BUILDING RESILIENCE AGAINST HUNGER

A new report said the developing
world is taking a beating from
climate change, extreme
weather, conflict, environmental
degradation and poor
governance. It said to ensure
food security under these
conditions, emergency aid must
be coupled with development
assistance.
The Global Hunger Index, or GHI,
for 2013 says while overall
hunger is decreasing - it remains
pretty bad in 19 countries. In
fact, the index described hunger
in those countries as ranging
from alarming to extremely
alarming.
Chris Bene of the Institute for
Development Studies in London
is one of the GHI authors. He said,
"Sub-Saharan Africa is a part of
the world where things are not
as easy as they are probably in
some other region. So indeed,
some of the major concerns, that
the report [stresses], are actually
countries in sub-Saharan Africa -
for different reasons. You still
have some pockets or so in
South Asia, but some of the
major concerns are still in sub-
Saharan Africa."
The index lists Burundi, Eritrea
and Comoros have the highest
levels of hunger in sub-Saharan
Africa.
The 8th annual report is
published by IFPRI - the
International Food Policy
Research Institute -
Welthungerhilfe and Concern
Worldwide. It monitors 120
developing countries and
countries in transition. Findings
are based on the proportion of
people who are undernourished;
the proportion of children under
five who are underweight; and
the mortality rate of kids under
five.
The GHI said more than two-and-
a-half-billion people live on less
than two dollars a day. So, a sick
family member, a drought or the
loss of a job is a major crisis. The
report said they have no coping
mechanisms left to deal with a
crisis.
"A lot of people in the world are
still very vulnerable to shock.
When those people don't have
those ways to protect themselves
- when they are hit by those
shocks - they may make
decisions which seem very
rational at the short-term level,
but may actually have very
detrimental consequences in the
longer term," said Bene.
For example, if farmers lose their
crops to drought or flood, they
also lose their income and food
supply. They may try to cope by
cutting back on the amount of
food their families eat.
"Which," he said,"is what
everybody will do in the short
term. But one of his kids is still
under three-years-old. The thing
is that when kids in their very
early age and very early stage of
development don't receive the
appropriate amount of food --
appropriate amount of nutrition
-- that can actually have [a]
detrimental effect not simply in
the next two months, but actually
for their entire life."