Strategies to End Hunger 1: Hunger and Poverty

Hunger is the most extreme manifestation of poverty. On the basis of the "dollar a day threshold", there are 1.2 billion poor people in developing countries. Of these 798 million from chronic hunger (FAO, IFAD, WFP, 2002).

Previous (market driven) approaches to development have failed to resolve hunger and poverty because:

  • Poverty reduction takes time
  • Hungry people need immediate relief
  • Hunger is as much a cause as an effect of poverty.

(Source: FAO, 2003.)

Accordingly, food security must be integrated as part of a broader framework for sustainable development and poverty reduction. Food insecurity is no longer considered as an issue to be tackled essentially with traditional food aid and food security operations (EFSG, 2004).

This approach fits squarely with the World Food Summit definition of Food Security (1996): "A situation in which all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life".

Clearly there is a close link between the food security agenda and the poverty reduction/development agenda of Africa. The lack of access to food at the household level is the main cause of food insecurity in Africa, and arises from insufficient agricultural production and / or a lack of purchasing power - which itself is a direct result of poverty.

Strategies to End Hunger 2: Achieving the MDG on Hunger

THE UN Millennium Hunger Task Force recommend the following strategy if the Millennium Development Goal on Hunger is to be reached:

  • Mobilize political action to end hunger - at the global scale as well as the national and local scales in rich and poor countries.
  • Align national policies that restore budgetary priority to agriculture as the engine of economic growth, build rural infrastructure, empower women, and build human capacity in all sectors involved in hunger-reduction actions.
  • Implement and scale-up proven actions that improve the nutrition of vulnerable groups, raise agricultural productivity in smallholder farms, and improve market functions in ways that provide synergies and result in positive transformations.

All three elements of the strategy are necessary and, as a group, sufficient but each one will be insufficient if implemented alone.

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Hunger