BY DR.CHINMAYA DASH
From India
ABOUT 350 million people around the world are experiencing the most extreme form of hunger right now.
Men, women, and children are suffering from die effects of severe hunger. Malnourished mothers give birth to Malnourished babies passing hunger from one generation to the next. Farmers are unable to produce enough food to meet the needs of the community. People from rural and urban are forced to leave their homes in search of food materials.
The combined efforts of Conflicts, Climate Crisis, Rising costs of food materials and Economic shock are the driving forces of global food crisis. As many as 828 million people are not sure of where from their next meal will come.
2023 is another year of extreme jeopardy for those struggling to feed their families. The scale of the current global hunger and malnutrition crisis is enormous with more than 350 million people facing high levels of food insecurity which is more than double the number in 2020.
Countries like Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, Kenya,Haiti are fighting to survive in catastrophic hunger. This is about ten times more than five years ago.
Conflict is still the biggest driver of hunger with 70 percent of the world's hungry people living in areas afflicted by war and violence. Events in Ukraine are further proof of how conflict feeds hunger forcing people out of their homes, wiping out their sources of income.
The climate crisis is one of the leading causes of the steep rise in global hunger. Climate shocks destroy lives, crops, livelihoods and undermine people’s ability to feed themselves.
An immediate response is needed to meet the situation. The global community must not fail on its promise to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Hunger will go out of control if the world fails to take immediate climate action.
But it is not sufficient to only keep people alive. We need to go further and this can only be achieved by addressing the underlying causes of hunger.
We have a choice to act now and save all those precious lives.Had there been a Federal Supreme Global Government in this world, it could have efficiently managed the global food crisis. Global Peace Foundation appeals all the global political leaders to discuss about formation of Global Government which can efficiently deal with all the critical global issues.
Dr Raj Kishore Panda,
Chairman, Global Peace Foundation