People die of hunger in a world of plenty

Drought is a prolonged dry period in the natural climate cycle that can occur anywhere in the world. Somalia is currently enduring five consecutive seasons of failed rains, which has left five million people in acute food insecurity and nearly two million children at risk of malnutrition.

A new report released on Monday by the Federal Ministry of Health & Human Services of Somalia, WHO and Unicef suggests that an estimated 43,000 excess deaths may have occurred in 2022 in Somalia due to the deepening drought, a figure higher than that of the first year of the 2017–2018 drought crisis. The report said half of these deaths may have occurred among children under the age of 5.

Global aid agencies believe that a declaration of famine in Somalia is imminent. Famine declarations are only made under extreme conditions: when 30 percent of a region’s children are severely malnourished, or 20 percent of the population has no access at all to food and there are two hunger-related deaths per 10,000 people each day.

There have been only two famines declared in the 21st century. In 2011, in the midst of a severe drought and conflict, famine was declared in Somalia after an estimated 250,000 people died. In 2017, after years of civil war, parts of South Sudan were found to be experiencing famine.

“This seems to be an invisible famine,” said Gayle Smith, CEO of One.org, and former US Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator under President Obama. “It’s on the horizon, it’s happening. There’s been plenty of warning from the Somalia authorities, from NGOs, from others. I think there’s some awareness, but it has not triggered the kind of international response that one would expect, and is in fact needed.”

The World Economic Forum said more than 100 million people today are on the run from conflict and disaster, and 340 million are projected to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023. “The fact of the matter is, we’re dealing with more crises than we ever have before,” Smith said. “And stretching the funding, I think, risks elongating the crises and failing to assist people we can actually reach. To mobilize the kind of response that’s needed, you not only need to activate and get the attention of governments, you have to get the attention of the public.”

WHO Representative Dr. Mamunur Rahman Malik said: “We are racing against time to prevent deaths and save lives that are avoidable. We have seen, deaths and diseases thrive when hunger and food crises prolong. We will see more people dying from disease than from hunger and malnutrition combined if we do not act now. The cost of our inaction will mean that children, women and other vulnerable people will pay with their lives while we hopelessly, helplessly, witness the tragedy unfold.”

From Bloomberg: “There are around 7.8 billion people on the planet now, and each needs about 1.4 kilograms of food on average per day, not including water. That means we require about 3.7 billion metric tons of food a year to feed everyone. At the moment, the world produces about 4 billion metric tons of food per year—but about 1.3 billion tons go to waste, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). One international study led by researchers from the University of Edinburgh put that number even higher, suggesting that as much as 44 percent of agricultural production is never consumed.”

Bloomberg said without clearing any new farmland, we could feed two Earths’ worth of people.

Pope Francis knows there’s plenty of food in the world, just not where it’s needed. That’s why he has been encouraging leaders to take a stand against world hunger. “Many do not have food and are adrift while the few are drowning in the superfluous,” Pope Francis said. “This perverse tendency of inequality is disastrous for the future of humanity.”