Hunger & Poverty Traps
Image by World Ark
During the second half of the '90s, the number of people suffering from “chronic extreme hunger” jumped by 18 million, which means that a total of 842 million people in developing and transition countries are severely undernourished.
A common misconception regarding world hunger is that we don’t have enough food for the teeming masses. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 2,807 food calories per capita were produced worldwide in 2001—far more than what everyone needs to be well-nourished.
In “Poverty: Why the Poor Stay Poor,” published in the July/August 2006 issue of World Ark, Stephen C. Smith, an economics and international affairs professor, says the answer isn’t “to ship more food, except as an emergency response to families and food crises.”
Instead, we must work to help improve agricultural productivity—especially among poor farmers in Africa. And, as a priority, we must work harder for increased income for the poor and for local food entitlements as a safety net among the rural and urban poor. This includes supporting proven programs such as nutritional supplements for mothers and infants, as well as compensation in food or in cash for impoverished parents who must forgo income to send their children to school.
Despite the manifold traps of poverty, whether due to illiteracy, debt bondage, undernutrition, or a lack of skills, experts like Smith believe that ending hunger and poverty within our lifetime is a real possibility, but we lack the political will. “The fact that ending global poverty is possible but not inevitable gives us a moral imperative for action,” he says.
Even if that action is as simple as insisting on a cup of fair-trade coffee. Unfortunately, there is no salvo for human indifference.
You can read the rest of the article here (PDF).
Related articles:
1. Mapping Poverty
2. Still Hungry
Further resources:
1. Global Giving
2. Heifer International
3. Kiva: Loans that change lives
4. Transfair USA
Scott Hughes said,
February 3, 2007 at 8:48 pm
The numbers of people affected by extreme poverty is so sad and scary. We all need to come together and put an end to world hunger, poverty, and homelessness!