Today, the number of countries reaches 206 with 193 countries that are members of the United Nations and the countries that are not members of the United Nations or internationally recognized.
Taking all those internationally recognized and not recognized countries, the recent population of the world has become around 7 billion. However, about 820 million of the world population struggle with hunger. Unfortunately, the most vulnerable members of the population who die from starvation are kids. About 140 million children under the age of 5 are fighting with hunger, which means that one child dies every 15 seconds because they cannot be adequately fed. Therefore, this post is dedicated to those little angels without wings who have to struggle with the hardships of life starting from their early ages.
Hunger as a world issue…
In the 2019 Global Food Crises Report data, there are high levels of hunger, called acute hunger, in about 53 countries. In the world hunger report; every year more than 100 million people experience acute hunger from various angles in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. The World Food Program (WFP) also draws attention to the ‘Hunger Pandemic’ as the most important issue facing the world. According to WFP, the number of people who will need food in 2020 is expected to double. According to the FAO reports of the food and agriculture organization, the foundation of the United Nations, the number of people who had undernourished diets increased by 11 million compared to the previous year. It is stated that two thirds of people who are starving in the world live in war zones, have high economic problems, are malnourished as a result of climate and natural disasters, and 80 percent of them are children. Excessive weakness due to insufficient nutrition continues to affect more than 50 million 5-year-old children worldwide, and these children are at an increased risk of disease and death. Many countries are trying to combat starvation caused by war and economic poverty. The countries with the highest level of this situation in the report are Djibouti, Eritrea, India, Niger, Papua New Guinea, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Yemen, except for Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, North Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Swatini (formerly Swaziland), Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Iraq, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Uganda and Zimbabwe are listed as countries that need food aid from outside. In addition, the region where extreme weakness is the most common: Africa. 7 out of every 10 children in this continent fight extreme weakness.
How about the solutions?…
There is an incomprehensible helplessness in countries that fight against hunger in the world. Everyone knows hunger, but there is a difference between knowing and living. The fact is that healthy and sustainable food should be accessible to everyone and it is among the most urgent needs of the world. For example, while climate change threatens the quality and quantity of crops, increasing food waste makes it even more difficult to achieve this goal. Another example is that many people in South Asian countries rely on and use bottled water, but these sources are often highly dirty and include microbes. Climate change, healthy food scarcity and many problems are connected to each other like a chain. It even shows two small examples. Each problem is the link of the chain.
At the World Climate Conference held in Paris in 2015, it was aimed to end the hunger problem completely by 2030. However, the latest data published by the United Nations show that the situation is far from this. In another way, economically, according to the World Bank’s statement, 60 million people will become poor. Perhaps all these reports and figures given may not be effective only when they are read, but people anywhere in the world and even children under 5 die because they cannot find food.
Many subsidiaries established in the United Nations for humanitarian aid work on hunger every day. Some of these organizations; UNICEF, UNESCO, WHO (World Health Organization), WSSCC ( Water Supply and Sanitation Cooperation Council), FAO (food and agriculture organization) are subsidiaries founded by United Nations. In addition, there are only non-governmental organizations connected with volunteers like volunteers.org, the promising association, the world humanitarian aid foundation, the German-based Welthungerhilfe (anti-hunger organization). Many studies of these organizations should be given importance. They should be more featured in the press, and more articles should be published about tackling with these problems and the society should be made more conscious. Ignoring it causes problems to grow even more and more every day. Developed countries need to increase development aid. Western countries need to contribute more to combating hunger. In another respect, the cause of acute hunger caused by climate change are industrialized countries responsible for the greenhouse effect. Helping each other by giving money to people in the world does not solve the problem of hunger. Increasing globalization and economy in the world will be one of the biggest solutions. Every year, enough food is produced in the world to feed the whole world population, but more than half of these foods is go to waste due to financial, technical limits and lack of food measures. Every year, enough food is produced in the world for the world’s population, but more than half of these foods is wasted due to financial, technical limits, and lack of food measures. Food laws should be introduced to prevent this. Continuous seminars should be given on important issues related to hunger in the society, climate change, and how wars affect our world, and then us. According to the United Nations FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) report, women’s competence in decisions related to the family economy is an important method of fighting global hunger. In addition, states’ food aid in schools can provide a common solution for millions of children who have both education and hunger problems. The food aid provided should not be just one can of milk, and children should be given enough food for a day. In addition, teachers should be sent to poor countries, these teachers should take seeds with them, and they can educate and start sustainable agriculture there because one of the biggest problems in countries struggling with hunger is seed shortage.
All in all, we all should face the fact that thousands of children are dying and there can be no more serious issue in this world than a starving child!…
Resources:
- The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World http://www.fao.org/publications/sofi/en/
- http://www.fao.org/home/en/
- https://www.afro.who.int
- http://www.fightfoodcrises.net/food-crises-and-covid-19/en/
- https://www.fsinplatform.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/GRFC_2020_ONLINE_200420.pdf
- https://www.unicef.org/child-alert/crisis-central-african-republic
- https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-calls-urgent-protection-children-central-african-republic
- https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/one-year-peace-agreement-millions-children-central-african-republic-remain-risk
- http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1242784/icode/
- http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1180443/icode/
- http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/179303/icode/
- http://www.fao.org/home/search/en/?q=hungery
- https://www.gzt.com/jurnalist/bugun-dunya-gida-gunu-yetersiz-beslenenlerin-sayisi-ise-821-milyon-3458457
Photo Credit:
- [Cover picture]https://www.igbology.net/
- https://www.gzt.com/jurnalist/bugun-dunya-gida-gunu-yetersiz-beslenenlerin-sayisi-ise-821-milyon-3458457
- https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jun/05/nearly-half-of-all-child-deaths-in-africa-stem-from-hunger-study-shows
- https://www.independent.co.ug/400000-children-dr-congo-die-hunger-says-unicef/
- https://images.axios.com/Xo6PMig-GhVKpFZUwUTKU-SOlmw=/1920×1080/smart/2018/01/05/1515110644632.jpg
