New world hunger figures 'a shameful blot'

ActionAid UK

Newshook: Rome June 19 2009: FAO figures released today show the number of hungry has risen by 100 million since 2008, with more than one billion now going hungry.

New Hunger Figures Equivalent to Italy and Canad Going Chronically Hungry

G8 inaction is contributing to hunger spiralling out of control with more than the equivalent of Italy and Canada being added to the numbers of hungry today, says ActionAid in response to the FAO’s latest hunger report. (Friday 19 June)

Unless G8 leaders put more money on the table the situation could worsen in just the same way over the next six months, adding the equivalent of the UK, Greece, Belgium, Portugal and Ireland to the number of hungry.

“This a shameful blot on the G8’s record but it also means millions of unnecessary child deaths as well as reduced productivity as people become too weak to earn a living,” said Otive Igbuzor, Head of Campaigns at ActionAid, speaking from Nigeria.

“With 100 million more people pushed into hunger since 2008, the G8 must concentrate on ensuring a funded global food plan,” he added.

”G8 leaders need to address the effect of the financial crisis and act now to prevent more people falling into hunger,” said Igbuzor. “This means urgent social protection for people living in hunger and massive investment in smallholder agriculture to improve food security”.

So far, the G8 has delivered little of the $10 billion pledged in 2008 to tackle the food crisis, with most of this arriving in short-term aid rather than long term investment needed to re-vitalise agriculture.

Smallholder farmers are among those struggling the most, due to ongoing problems such as agro fuels, climate change and land grabs.

Many are also affected by the continued rise of local staple food prices in developing countries, even though global food prices have fallen from their 2008 highs.

Ban Van Tuan, 28, from Hoa Binh province in Vietnam grows corn and rice on a small piece of land but production is too meager to meet the levels required to feed himself, his wife and two daughters. He cannot afford to buy staple crops at his local market.

“We have learnt to live without meat, oil and other necessary items. My family believes that they can never come out of poverty,” he says.

Tuan and his family collect herbs and trunks from trees, selling them to make money. He fears his daughters will be forced to drop out of school as he cannot afford to cover their food expenses.

ENDS

ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency working in over 40 countries, taking sides with poor people to end poverty and injustice together.

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