Global Finance Crisis Increases Global Hunger

Meeting the Millennium Development Goal of Reducing Hunger is Hard

Feb 14, 2009 Christine Welter

The sudden increase of food prices in 2008 had a devastating effect on the world's poor. 150 million people were added to the list of chronically hungry people in 2008.

923 million people across the world are hungry. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that progress made towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals has been reversed. The proportion of hungry people in the developing world is increasing, and meeting the internationally agreed hunger reduction goals by 2015 seems an enormous challenge.

Why are Food Prices Rising?

UN Assistant Secretary General John M. Powell named the four main causes for high and volatile food prices around the world at his recent visit in Yemen as he promised emergency food aid to the impoverished country (Yemen Times, 2/12/09).

Causes for higher prices:

the increase of the cost of fuel and fertilizers
natural disasters (drought in Australia) and humanitarian crises (Somalia, Kenya, Gaza)
an increase in demand for food staples from China and India
the fluctuation in the price of oil

On a regional level Yemen is a good example how volatile oil prices and higher food prices effect the poor. The country is often overlooked since it borders the much richer Saudi Arabia.

Declining Oil Revenues and Rising Food Prices in Yemen

There were flash floods in southern Yemen last year that killed hundreds and displaced thousands of people. A constant influx of refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia arrived by boats on Yemen's southern shore. Mohammed al-Maitami, head of the Federation of Yemen Chambers of Commerce, estimates that the number of people under the poverty line has increased to 55 percent of the population, up from just 40 percent a few years ago. One in three Yemenis now suffers from chronic hunger.

Until the 1960s Yemen could feed its people, with millennia-old terraced farms working off wells and rainwater, often channeled through aqueducts. Since then the population has increased more than fivefold, and the country has changed into a food-importing country. It now imports 90 percent of its wheat and all its rice. The oil sector provides 90 percent of Yemen's export earnings and 75 percent of government revenue. As oil exports fall, the revenue to import food is shrinking. Yemen is threatened with a major food crisis that could destabilize the country.

Hunger and Poverty Breed War

As food prices have risen, people are having trouble feeding themselves even in the Wadi Dhahr region with its rich farms and orchards in the mountains near the capital San'a. People make unfortunate choices pulling their children out of school because they simply can't afford it. Also, the majority of Yemenis live in remote rural villages and it is difficult to get emergency food aid to them.

Al-Maitami warned that al-Qaida and other extremist groups are gaining supporters among the poor.

"It is to some extent frightening, Yemen is a very poor country," he said. "I think the economic situation is breeding the severe political situation."(Yemen Times, 2/12/09)

Emergency Aid and Long-Term Goals

To break the hunger-poverty trap emergency aid is needed since the first priority is always to save lives. But it is equally important to create opportunities for the hungry to improve their livelihoods by promoting agriculture and rural development. Mohammed al-Maitami insists that Yemen can only improve its situation if it adopts a long-term plan and helps small producers to raise their production.

On January 30, 2009 WFP delivered 24 million dollars of emergency food aid to Yemen. It will be distributed to all pregnant and lactating women and their children under two years of age. The WFP has a long history of cooperating with Yemen's Ministry of Public Health to promote girls' access to education and reduce malnutrition. One of the most powerful incentives to get children to school is a meal at school. Since the introduction of school feeding in Yemen in various locations the increase and continued participation of girls has increased 40-50 percent (John M.Powell, WFP).

Food is a Human Right

Global poverty is at the root of global security: extreme poverty breeds war, terrorism and failed states. Food is a human right and governments have a responsibility to see that their people are well fed. Hunger reduction should be a top development priority. But no nation can do it alone. It is more important than ever to work together with others through the United Nations. We can't afford to ignore a billion starving human beings.

Read more about World Hunger in "Every Six Seconds a Child Dies of Hunger".

Give free rice to hungry people by playing a simple game that increases your knowledge.

Go to Free Rice to support the UN World Food Program.

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