Fight Against Hunger and State of Food Insecurity Report, 2015

The Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of chronically undernourished people in developing countries by 2015 is within reach. But progress must accelerate by the end of this year

Hunger Stats

• Hungry Population —>  800m which is ~10% world Population
• Chronically Hungry - 780m in developing countries
• Decline in hungry people since:
• 2005 - 167m
• 1991 - 200m

As per State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI 2015) report

Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of chronically undernourished people in developing countries by 2015 is within reach IF progress accelerates sufficiently by the end of this year. Now before we discuss this SOFI report let us understand what is the level of progress?

Too slow progress

• 1996: World Food Summit (WFS) it was decided by world leaders to reduce the number of hungry people in the world by half. 
• 2000-01: MDGs lowered the level of ambition by seeking to halve the proportion of the chronically undernourished.
• End of 2014: 
• MDG Goal 1 achieved - 72 developing countries
• WFS Goal Achieved - 29 
• But overall as against the original 1996 WFS target of reducing the number of hungry people by half, the practical fall in number of hungry was only by 1/5th

Uneven Progress: Too much variation across countries and regions

• Sub-Saharan Africa: >25% Chronically hungry, 
• Asia - 500m hungry
• Latin America, the Caribbean, East and Southeast Asia have significantly reduced both the share and the number of undernourished.
• West Asia and Central Africa have seen a rise in the share of the hungry compared to 1991, 
• Progress in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Oceania has not been sufficient to meet the MDG hunger target by 2015.

SOFI Report 2015 identifies factors that have played a critical role in achieving the hunger target.

• Inclusive Growth so that there is access to food
• Raise productivity (specially agricultural) —> Net incomes increase —> Less poverty —> Less hunger. 
• Economic growth of country —> expanded fiscal revenue base —> finance social transfers and other assistance programmes which have following benefit
• Cash transfers to vulnerable households, food vouchers, health insurance or school meal programmes — correlates strongly with progress in hunger reduction. 
• Enable those with fewer assets to boost their incomes, and invest more, thus enhancing their resilience.
• This scheme specially successful in Latin America and South Asia.
• ~150m people worldwide have escaped extreme poverty thanks to social protection.
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