FEEDING AN INCREASINGLY
HUNGRY WORLD
F
ew of us, if any, have probably ever experienced the pangs of hunger for days on end with little or no hope of help in sight. For hundreds of millions of people across the world it is, however, part of their daily existence.
According to a projection of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), an estimated 265 million people will be facing ‘acute food insecurity’ by the end of this year globally – an increase by 130 million people compared to the number of those who faced starvation in 2019. Although this increase can largely be attributed to the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, global hunger and food security have long been issues at the top of the agenda of the United Nations, governments and humanitarian organisations. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has defined food security as access by all people at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life. Measuring food security also includes criteria such as the nutritional value, affordability and safety.
security. Droughts and famines of Biblical proportions have been on the increase in many parts of the world during the past three decades. Cyclones and typhoons in South and Southeast Asia are taking a huge toll on human lives and displacing hundreds of thousands of people every year. These tropical storms are also devastating crops such as rice, which is very susceptible to extreme temperature changes and extended flooding. Closer to home, Cyclone Idai killed around 1,300 people and displaced hundreds of thousands when it swept through Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi in March 2019. Food insecurity inevitably leads to hunger, undernourishment, malnutrition and higher child mortality when caused by one or more of these factors. There are considerable variations in regional hunger statistics with dramatic higher hunger levels in South Asia and Africa than in other parts of the world.
Food security is affected by numerous factors, among them poor governance, domestic and regional conflicts and instability, economic slowdowns, and hyperinflation and currency collapses such as what happened in Zimbabwe.
Namibia ranks 84th out of 117 countries on the 2019 Global Hunger Index with a score of 24.9 – which places it in the category of countries where hunger is serious. Although the index does not cover some high-income countries where the prevalence of hunger is low, a study by the United Nations Children’s Fund found that 18% of households with children under 15 in 28 European Union countries experience moderate to severe food insecurity.
The impact of climate change as a result of global warming increasingly features as a factor affecting food
Research has shown that the increase in temperature in southern Africa as a result of global warming is higher than
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