Halving Global Hunger Still Possible Before 2015

MANILA, Philippines – International aid agency Oxfam expressed optimism that halving global hunger is still possible until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In a new Oxfam report released on Tuesday, titled “Halving World Hunger: Still Possible,” the group stressed that political will can halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in the next five years.

The United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Committee (FAO) reported that the number of hungry people worldwide has dropped by 98 million to 925 million in the past year.

Overall in the 10 years since the MDGs were agreed, Oxfam noted that the proportion of hungry people in the world has decreased by only half a percent from 14 percent in 2000 to 13.5 percent Thursday.

However, Oxfam warned that the decline was largely due to luck, such as two years of favorable weather patterns, as opposed to concrete action from world leaders.

In recent months, a wave of weather-related disasters including drought and wildfires in Russia and floods in Pakistan, have raised the specter of another global food crisis.

The decline in the number of people going hungry followed two years of good harvests, which until recently led to a reduction in global food prices, Oxfam said.

Oxfam called on world leaders, who are meeting in New York from Sept. 20 to 22, to review progress on the MDGs and back the development of a global action plan on hunger as part of a broader rescue package for all the MDGs.

The group pointed out that the action plan should support the development of national plans to reduce hunger, ensure these plans are properly funded through increased international aid and national investment, and develop the global policies needed to address global threats to food security.

If governments are to deliver on their promise to halve hunger by 2015, they need to both increase their investment and implement policies, which are needed to address the underlying causes of hunger and malnutrition, it said.

“It is an outrage that in the 21st century men, women and children are still going to sleep with an empty stomach. There has been virtually no change in the proportion of hungry people now compared to 2000 when the MDG agreements were made. Governments have failed to tackle the underlying causes of hunger including food price volatility and decades of under investment in agriculture and climate change,” Oxfam director of campaigns and policy Phil Bloomer said.

“Countries such as Vietnam and Brazil have proved that with the right policies this situation can be transformed. When global leaders get together in New York, they must put their weight behind a global action plan that will bring all countries together to tackle hunger,” he added.

Oxfam’s report pointed to countries such as Vietnam and Brazil that have achieved or are on track to halve hunger levels as evidence that it is still possible.

It said that these countries have dramatically reduced hunger at home by supporting poor food producers and providing social safety nets for people who cannot produce or buy enough food.

In the Philippines, according to a report by the UN, the government has expressed that reducing the poverty incidence to 22.7 from 32.9 percent from 1990 levels has both a 50 percent chance of being achieved or failing.

Malnourished children Thursday also number at 26.2 percent, while the target is 17.3 percent.

“Any reduction in the number of hungry people is welcome but we cannot be complacent - the food crisis has not gone away. Despite there being enough food in the world to feed everyone, 925 million people are hungry today,” Bloomer said.

Ellalyn de Vera, Manila Bulletin