Breaking the vicious circle is achievable
In 2002 in Malawi, I had a conversation with a boy called Edward about the chronic hunger he was experiencing. When I asked him what his hopes were in life he answered: “to have enough food to eat and to be able to go to school one day.”
The kind of life-wrecking hunger that Edward was experiencing is on the rise. One in 10 people do not have enough food to eat. After decades of progress in the global battle with hunger we are now heading rapidly in the wrong direction. Every minute 11 people die of hunger related causes — more than the number being killed by COVID-19 — although the impact of the pandemic is certainly one of the drivers of increased hunger, along with conflict, climate change and — underlying all of it — worsening poverty.
There are several myths associated with global hunger: that it is caused by a global food shortage, or it is a direct result of population growth, or, worst of all, that it is inevitable.
In fact, we produce more than enough food in the world for all of us and any scrutiny of the data reveals that hunger rates have actually reduced while populations have grown — and can continue to do so — and certainly the international community saw nothing inevitable about hunger, when in 2015 it proclaimed Zero Hunger as the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to be achieved by 2030.
Sadly, though, the progress report against that particular goal makes for very depressing reading — as does the report on the first one — No Poverty. The two are intrinsically linked.
People don’t have enough food to eat, because they cannot afford to buy it (even during famines, people with money don’t starve). While many of the “new hungry” are to be found in conflicts (such as in Ethiopia today, where hunger is being used blatantly as a weapon of war) most people experiencing hunger are not caught up in a recognized humanitarian crisis.
They are much more likely to be a child such as Edward, in a quiet village, consistently eating less than they need to grow healthily.
Thus, their physical and cognitive development is irreversibly impaired. More than one-in-five children in the world are stunted (meaning they have irreversibly shortened stature because they are under nourished).
Exclusion from education is depriving millions of the chance to fulfil their potential and become people who can support themselves and their families. Chronic poverty becomes inescapable and thus hunger becomes the cause of hunger in the next generation and beyond.
But this is a vicious cycle that can be broken. The words that Edward spoke to me in 2002 inspired a new grassroots movement called Mary’s Meals, which works with local communities to serve one daily meal in a place of education.
Today, more than two million children, across 19 of the world’s poorest countries eat meals served by local volunteers and consisting of locally grown food. These meals meet the immediate need of the hungry child, and at the same time draw them into the classroom where they gain an education that can set them, and their future children, free.
The causes of hunger and poverty are complex, but that doesn’t mean a simple intervention cannot have an enormous impact. It would be perfectly possible for the international community to commit to every child in this world receiving one daily meal in their place of education. It would be an achievable, cost-effective game changer and make an enormous contribution to the realization of those laudable but currently out of reach SDGs.
COVID-19 might continue to affect everyone and everything in this world, but in the all hands-on deck response to that, we see what can be achieved by collective will, sharp focus, international collaboration and meaningful investment.
The resultant rapid development of vaccines will surely in time defeat this virus. Why would we not take the same approach and apply the same sense of urgency to that much more ancient enemy of humankind — hunger? After all, I think we already know the cure — the one articulated by Edward and 100 million other children if we would listen to their voices.