himself a nurse, and the father of Ajang Dhieu, just 18 months old. Ajang is anemic and very thin. Dhieu and his wife, Achol Deng, 26, brought their son to the hospital by bus, a day’s drive from their town of Guolyar. The two have a five year old son at home and decided to make the journey together to save their youngest. “If I’m not here there is no one to support my wife,” said Dhieu.

Dr. Diang Puch, 36, works at Bentiu hospital where he treats malnourished children. Flooding here has caused an upsurge in children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, the most dangerous form of malnutrition. Floodwaters in Bentiu swept away homes, cattle, crops and left children and families without food, drinking water and shelter. It’s making the children sick. “More children are coming with the flooding,” said Dr. Puch, explaining that with cows dead or gone there is no longer any milk for the children. His biggest worry is that children will become too weak to fight off childhood diseases like measles.

Nyaruon, 18 months, is one of the patients Dr. Puch has treated. She was brought to Bentiu hospital by her mother, Nyaruon, 30, when the little girl got diarrhea and her stomach started swelling. They too were displaced by flooding. “The water came quickly taking one village after another,” said Nyaruon. “It started in February 2021 filling up rivers and we thought when the rain stopped the water would recede. But the river overflowed, overtaking the villages,” she explained. “When we were in the village we had food and cows,” she said. “We never had problems with hunger in the village.” Nyajal refuses to give up on her dreams for her children: “I wish for good health and a good education.”

Angelina Mycn, 26, is a nurse focused on maternal infant and young child nutrition. She teaches mothers about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding. “I want to help my community,” she said. Angelina has lived in Bentiu since conflict drove her from her own village. “My children are born here,” she said. However, life in Bentiu has become extra difficult. “There are a lot of people coming from flooded areas. They live with relatives here. It’s very difficult, their cattle died or are taken to higher ground far away. And without the cows we’re not getting milk for the children,” she said. “The help from outside is helping us but we need more support.”

Lina Nyabol, 27, is a Nutrition Assistant with World Relief, a UNICEF partner, and is teaching mothers in Bentiu about the best nutritional practices for their children. She also monitors the children’s weight and height as part of preventing malnutrition. “I follow up on who is progressing,” she said. Many have become sick because of the flood waters that are refusing to recede. “Before the flooding you could move from place to place but now, people are coming here searching for food and shelter,” she said. “But there is not enough to share.”   

Meanwhile, in Somalia, the worst drought in 40 years is starting to claim the lives of the youngest there – a situation playing out across the Horn of Africa.

Hubi Ahmed, 24, works for the NGO CEDA at the UNICEF-supported nutrition centre in Dollow. She has provided mothers with counseling for the past two years. Hubi is especially worried because of a measles outbreak that could quickly prove deadly for the most malnourished children. Hubi blames the drought that’s draining access to food and water and driving up malnutrition. “I want to help my people now as I’m from this community,” said Hubi. “This is the worst I have seen. This is the third year without rain. Many animals have died due to the drought.”

Faduma Abdi Kadir Hussein, 52, is from the local Dollow community and is helping to organize the informal displacement site. She owns the land and gave desperate families permission to stay there. “I’m from the community,” said Hussein. “I want to help. I want them to feel safe and for them to get assistance. The people here have three needs: water, shelter and food,” she said. But needs are far from met. “People are sleeping in the open,” she said. When people arrived after having walked often for days to flee drought the community gave them what little they had, including torn cloth for makeshift shelters. The community cannot afford to give anything else. They too are trying to survive the drought. “Everyone here is suffering,” says Faduma. “We are suffering together. We feel forgotten.”

Riyak Yusuf, 23, works at a UNICEF-supported nutrition centre in Dollow where she screens children for malnutrition. They are seeing more children who are malnourished and with health issues. “The drought is the biggest problem for health,” said Riyak. “I  have worked here for four years because I want to help my people,” she said, noting that this is the worst she has seen. Riyak said the drought has affected everyone here. Her family, from parents to grandparents, have been displaced, and their livestock is gone. They now rely on her income. “Eight people depend on me,” she said.

