Countries experiencing the worst hunger crisis received less hunger funding
Photo: iStock Only 47 per cent of hunger funding needs have been met globally, according to a new report.
Countries experiencing the worst hunger crisis received less hunger funding (by the percentage of appeals filed) than countries with lower rates of hunger, the report by Action Against Hunger, a global humanitarian organisation, showed.
Moreover, the number of people facing a hunger crisis rose 18 per cent, far faster than funding, according to 2023 Hunger Funding Gap Report: What's Needed to Stop the Global Hunger Crisis.
While overall funding rose slightly in 2022, support was spread even thinner as needs grew. In 2022, only 3 per cent of hunger programme needs were fully funded and the majority or 65 per cent of appeals were not even fulfilled to the halfway point.
In 2021, 7 per cent of hunger programmes were fully funded and 57 per cent of appeals were not funded even halfway.
Around 828 million people — one in 10 worldwide — are undernourished and as many as 50 million people in 45 countries are on the verge of famine, the report stated.
The humanitarian organisation identified 13 countries — Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan — that experienced crisis levels of hunger or worse in 2021. It analysed how much funding the countries subsequently received, both for ongoing and emergency hunger-related programmes in 2022.
Due to the underlying sociopolitical crises, a large portion of the population of the Central African Republic continues to face a humanitarian crisis with severe humanitarian needs, particularly in areas outside of urban centers. As many as 3.4 million people or 56 per cent of the population, will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2023, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Millions of Congolese face severe food insecurity, particularly in the northeast, where fighting has uprooted millions of people.
Africa is the only continent where the number of hungry people will increase, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 released July 6, 2022. Some 310.7 million (46 per cent) of the 669.1 million undernourished people worldwide in 2030 will be in Africa.
The world already has enough resources to meet the UN Global Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030. It would take $4 billion to fully fund the hunger-related appeals of the 13 countries covered in this report.
Donor countries must prioritise funding for hunger programmes and other countries must realise an obligation to give, according to the authors of this report. To fully close the gap, individuals, philanthropic foundations and the private sector also would need to step up, and the donor community would need to balance immediate humanitarian support with reliable funds for long-term development needs, the report said.
The report is the result of Action Against Hunger’s analysis of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Humanitarian Response Plan funding data, as well as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Population Tracking Tool.
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