Nutritional situation: Aid organization: 733 million people are hungry worldwide

Nutritional situation
Aid organization: 733 million people are hungry worldwide

According to Welthungerhilfe, the situation in Syria is also catastrophic. Photo: Anas Alkharboutli/dpa

According to Welthungerhilfe, the situation in Syria is also catastrophic. photo

© Anas Alkharboutli/dpa

Malnutrition and hunger disproportionately affect women and girls, a study finds. Overall, there is hardly any progress.

The global fight against hunger comes after an investigation by the Welthungerhilfe is hardly making any progress. The organization announced in Berlin at the presentation of its new World Hunger Index (GHI) that 733 million people are still affected worldwide. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the regions with the highest hunger rates.

“It is unacceptable that the global community is not sufficiently fulfilling its obligation to end hunger,” said Marlehn Thieme, President of Welthungerhilfe. “We know that the global crises have an immediate impact, with serious consequences for the nutritional situation of families and exhausting their ability to cope with ever new shocks.”

The Global Hunger Index values ​​are calculated based on a formula of four indicators: malnutrition, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality. Together, this is intended to “capture the multidimensional nature of hunger.”

Women and girls are particularly affected

This year’s report focuses on the connection between a lack of gender equity, food insecurity and the impacts of climate change. Women and girls are most affected by hunger and suffer disproportionately from the consequences of climate change.

“Gender equality is an important lever for sustainably eliminating hunger. Governments must invest in health, education and rural development in order to eliminate existing inequalities and give women better access to resources and decisions,” demanded Mathias Mogge, CEO of Welthungerhilfe .

The report examines the nutritional situation in 136 countries. According to the organization, crises such as armed conflicts, the consequences of climate change and high levels of debt overlap and reinforce each other. The 2024 index values ​​and preliminary ratings showed that hunger is classified as very serious in six countries: Burundi, Yemen, Madagascar, Somalia, South Sudan and Chad. Hunger is classified as serious in another 36 countries.

Hunger is increasing again in some countries

In addition, the situation is deteriorating again in many countries: in 22 countries with moderate, serious or very serious index values ​​for 2024, hunger has even increased since 2016. In another 20 countries, progress has largely stagnated – their 2024 figures have fallen by less than 5 percent compared to 2016.

Despite the crises, there is also hope: countries such as Bangladesh, Mozambique, Nepal, Somalia and Togo have significantly improved their values, even if hunger remains a problem there. Afghanistan and Syria, on the other hand, are among the 20 countries with the worst scores.

“The goal of eliminating hunger by 2030 seems unattainable. If the pace has remained the same since 2016, the global GHI score will not even reach a low level until 2160 – i.e. in more than 130 years,” the authors state overall firmly.

Climate change “exacerbates gender inequalities”

“Despite decades of rhetoric about the need to ensure equality between the sexes, wide gender inequality remains. Women are the most affected by food insecurity among the undernourished, with gender gaps of up to 19 percentage points in some countries,” it said to the numbers.

Recommendations for action are also derived from the annual examination. Climate and food policy must ensure the representation and leadership role of women and marginalized groups. Their expertise in natural resource management must be taken into account.

Governments should redistribute public resources to address structural inequalities and enable gender-equitable access. At the same time, measures to deal with crises should not come at the expense of effective long-term investments – this is also an appeal to the donor countries that finance the aid programs.

dpa

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