Editor note

Through ECHO’s support, UNICEF and partners have been able to reach tens of thousands of women and children in South Sudan and Somalia alone to prevent malnutrition, while providing life-saving treatment for those who have already become severely malnourished.  It is part of a three year, 48 million EURO donation to UNICEF from ECHO to support Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.  In the last two decades, these three countries have witnessed repeated droughts, floods, outbreaks of disease and instability. The aim is to reach 3.1 million severely malnourished children in the three countries over three years while building stronger health and nutrition systems to better withstand future shocks.

Related topics

More to explore, the university of nairobi partners with unicef, cisp and accaf in launching new courses on keeping children safe, improving child nutrition and safety from malaria.

UNICEF ESA works with communities and partners in South Sudan

Vulnerable children in the Horn of Africa facing insecurity

Hunger, displacement, and scarcity worsened by the climate crisis

UNICEF Geneva Palais Briefing note on the impact of flooding in Somalia on children and families and UNICEF’s response

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How climate change increases hunger (and why we're all at risk)

May 23, 2022

Climate change is a threat multiplier for hunger, destroying livelihoods, driving displacement, widening social inequalities, and undermining sustainable development. This piece is adapted from Rupa Mukerji's essay, "Climate Change and Hunger," published as part of the 2019 Global Hunger Index (co-produced by Concern and Welthungerhilfe).

Since the early 1990s, the number of extreme weather-related disasters has doubled. Harvests have decreased, and food prices have risen as a result. The climate crisis is fueling the hunger crisis, and with our food systems more global than ever, we all stand to lose.

Sadly, this is not a trend that appears to be going away any time soon. Looking ahead, climate models predict higher average temperatures around the world and hotter extremes, rising sea levels in coastal areas and more frequent droughts in other areas. The Horn of Africa is currently experiencing its worst drought in 40 years. While climate change can be a difficult topic to fully understand, the human impacts are clear and very tangible: Millions of people go to bed hungry every night as a result of global warming. Here are four ways that climate change and hunger go hand-in-hand — and why we should all be concerned.

Find out what you can do to help fight climate change and hunger.

1. climate change impacts agriculture and food production.

Higher temperatures, water scarcity, droughts, floods, and greater CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere affect staple crops around the world. Corn and wheat production has declined in recent years due to extreme weather events, plant diseases, and a global water crisis .

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 80% of the causes behind an unpredictable harvest for cereal crops in areas like Africa’s Sahel come down to climate variability. In other areas like Bangladesh and Vietnam, rising sea levels pose a different threat to food security. There, coastal farmlands are often flooded by saltwater, which kills off rice crops. With half of Vietnam’s national rice production centered in the Mekong Delta (roughly the size of Maryland), even a minor flood can have major implications.

While the causes of these issues are fairly consistent, the solutions are not. This means that, with the effects of climate change already apparent in areas like the Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia, we need to find unique methods to mitigate disasters when they strike, and develop bespoke ways to reduce the impacts of hazards on the lives and livelihoods of these areas in the future.

2. Climate change limits access to food

If climate change reduces the amount of food produced, then it makes sense that it also reduces the amount of food people can access. This simple instance of supply-and-demand, however, has big impacts. If one part of the food system is interrupted due to a climate event (big or small), that can lead to inflation. We’ve seen this happen over the last two years after international trade was suspended due to COVID-19. These price spikes leave the poorest families most vulnerable; one study shows that people living in urban areas under the poverty line spend up to 75% of their budget on food alone.

Many of the world’s hungriest countries rely on agriculture as their main industry, which means that families eat seasonally in keeping with what their harvests (and their neighbors’ harvests) bring in. In the times before harvest known as “hungry seasons,” when the previous supply of food has been used up and the next crops are not quite ready to pick, families often skip one or more meals per day. In many areas, climate change has prolonged these hungry seasons.

3. Climate change decreases the nutritional value of food

Hunger and malnutrition are issues of both quantity and quality. Climate change affects both. Studies show that higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in plants reduce their protein, zinc, and iron content. By 2050, an estimated 175 million people could develop zinc deficiencies. 122 million people may be protein-deficient by that time as well.

Beyond plant-based nutrition, climate change also affects the quality of livestock, which rely on the same resources as humans to eat, grow, and produce meat, eggs, and/or milk. Cattle, goats, and other livestock account for 36% of all drought-related losses (crops make up 49%). Likewise, climate extremes threaten fish populations, especially in areas like Southeast Asia.

