Global Hunger problem calls for immediate action

World hunger is an increasingly serious problem that communities all over the world are facing.

The statistics are shocking. One sixth of the world’s population is undernourished. Every day nearly 16,000 children die from hunger. This is one child dying every five seconds in the world.

When you take into consideration the entire global population, it is 805 million people in the world that do not have enough food to stay healthy.

The majority of the world’s hungry are living in developing countries, where 13.5 per cent of the population is malnourished.

Hunger claims many victims but none as vulnerable as children. Children who are not properly nourished can face suffering for up to 160 days of the year. Lack of proper nutritious food is responsible for five million deaths of children every single year.

Not only does hunger mean children can starve, but it also magnifies the effect of every disease, examples include malaria and measles which are common in developing countries.

This is a very serious problem. The problem seems worse when you consider that the world produces enough food to feed everyone. The world agriculture produces 17 per cent more calories per person per day. This would be enough to provide everyone in the world more than enough to sustain a nutritious diet.

Global hunger has many causes. The main one however is poverty. A very unequal income distribution in the world makes the world hunger problem even more harmful. Extreme poverty remains to be a significant problem in the developing countries of the world; it leads them to being more vulnerable to the devastating effects of hunger. 

According to the latest United Nations reports food prices are back on the rise. This is causing an increase in global poverty for the first time in almost two decades.

To combat the problem of world hunger immediate action is needed.