Empowering Communities, Restoring Hope

Hunger and malnutrition: Public Health Enemy # 1
Nearly one in seven people, more than 800 million in total, do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life, making hunger and malnutrition the number one health risk worldwide - greater than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Yet food has never been more abundant. So why are more than 800 million people going hungry?

Natural disasters such as floods, tropical storms, and long periods of drought are on the increase - with calamitous consequences for food security in poor, developing countries.

Drought is now the single most common cause of food shortages in the world. Recurrent droughts have caused crop failures and heavy livestock losses in parts of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Niger and Mali.

War is also a factor. Since 1992, the proportion of short- and long-term food crises attributable to human causes more than doubled, rising from 15 percent to more than 35 percent. From Asia to Africa to Latin America, conflict displaces millions of people from their homes, leading to some of the world's worst hunger emergencies. In 2004, escalating conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan uprooted more than a million people, precipitating a major food crisis in an area that had generally enjoyed good rains and crops.

What does it mean to be food secure?
A person, household, community, or country is food secure when all its members have access to the quality and quantity of food needed to live a healthy active life (approximately 2,100 calories) each and every day.

Acute hunger or starvation is often the result of crises such as war or natural disasters: Hungry mothers too weak to breastfeed their children in drought-hit Ethiopia; emaciated children too weak to stand in Kenya; flood victims marooned in Bangladesh or Cambodia. But emergencies account for just eight percent of hunger's victims.

What are the results of chronic hunger?
Undernourishment or malnutrition is a less visible form of hunger - but it affects many more people. More than 800 million people around the world subsist for weeks, even months, on fewer than the 2,100 calories per day recommended to sustain normal activity.

The human body compensates for a lack of fuel by slowing down its physical and mental activities. A hungry mind cannot concentrate; a hungry body does not take initiative; a hungry child loses all desire to play or study. Hunger also weakens the immune system. Deprived of the right nutrition, hungry children are especially vulnerable: They become too weak to fight off disease and often die from common infections such as measles and diarrhea.

The hunger/nutrition consequences of a disaster are more severe when there is already a chronic undernourishment problem. The people who are hungry in normal times - children, women, the ill and weak - are especially vulnerable during food crises.

What are the consequences of a food emergency?
A food emergency may result in increased illness, especially among children and the elderly and progress into malnutrition and death. Food shortages often cause mass migration into areas where there is potential food, such as large cities - which may not have the resources to accommodate a large influx of fragile men, women and children.

How do we help people facing a food emergency?
The best way to treat hunger or malnutrition is to distribute enough food of the appropriate quality and form for the suffering population. Often, attention to health, water and sanitation is also necessary.

How do we help communities recover?
A community that has lost its food security needs a way to restart food production or gain a livelihood. In conflict areas, resettlement and security issues must be addressed. Assistance in the form of food, cash, seeds and tools may be needed, as well as livelihood interventions such as animal restocking or environmental improvements such as tree planting to protect the soil, crop diversification, and community gardens.

What long-term interventions are effective?
The distribution of seeds and tools provides the foundation for food security. Activities are designed to make a visible impact by addressing three essential goals:

1. Availability: Teaching improved agricultural practices or market gardening using local, low-maintenance materials.
2. Accessibility: Putting food within physical or financial reach of communities by rehabilitating farm-to-market roads or establishing income-generating activities (e.g., cash for work, credit, or petty trade, etc.).
3. Utilization: Increasing communities' knowledge of good nutritional practices by educating pregnant women, mothers and other caregivers.