During a drought, 49% of all assets lost are crops; 36% are livestock.

4. Climate change increases food waste

Even if a harvest is good (or promises to be good), more of it now goes to waste as the climate crisis intensifies. Crops grown in high-drought areas are often moved into humid storage facilities, leaving them vulnerable to fungal infestations and pests. Rain doesn’t always help, either: Flooding from extreme rainfalls can also produce toxic mold on crops. The more climate changes and the more that extreme climate events become commonplace, the more food we lose on an annual basis.

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, roughly one-third of the food produced by farmers is lost between the field and the market in low- and middle-income countries. In high-income countries, a similar amount is wasted between the market and the table. Currently, the food system contributes 21–37% of greenhouse gasses, meaning that these food losses add to the climate crisis but do nothing for food security or malnutrition levels.

Climate change and hunger: What comes next?

Climate change affects the global food system in such a way that those who already suffer from hunger and undernutrition are those most vulnerable to losing more as the climate crisis continues. In order to end hunger — one of our top Sustainable Development Goals for the year 2030 — we need to address the causes of climate change , particularly at the governmental and policy levels. We also need to prioritize climate justice to support the communities on the frontlines of the crisis, communities that often contribute very little to greenhouse gas emissions.

The last few years have made it clear that this cannot happen in isolation. We must foster global solidarity with the most climate-vulnerable communities and countries. High-income countries (especially those with the highest greenhouse emissions) must take responsibility for both mitigating the causes of climate change and supporting low- and middle-income countries in adapting to the effects of these changes. We must also honor commitments to programs like the Paris Climate Agreement , and accelerate national and international responses. All of this is a tall order, but it’s an order that will affect all of our futures, regardless of where we live.

Climate change and hunger: Concern’s response

Concern is clear that the climate crisis constitutes the most serious global environmental threat and is a significant poverty and hunger multiplier.

The majority of people Concern works with are involved in some way with farming and food production. Many of these communities are also on the frontlines of climate change. We work with rural communities to promote Climate Smart Agriculture , an approach that helps families adapt to better crops, growing techniques, and soil improvement practices in response to the changing — and often unpredictable — environment. We also work to strengthen links with the private sector to facilitate access to supplies and equipment.

We combine this with our award-winning and standard-setting program, Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) , which has saved millions of lives over the past 20 years. We’ve continued to work with partners and communities to find more tailored approaches to community-based treatment of childhood malnutrition, which has led to CMAM Surge: a way of proactively responding to malnutrition during seasonal “surge” periods throughout the year. Two CMAM Surge pilot tests in Kenya in 2012 saw that the model managed peaks, without undermining other health and nutrition efforts.

Our Work: Health & Nutrition

Ending global extreme poverty requires us to focus on two of its root issues: health & nutrition. You can help us with both.

Climate change & hunger: Your concern in action

Climate Smart Agriculture: Back to the basics to fight climate change and hunger

Fighting hunger in Ethiopia — the Irish way

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Here’s What to Know About the Hunger Crisis in Gaza

“The food production system has been completely obliterated, and the lack of entry of emergency aid within a short time has created a free fall,” a United Nations official said.

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By Matthew Mpoke Bigg

• April 11, 2024

Six months into the Israel-Hamas war, the people of Gaza are facing a hunger crisis that the United Nations says borders on famine.

The crisis in Gaza is entirely human-made, a result of Israel’s war on Hamas and a near-complete siege of the territory, aid experts say. Conflicts were also at the root of the other two disasters in the last two decades that were classified by a global authority as famines, in Sudan and Somalia, though in those countries drought was also a significant underlying factor.

Here’s a look at how Gaza reached this point.

The food shortages in Gaza have been created by Israel’s blockade and military operations.

For years before the latest war, Gaza was subject to an Israeli blockade , backed by Egypt. Under the blockade, humanitarian aid, including food and commercial imports, was tightly restricted. Even so, levels of malnutrition among Gaza’s roughly 2.2 million people were low and comparable to those of countries in the region.

After Oct. 7, when Hamas led a deadly attack on Israel that incited the war, Israel imposed a siege and instituted much stricter controls on what could go into Gaza, stopping anything it believed could potentially benefit Hamas from entering. At the same time, Israel blocked commercial imports of food that had filled Gaza’s shops and markets.

