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HUNGER FAQS
Click on a question to expand it to its answer:
 How many people are going hungry?
Every day, 1.02 billion people are going hungry.
According to the latest estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, global hunger reached a record high in 2009, passing the one-billion mark for the first time in history.
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Why are so many people having trouble getting enough food?
Hunger is an everyday reality for many children. Here are several factors to their hunger:
- Vulnerable environments
Millions of families live in vulnerable environments, where just one drought or flood can wipe out a year’s harvest.
- Conflicts
In many countries all over the world, there is political turmoil for various reasons. In the example of the African continent, gun-wielding warriors raid the villagers’ cattle. Many Africans are also displaced and live on barren ground with no access to assistance from aid organisations.
- Lack of access to technology
Many lack access to improved technologies and farming techniques that could help them generate a more sustainable food supply.
- The global food crisis
Hunger has reached unprecedented levels in recent years because of a global food crisis. The crisis is caused by a number of factors — political turmoil, population growth, speculative investments, climate change, and even increased meat consumption in some countries. In these ways, food prices soared by 57 percent in 2008. And that was on top of record increases the year before.
This has been a devastating trend for the world’s poorest families, who already spend up to 75 percent of their income on food. As a result, many have been forced to make unthinkable choices, like reducing the number of daily meals or — in the worst cases — going days without anything to eat.
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What are the root causes of hunger?
Hunger is caused by a number of factors, many of which overlap. In addition to natural causes such as drought and crop failure, the following man-made problems contribute to hunger in various parts of the world:
- Inadequate or nonexistent national policies to promote food security
- Lack of international action to address environmental degradation
- Unfair trade rules that make it difficult for farmers in developing countries to access markets
- Lack of access to improved agricultural methods and seeds
- Insufficient investment and development aid for poorer countries
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Who is most vulnerable to starvation?
Children under the age of 5 are especially vulnerable to hunger. A malnourished child is four times more likely to die from an infectious disease than a well-nourished child. Even if she survives to adulthood, childhood malnutrition will have an irreversible impact on her long-term development.
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How does hunger affect children?
The first few years of life are critical to healthy development. Poor nutrition affects a child’s growth in many ways.
For example, chronic hunger leads to intellectual impairment and restricted motor skills. It interferes with bone growth, stunting a child’s height. The lack of nutrition weakens vital organs such as the heart and liver, as well as the immune system, leaving a child more vulnerable to disease.
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Why does hunger kill so many children each year?
Nearly 4.7 million children die each year because of hunger-related causes. The risk of immediate starvation is not the only threat; many children die because of illness brought on or worsened by hunger.
For example, hunger is a root cause in more than half of all malaria deaths. Children living with HIV are more likely to die if they don’t get adequate nutrition: without a healthy diet, even powerful antiretroviral (ARV) medication has little effect on the disease. In fact, hunger is a contributing factor in the majority of all child deaths.
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Where do most hungry people live?
Most cases of chronic hunger — around 9 in 10 — occur in just two regions:
- Asia (642 million hungry people)
- Sub-Saharan Africa (265 million hungry people)
Particularly hard-hit are drought-prone countries like Ethiopia, half of whose population experiences hunger. Also vulnerable are countries like India, where millions living in urban slums cannot afford the high price of food.
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Why can’t more people afford to buy food?
Approximately 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $1.25 a day. That’s 1 in every 5 people on the planet. Up to 75 percent of their income goes to food already — so even modest fluctuations in price can have a significant impact on their food security.
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Is there really enough food to feed everybody on the planet?
Yes. Many wealthy countries enjoy a food surplus, while some regions are more vulnerable to food shortages. In broad terms, the world’s agricultural output is great enough to support the entire population.
However, environmental degradation has a negative impact on agricultural production, particularly for those who can least afford it. Climate change threatens the world’s poorest regions with more frequent and damaging storms, erratic rainfall, deadlier cycles of drought and flooding, and other natural disasters — all of which could have devastating consequences for hungry children and their families.
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What’s the most effective way to help hungry children and families?
Hunger has many causes, so our response to hunger must be wide-ranging and easily adaptable to each situation and region.
During a famine or other crisis in which starvation is an imminent threat, the rapid delivery of food aid can mean the difference between life and death for thousands of children.
But speed is not the only factor. Malnourished bodies need specially developed food that is both nutritious and easy to digest. Some foods, like CSB (a blend of corn and soy beans) and Plumpy’nut (essentially a fortified peanut butter) have helped to rescue countless children from the brink of starvation.
Because dehydration often accompanies malnutrition, starving children may also need inexpensive but effective oral rehydration therapy.
Beyond emergency food aid, we must work to prevent future food crises and help communities to create their own sustainable food supplies. Long-term responses to hunger include:
- Providing clean water and sanitation to protect children from waterborne disease, which is a culprit in half of all child malnutrition.
- Training and equipping farmers in order to maximize local food production
- Making sure farmers have access to markets where they can sell their crops
- Promoting careful stewardship of the environment — encouraging crop diversification, planting trees, and more
- Promoting peacebuilding and conflict resolution to prevent displacement (which separates people from their food supplies)
- Monitoring child nutrition in order to anticipate and prevent the onset of hunger in a community
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What are the different kinds of food aid?
There are a number of different kinds of food aid, including:
- In-kind commodity | Physical supplies of food are procured, shipped, and distributed to hungry populations.
- Cash for local purchase | Food is purchased locally for distribution to nearby hungry populations.
- Cash for food | Money is given to hungry populations for the purchase of food from local markets.
- Monetisation | Donated food supplies are sold in order to obtain currency for other critical development programs, such as health, water, and agricultural projects.
Most food aid distributed through World Vision comes in the form of in-kind commodity. However, we employ a variety of options to deliver assistance, tailoring each response to the needs of the affected community.
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What is World Vision doing to fight hunger?
World Vision is a global leader in the effort to combat hunger. As the world’s largest distributor of food aid provided by the World Food Program (WFP), every year we distribute more than 200,000 metric tons of emergency food aid — equivalent to roughly 7,000 semi-truck loads. Currently, World Vision provides food aid in 34 countries around the world.
Additionally, we work with communities to promote long-term food security. We provide farmers with vital food production resources, such as drought-resistant seeds and training in improved agricultural methods. We help families enhance their methods of food storage, minimize post-harvest losses, and gain access to markets where they can sell their excess crops.
Also, World Vision works with governments all over the world, calling on global leaders to prioritize the prevention of hunger and to convert rhetoric about hunger into concrete action.
In everything we do, we put children first because they are most vulnerable to the effects of hunger.
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