Press conference on 2004 world hunger report

 

With more than 800 million people in the developing world still suffering from chronic hunger, progress to reach the 1996 World Food Summit goal of halving the number of hungry people worldwide by 2015 had been far too slow, Florence Chenoweth, Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told correspondents at a Headquarters briefing today.

Launching the FAO’s annual hunger report, entitled “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2004”, Ms. Chenoweth, who was joined by the report’s main editor, Andrew Marx, said the number of undernourished people in developing countries had dropped by only nine million people between 1990 and 2002 -- from 824 million to 815 million people.  During the second half of the decade, the number of hungry people in developing countries had actually increased by 18 million, wiping out two thirds of the 27 million reduction during the previous 5 years.

Stressing that much more rapid progress was needed to reach the World Food Summit hunger goal, she said several developing countries had shown that success was possible.  More than 30 nations with a total population of 2.2 billion had reduced the proportion of hungry people in their countries by 25 per cent or more between 1990 and 2002.  That puts those countries roughly on pace to reach the World Food Summit goal.  “As they have shown, we can do better.”

Not only did hunger cause untold suffering, she said, but its costs were staggering, claiming the lives of more than 5 million children each year, and costing developing countries billions of dollars in lost productivity and earnings.  The human cost could be measured in millions of premature deaths, and hundreds of millions of disability-adjusted life years -- years of productive life lost due to premature death, disease or disabilities.

Even when hunger failed to claim lives in childhood, she added, it often meant stunted mental and physical development, as well as loss of the ability to have full, productive lives.  Hunger also took a massive toll on economic development, costing developing countries some $30 billion in medical treatments -- more than five times that committed so far to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, all of which became far more deadly with hunger and malnutrition.

According to conservative estimates, she noted, poor developing countries were losing $500 million to $1 trillion in productivity due to hunger.  In 25 developing nations, every dollar invested in reducing hunger and malnutrition would yield almost $8 in benefit.  The FAO had estimated that an increase of $24 billion in public spending was needed to reach the World Food Summit’s 2015 target, which would yield annual benefits worth $120 billion.

Referring to a chapter of the report on the globalization of food systems, Mr. Marx added that developing countries were now seeing a rapid growth in supermarket chains, which was having an enormous impact on food security, as well as diets and nutrition.  On the one hand, such chains were buying all their produce from three or four growers, marginalizing small farmers and denying them a market for their products.  On the other, they were causing an unhealthy shift to fatty and processed food diets in developing countries.

As many in developing countries suffered from hunger, others were succumbing to such dietary related conditions as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, he said.  A growing body of evidence suggested that both hunger and diseases arising from poor diets were now concentrated in the poorest sectors of developing countries.  Moreover, those who suffered hunger before birth and in early childhood were at more risk of becoming the victims of obesity and other diet-related diseases when they grew up.

Asked about the possibility of reaching the Millennium Goal of halving hunger by 2015, Mr. Marx noted that several nations had already reduced hunger, using proven methods that could be applied more aggressively.  Moreover, reducing hunger was inextricably linked to the achievement of several other Millennium Goals, such as increasing education and fighting HIV/AIDS.

He noted some common characteristics of countries that had succeeded in reducing hunger, such as a faster rate of development in the agricultural sector, as well as an increased ability of people to produce enough food and buy what they needed.  More support was needed for the agricultural sector, he stressed, adding that simple proven forms of technology, such as those aimed at water management, could make a vast difference. 

Responding to another query, Ms. Chenoweth said the upward trend in hunger statistics came at a time when the World Summit deadline was nearing and progress to reduce hunger should be moving on.  Among other efforts, the international community must also call for increased investments in the agricultural sector.  “If the goal is not achieved, we could lose millions in developing countries, which would also have an impact on the developed world.”

To another question, Mr. Marx said a growing number of developing countries had made the reduction of hunger a top priority, although developed countries must also commit themselves.  Even a country like Sierra Leone, which had recently emerged from a ravaging civil war, had made a national commitment to eliminate hunger.  Farmers in villages were working together to make small improvements that could make huge differences in the food supply.  “Seeing that kind of commitment from countries and regional bodies in the developing world gives solid ground for optimism”, he said.

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