It also bombed Gaza’s port , restricted fishing and bombed many of the territory’s farms. Airstrikes and fighting have shattered Gaza’s infrastructure and forced almost all of its population to flee their homes. That displacement, plus the destruction of businesses and a surge in prices, has made it hard for families to feed themselves.

“The food production system has been completely obliterated, and the lack of entry of emergency aid within a short time has created a free fall,” said Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian office.

Famine has a precise definition for the United Nations and aid groups.

This week, Samantha Power, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said that a famine was underway in northern Gaza , the part of the territory most cut off from aid. Her agency later said that assessment was based on data collected in March, not on new information, but that “conditions remain dire.”

That data was released by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification , an initiative of U.N. bodies and major relief agencies that is also known as the I.P.C.,. The I.P.C. has not yet classified the situation in Gaza as a famine but said last month that one was imminent in the north. The body defines a famine as at least 20 percent of households facing an extreme lack of food, at least 30 percent of children suffering from acute malnutrition , and at least two adults or four children for every 10,000 people dying each day from starvation or disease linked to malnutrition.

Since 2004, when the system was set up, there have been two famines , according to that definition. In 2011, the United Nations declared famine in parts of Somalia, which had endured decades of conflict. Years of drought wrecked the agricultural sector and the economy, forcing many people to leave their homes in search of food. At the same time, an Islamist insurgent group blocked starving people from fleeing and forced out Western aid organizations. In all, around 250,000 people died.

Six years later, a famine was declared in parts of South Sudan. The country had suffered years of drought, but the U.N. said that the famine was human-made. Millions of people had fled because of a civil war, destroying the country’s economy, and rebel forces and government soldiers blocked aid and hijacked food trucks. Tens of thousands died.

Gaza is small and mostly urban, so food should be close at hand.

Gaza is just 25 miles long and largely urban, and there is no shortage of food on the other side of its borders, with Israel and Egypt.

Still, aid agencies have found doing their jobs difficult. Six months of war have included the killings of scores of aid workers, including seven from World Central Kitchen, the relief group founded by the chef José Andrés. Those employees were killed by an Israeli drone strike on April 1 after delivering tons of food to a warehouse.

There is a sharp disagreement in Gaza between the U.N. and the Israeli government about how much aid is entering Gaza each day, but aid organizations say they need better access, particularly to northern Gaza. The Israeli authorities have repeatedly denied permission for aid convoys to move within Gaza, they say.

Arif Husain, the chief economist at the World Food Program, said that what made the situation in Gaza so shocking was the scale and severity of the crisis and how quickly it had developed.

Israel claims it has placed no limits on aid. Critics disagree.

Critics of the way Israel is conducting the war say that the hunger crisis derives largely from Israeli restrictions on where trucks can enter and from an onerous inspection process. Some have accused Israel of slowing aid down to punish Gazans for the Oct. 7 attack.

Israeli officials say they have placed no limits on the amount of aid that can flow into Gaza. They blame the U.N., particularly UNRWA, the main agency that helps Palestinians, for failing to distribute aid effectively.

COGAT, the Israeli agency responsible for coordinating aid deliveries into Gaza, says that it has “surged” deliveries in recent days and is opening an additional entry point in northern Gaza. More broadly, the Israeli government holds Hamas responsible for all civilian suffering in Gaza. ( UNRWA said last month that Israel had denied the group access to northern Gaza, though Israel has rebutted that claim.)

Governments around the world have urged Israel to address the crisis quickly. President Biden last week warned that the United States could withhold support for Israel if it did not ensure adequate aid deliveries and protect civilians. On Wednesday, Mr. Biden said that the steps Israel had taken since then were “not enough.”

Adam Sella contributed reporting.

Matthew Mpoke Bigg is a correspondent covering international news. He previously worked as a reporter, editor and bureau chief for Reuters and did postings in Nairobi, Abidjan, Atlanta, Jakarta and Accra. More about Matthew Mpoke Bigg

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

Britain, the United States, France and other allies of Israel have voiced their anger over the death toll in Gaza, but when Iran launched a missile barrage at Israel, they set it aside . At least for the moment.

