An estimated 42.3 million people across 45 countries will be in Emergency or worst levels of acute food insecurity in 2024.
As the global community marks the 2024 World Hunger Day, International organizations have said without urgent life-saving actions, these populations will be at risk of falling into catastrophe or famine conditions.
A recent report show that World hunger has been a prevailing issue worldwide as women, children all over the world and vulnerable aged persons are facing malnutrition due to war, famine, climate change among others, with over 1 billion adolescent girls and women globally suffer from malnutrition.
The records further present that the effects are passed down from mother to child as malnourished mothers give birth to malnourished babies. These children suffer irreversible impacts on their brain development and futures.
In Africa alone, about 55 million people in the West and Central African regions will struggle to feed themselves in the June-August 2024 harvest season.
This figure represents a four-million increase in the number of people who are food-insecure, compared to the November 2023 forecast, and highlights a fourfold increase over the last five years.
Presently, malnutrition in the region is alarmingly high, with 16.7 million children under five years age, acutely malnourished and more than 2 out of 3 households unable to afford healthy diets. In addition, 8 out of 10 children aged 6 – 23 months do not consume the minimum number of foods required for optimal growth and development.
This is according to a 2024 Food Security analysis released by the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS).
The situation is particularly worrying in conflict-affected northern Mali, where an estimated 2,600 people are likely to experience catastrophic hunger (IPC/CH phase 5). The latest data also reveals a significant shift in the factors driving food insecurity in the region, beyond recurring conflicts.
Economic challenges such as currency devaluations, soaring inflation, stagnating production, and trade barriers have worsened the food crisis, affecting ordinary people across the region with Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Mali being among the worst hit.
Prices of major staple grains continue to rise across the region from 10 percent to more than 100 percent compared to the five-year average, driven by currency inflation, fuel and transport costs, ECOWAS sanctions, and restrictions on agro-pastoral product flows.
West and Central Africa which remain heavily dependent on imports to meet the population’s food needs, still grapple with continued rise of import bills due to currency depreciation and high inflation, even as countries struggle with major fiscal constraints and macroeconomic challenges.
Cereal production for the 2023-2024 agricultural season shows a deficit of 12 million tons, while the per capita availability of cereals is down by two percent, compared to the last agricultural season.
Speaking on the situation and what needs to be done to address the problem, the World Food Programme, said “The time to act is now. WFP advocates the need for all partners to step up, engage, adopt and implement innovative programs to prevent the situation from getting out of control, while ensuring no one is left behind,” insisting on the “need to invest more in resilience-building and longer-term solutions for the future of West Africa.”
According to them, high food prices, limited healthcare access, and inadequate diets primarily, drive acute malnutrition in children under 5, adolescents, and pregnant women. In parts of northern Nigeria, the prevalence of acute malnutrition in women aged 15-49 years is as high as 31 percent.
On the other hand, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said “For children in the region to reach their full potential, there’s the need to ensure that each girl and boy receives good nutrition and care, lives in a healthy and safe environment, and is given the right learning opportunities,”.
Also, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is said to “respond to the unprecedented food and nutrition insecurity, it is important to mobilize for the promotion and support of policies that can encourage the diversification of plant, animal, and aquatic production and the processing of local foods. Adding that this is crucial not only to ensure healthy, affordable diets all year round, but also to protect biodiversity, with the potential to mitigate the effects of climate change, and above all to counter high food prices and protect the livelihood of the affected population.”
In response to increasingly growing needs, FAO, UNICEF, and WFP call on national governments, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector to implement sustainable solutions that bolster food security, enhance agricultural productivity, and mitigate the adverse effects of economic volatility. They insist, Governments and the private sector need to collaborate to ensure that the fundamental human right to food is upheld for all.
World Hunger Day is observed on May 28 every year, the day is dedicated to raising global awareness on world hunger crisis and malnutrition, it is a day to promote sustainable food systems and practices to help reduce hunger in the world.
The theme for the 2024 World Hunger Day is – ‘Thriving mothers. Thriving world.’
(Editor: Ken Eseni)
