Biggest increase in hunger in decades

Jo-Maré Duddy – More than three out of every ten Namibians last year suffered severe food insecurity due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing recession.According to the United Nations’ (UN) latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, released this week, about 800 000 Namibians were exposed to severe food insecurity between 2018 and 2020. Compared to 2014 to 2016, this is an increase of about 14% or 100 000 more people.The World Bank classifies a household as severely food insecure when at least one adult in the household, at times, has to reduce the quantity of food, skip meals, go hungry or go without eating whole day because of lack of money or other resources.The UN estimates Namibia’s total population in 2020 at around 2.54 million. As such, the latest number of severe food insecure people represents nearly 32% of the entire population. Between 2014 and 2016, the figure was nearly 29%.In addition, 600 000 Namibians or nearly 24% of the population suffered moderate food insecurity between 2018 and 2020. Between 2014 and 2016, the figure was 500 000 or around 22% of the population.Half a million Namibians were undernourished between 2018 and 2020, compared to 400 000 between 2014 and 2016. That is 19.8% and 18.2% of the population respectively.UNPRECEDENTEDAccording to the latest UN report, the Covid-19 pandemic caused an estimated 18% increase in the number of people facing hunger, dealing a massive setback to efforts to ensure everyone has access to food, AFP reported.The world was already off track to achieve its goal of eradicating hunger by 2030, but the report warned that Covid had now sent it back in the wrong direction.The "economic downturns as a consequence of Covid-19 containment measures all over the world have contributed to one of the largest increases in world hunger in decades," said the UN.Although the full impact of the pandemic cannot yet be determined, the report estimated around 118 million more people faced hunger in 2020 than in 2019. The rise in moderate or severe food insecurity was equal to the previous five years combined."Nearly one in three people in the world (2.37 billion) did not have access to adequate food in 2020 - an increase of almost 320 million people in just one year," the report said.One in 10 people were undernourished.WIDESPREADThe increase in hunger was widespread as the economic downturn affected almost all low- and middle-income countries.But the biggest impact was in countries where there were also climate-related disasters or conflict, or both.More than half of the people who were malnourished lived in Asia (418 million), more than one third in Africa (282 million) and eight percent or 60 million in Latin America, the report said.In some countries, "in particular the poorest," measures to fight the pandemic hampered circulation and prevented subsistance farmers from selling produce on local markets, noted Dominique Burgeon, a director of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the UN.Meanwhile in cities, "there were problems with supply, which meant that prices rose," he said in comments to AFP.According to the report: "The Covid-19 pandemic is just the tip of the iceberg.VULNERABILITIES"More alarmingly, the pandemic has exposed the vulnerabilities forming in our food systems over recent years as a result of major drivers such as conflict, climate variability and extremes, and economic slowdowns and downturns."The UN agencies said there is a unique opportunity to reverse the dynamic this year however, thanks to two major food and nutrition summits plus the COP26 meeting on climate change."In a world of plenty, we have no excuse for billions of people to lack access to a healthy diet. This is unacceptable," UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said in a statement."We are running out of time to make the urgent shifts we need to limit global temperature rise," he added. "This is why I'm convening a global Food Systems Summit this September. We must come together to urgently make a change." – Additional reporting by Nampa/AFP

Biggest increase in hunger in decades

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