Israeli settlers fatally shot two Palestinians in the West Bank , according to Israeli and Palestinian officials, as tensions  continued to spike in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Ruth Patir, the artist representing Israel at the Venice Biennale, said she wouldn’t open her show in the national pavilion  until Israel and Hamas reach “a cease-fire and hostage release agreement.”

Mobilizing the American Left: As the death toll in Gaza climbed, the pro-Palestinian movement grew into a powerful, if disjointed, political force in the United States . Democrats are feeling the pressure.

Riding Rage Over Israel: Jackson Hinkle’s incendiary commentary  has generated over two million new followers on X since October — a surge that some researchers say is aided by inauthentic accounts by the online celebrity.

Psychedelics and Trauma: Thousands of festival-goers were using mind-altering substances when Hamas-led fighters attacked on Oct 7. Now, scientists are studying the effects of such drugs at a moment of trauma .

Turmoil at J Street: The war in Gaza has raised serious concerns within the Jewish political advocacy group about its ability to hold a middle position  without being pulled apart by forces on the right and the left.

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Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2024

The world is facing a sustainable development crisis. The 2024 Financing for Sustainable Development Report: Financing for Development at a Crossroads finds that financing challenges are at the heart of the crisis and imperil the SDGs and climate action. The window to rescue the SDGs and prevent a climate catastrophe is still open but closing rapidly.

Financing gaps for sustainable development are large and growing – the estimates by international organizations and others are coalescing around $4 trillion additional investment needed annually for developing countries. This represents a more than 50% increase over the pre-pandemic estimates. Meanwhile, the finance divide has not been bridged, with developing countries paying around twice as much on average in interest on their total sovereign debt stock as developed countries. Many countries lack access to affordable finance or are in debt distress.

Weak enabling environments are preventing progress. Average global growth has declined, while policy and regulatory frameworks still do not set appropriate incentives. Public budgets and spending is not fully aligned with SDGs. Private investors are not incentivised to invest enough in SDGs and climate action. 

The world is at a crossroads. This is the last chance to correct course if we want to achieve the SDGs by the 2030 deadline. Only an urgent, large-scale and sustainable investment push can help us achieve our global goals. Next year’s Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in 2025 will be a once in 80-year opportunity to support coherent transformation of financing. Four actions are needed:

• Close financing gaps for SDG/climate investments (both public and private) at scale and with urgency;
• Close policy and architecture gaps, and reform international institutions;
• Close credibility gaps and trust deficits both international and domestically; and 
• Formulate and finance new development pathways.

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Aid groups warn of mass death from hunger in Sudan amid war

On a clear night a year ago, a dozen heavily armed fighters broke into Omaima Farouq’s house in an upscale neighborhood in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. At gunpoint, they whipped and slapped the woman, and terrorized her children. Then they expelled them from the fenced two-story house.

“Since then, our life has been ruined,” said the 45-year-old schoolteacher. “Everything has changed in this year.”

What You Need To Know

Sudan has been torn by war for a year now, torn by fighting between the military and the notorious paramilitary rapid support forces the conflict has been overshadowed by the war between israel and hamas in gaza strip but relief workers warn sudan is hurtling towards a calamity of starvation, with potential mass death in coming months food production and distribution networks have broken down and aid agencies are unable to reach the worst-stricken regions at the same time, the conflict has brought widespread reports of atrocities including killings, displacement and rape, particularly in the area of the capital and the western region of darfur.

Farouq, who is a widow, and her four children now live in a small village outside the central city of Wad Madani, 85 miles southeast of Khartoum. They depend on aid from villagers and philanthropists since international aid groups can’t reach the village.

Sudan has been torn by war for a year now, ever since simmering tensions between its military and the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into street clashes in the capital Khartoum in mid-April 2023. The fighting rapidly spread across the country.

The conflict has been overshadowed by the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza Strip, which since October has caused a massive humanitarian crisis for Palestinians and a threat of famine in the territory.

But relief workers warn Sudan is hurtling towards an even larger-scale calamity of starvation, with potential mass death in coming months. Food production and distribution networks have broken down and aid agencies are unable to reach the worst-stricken regions. At the same time, the conflict has brought widespread reports of atrocities including killings, displacement and rape, particularly in the area of the capital and the western region of Darfur.

Justin Brady, head of the U.N. humanitarian coordination office for Sudan, warned that potentially tens or even hundreds of thousands could die in coming months from malnutrition-related causes.

