The figures that shape our country
According to the Economist’s Intelligence Unit’s 2017 Global Food Security Index, South Africa is the most food secure country on the African continent. Its ranking of 44th out of 133 countries measured where it stands with regards to food affordability, availability, quality and safety. It paints a pretty picture, one which doesn’t reveal that millions of South Africans face hunger every day.
A study funded by the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security adds a far harsher edge. The study reviewed 169 research studies that took place between 1994 and 2014 and listed a litany of concerns that are not easily addressed nor easily fixed, from the cost-effectiveness of food with poor nutritional value to how the role women play in providing for the home is affected by exclusion and lack of access.
The Statistics South Africa General Household Survey found that 7.4 million people were experiencing hunger in 2016. It also reported that 1 760 946 households had an adult or child who had gone hungry in the past year. These figures are backed up by the South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which estimated that 26% of households were going hungry and that 28.3% were at risk of hunger.
The statistics gathered continue to point to a country that’s facing a hunger crisis. The numbers may be dropping — the statistics listed by Statistics South Africa above have dropped compared with previous years — but the country still remains in 55th position on the Global Hunger Index.
The impact on the country’s people and future is significant. A lack of nutrition and turning to cheap foods with poor nutritional value is linked to chronic illness, obesity and disease. This further reduces life expectancy and economic productivity for millions. It is linked to crime, social malaise and poverty. According to Statistics South Africa, the greatest threat to healthy childhood development is poverty and yet, as of 2015, more than 13 million children are living in poverty. The World Food Programme has said that reaching the world’s 66 million hungry school-age children will cost around R40-billion a year.
What makes this crisis worse is that South Africa has the food. It has the food that could potentially transform lives, and yet it throws away 10 million tonnes of food a year — fruit and vegetables, grains, meat, roots and tubers. According to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research the cost of this food loss is approximately 2% of the country’s gross domestic product. In 2013 R71.4-billion was lost to inedible food waste.
Change is coming but it is slow, and far more needs to be done; creating access to nutritious food will have a huge influence on this country’s people, economy and future.
“We should be paying attention. Roughly 50% of our population is food insecure or at risk of food insecurity. People are hungry or at risk, skipping meals or going for days without food so they can survive.”