Hunger &  Food

At a recent Development Assistance Committee meeting in Paris, I sat through two plenary sessions on “rewiring aid.” Not once was there a reference to how effectively aid actually reaches the grassroots, where hunger takes its toll. Two round table discussions followed. Same result. I raised a simple point: while the room debated shifting aid priorities to suit the geopolitical interests of the North, 35,000 to 40,000 people were dying of starvation that day, and every day. I

STARVATION IS INCREASING IN THE WORLD’S POOREST COUNTRIES, MOST OF THEM IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

On average, 125 people a day die in the USA as a result of gun shootings, the majority (about 60%) being suicides. That's 46,000 deaths a year. Another 40,000 a year die in US road accidents. In the UK, every two days a woman is murdered, most likely by someone she knows. But, apart from those directly affected, no one seems to take much notice. It's the same with starvation, which worldwide kills more than 30,000 people, each and every day. The news media don't report it bec

Different people will have different ideas as to why there is so much starvation across the only part of the world where there is – in theory – space for expansion of food, not just for local people but for the entire planet. Unless we look at the challenges from the very base, from the point of view of the farmer, we will never be able to help them escape their several predicaments. Production of food has fallen over the last few decades because of rapid climate change. The

Behind everyday food and commodity markets lie unequal relationships between producers, traders and consumers. The true cost is often carried by producers and communities with the least bargaining power.

Climate pressure, soil exhaustion, water scarcity and unequal markets are reshaping food production. The future depends on practical choices made with farmers, not for them.

Drought is not only a natural disaster. Its effects are shaped by weak infrastructure, fragile livelihoods and policies that leave farmers without the means to adapt.

Smallholder farmers produce much of Africa’s food, yet they remain among those most exposed to hunger, unstable markets and weak agricultural investment. What would development look like if it began with them?