“This is going to get very ugly very quickly unless we can overcome both the resource challenges and the access challenges,” Brady said. The world, he said, needs to take fast action to pressure the two sides for a stop in fighting and raise funds for the U.N. humanitarian effort.

But the international community has paid little attention. The U.N. humanitarian campaign needs some $2.7 billion this year to get food, heath care and other supplies to 24 million people in Sudan – nearly half its population of 51 million. So far, funders have given only $145 million, about 5%, according to the humanitarian office, known as OCHA.

The “level of international neglect is shocking,” Christos Christou, president of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said in a recent statement.

The situation in fighting on the ground has been deteriorating. The military, headed by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have carved up Khartoum and trade indiscriminate fire at each other. RSF forces have overrun much of Darfur, while Burhan has moved the government and his headquarters to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.

The Sudanese Unit for Combating Violence Against Women, a government organization, documented at least 159 cases of rape and gang rape the past year, almost all in Khartoum and Darfur. The organization’s head, Sulima Ishaq Sharif, said this figure represents the tip of the iceberg since many victims don’t speak out for fear of reprisal or the stigma connected to rape.

In 2021, Burhan and Dagalo were uneasy allies who led a military coup. They toppled an internationally recognized civilian government that was supposed to steer Sudan’s democratic transition after the 2019 military overthrow of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir amid a popular uprising. Burhan and Dagalo subsequently fell out in a struggle for power.

The situation has been horrific in Darfur, where the RSF and its allies are accused of rampant sexual violence and ethnic attacks on African tribes’ areas. The International Criminal Court said it was investigating fresh allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the region, which was the scene of genocidal war in the 2000s.

A series of attacks by the RSF and allied militias on the ethnic African Masalit tribe killed between 10,000 and 15,000 people in Geneina, the capital of West Darfur near the Chad border, according to a report by United Nations experts to the Security Council earlier this year. It said Darfur is experiencing “its worst violence since 2005.”

With aid groups unable to reach Darfur’s camps for displaced people, eight out of every 10 families in the camps eat only one meal a day, said Adam Rijal, the spokesman for the Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur.

In Kelma camp in South Darfur province, he said an average of nearly three children die every 12 hours, most due to diseases related to malnutrition. He said the medical center in the camp receives between 14 and 18 cases of malnutrition every day, mostly children and pregnant women.

Not including the Geneina killings, the war has killed at least 14,600 people across Sudan and created the world’s largest displacement crisis, according to the United Nations. More than 8 million people have been driven from their homes, fleeing either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries.

Many flee repeatedly as the war expands.

When fighting reached his street in Khartoum, Taj el-Ser and his wife and four children headed west to his relatives in Darfur in the town of Ardamata.

Then the RSF and its allies overran Ardamata in November, rampaging through the town for six days. El-Ser said they killed many Masalit and relatives of army soldiers.

“Some were shot dead or burned inside their homes,” he said by phone from another town in Darfur. “I and my family survived only because I am Arab.”

Both sides, the military and RSF, have committed serious violations of international law, killing civilians and destroying vital infrastructure, said Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Food production has crashed, imports stalled, movement of food around the country is hampered by fighting, and staple food prices have soared by 45% in less than a year, OCHA says. The war wrecked the country’s healthcare system, leaving only 20 to 30% of the health facilities functional across the country, according to MSF.

At least 37% of the population at crisis level or above in hunger, according OCHA. Save the Children warned that about 230,000 children, pregnant women and newborn mothers could die of malnutrition in the coming months.

“We are seeing massive hunger, suffering and death. And yet the world looks away,” said Arif Noor, Save the Children's director in Sudan.

About 3.5 million children aged under 5 years have acute malnutrition, including more than 710,000 with severe acute malnutrition, according to the World Health Organization.

About 5 million people were one step away from famine, according to a December assessment by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, considered the global authority on determining the severity of hunger crises. Overall, 17.7 million people were facing acute food insecurity, it found.

Aid workers say the world has to take action.

“Sudan is described as a forgotten crisis. I’m starting to wonder how many people knew about it in the first place to forget about it,” said Brady, from OCHA. “There are others that have more attention than Sudan. I don’t like to compare crises. It’s like comparing two cancer patients. ... They both need to be treated.”