As global leaders gather at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s government hopes the launch of its Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty will become the hallmark of its G20 presidency.
Championed by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the alliance that launched last week has so far drawn 81 participating members pledging to lift 500 million people out of poverty and hopes to reach its target of 100 countries in the coming months.
The initiative aims to provide technical support and funding initiatives to combat hunger, including support for healthy school meals, which boosts school attendance, cash transfers and support to small-scale farmers.
The initiative brings together developed nations, financial institutions and non-profit organisations, like the Rockefeller Foundation, to donate money and expertise to countries in need.
The Inter-American Development Bank has said it will provide up to US$25 billion in financing to support the alliance, of which 50 per cent should be allocated to those most affected by hunger and poverty, such as women and Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.
Since taking over the presidency of the world’s 20 biggest economies in 2023, Brazil has made fighting hunger, poverty and inequality priorities, as well as sustainable development, climate change and reforming multilateral governance.
Global hunger has worsened dramatically since the Covid-19 outbreak began in December 2019, especially in Africa, and has not since recovered to pre-Covid-19 levels.
Economic downturns, high food prices, climate-change driven extreme weather and conflicts keep global levels of hunger high.
Since Covid-19 began, the number of undernourished people has risen from 581 million to 757 million in 2023, accounting for about 9 per cent of the world’s population.
The UN has warned that the goal of ending global hunger by 2030 looks increasingly impossible to achieve.
In Africa, food insecurity - or when a person lacks regular access to enough nutritious food for an active and healthy life - has not recovered from pre-Covid 19 levels and has continued to rise.
Food insecurity now affects 58 per cent of Africa’s population, the highest share in the world, up from 51 per cent in 2019.
Food insecurity has also been growing in North America and Europe since the pandemic, and in 2023 affected 8.7 per cent of the combined populations there. But that is still the lowest level across all regions.
Highly unequal countries are more affected by hunger, while economic downturns, conflict and climate extremes drive hunger levels further, with several countries facing more than one of these factors at once, according to the FAO.
Hunger is exacerbated by rising world food prices. In October, food prices reached an 18-month high as vegetable oils led increases seen in most food staples, according to UN data.
Globally, the biggest driver of hunger is the fallout of economic downturns, followed by conflict and climate extremes.
From 2019 to 2023, the percentage of the global population facing hunger in countries experiencing economic slowdowns rose from 15 per cent to 18 per cent.
Scientists say climate change is making extreme events, such as floods, droughts and wildfires more frequent, which in turn push hunger rates higher.
The percentage of the world’s population facing hunger in countries affected by climate extremes has increased from 14.5 per cent to 16 per cent.
Currently, southern Africa is facing unprecedented drought, leading crops to fail and livestock to die, spurring the worst food crisis in decades.
Last month, a record five countries in Africa - Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe - declared a state of disaster and called for international humanitarian support, according to the UN World Food Programme.
In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, the country is grappling with its worst inflation on record amid sweeping economic reforms that have sent food prices soaring.
Severe floods have also contributed to rising food prices in Nigeria, leading millions to go hungry in the country.
The situation is made worse by mass kidnappings for ransom in the northwest of the country and conflict between farmers and pastoralists in the central belt, the nation’s bread basket, which have squeezed food supplies.
Conflicts are fueling hunger also outside of Africa.
Last week, the independent Famine Review Committee said that there is a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of the northern Gaza Strip, as Israel pursues a military offensive there.
This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit https://www.context.news/.
