| Published on: | 2011-02-16 17:17:11 |
For the last six months, rising food prices have driven an estimated 44 million people into poverty in developing countries in what is the highest increase since 2008.
This data was published today by the World Bank, a source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world.
According to the report, the World Bank’s food price index increased by 15% between October 2010 and January 2011 and is only 3% below its 2008 peak. Since last June, there has been sharp increases in the global prices of wheat, maize, sugar and edible oils, with a relatively smaller increase in rice prices. The prices of other food items essential for a healthy diet in many countries have also increased, such as vegetables in India and China, and beans in some African countries.
The global food price increase has affected local prices in many countries, “particularly countries with a high share of food imports and limited fiscal space, as well as increases in poverty”, reports the study.
“Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world,” said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick. “The price hike is already pushing millions of people into poverty, and putting stress on the most vulnerable, who spend more than half of their income on food.”
As the research explains, since June 2010, there has been an increase in the number of people living in poverty in low and middle income households; the figure now stands at 44 million.
However, the truth is that hunger and poverty has been an everyday problem in many countries for a long time.
“According the the UN reports, over the last few years, there has been about 1 billion people living on less than 1.25$ per day,” said Tim Holder, Country Director UK for the global NGO The Hunger Project, who spoke exclusively to The Fresh Outlook.
Mr Holder highlights that over 20,000 people die every day due to hunger, but claims that “the world tends to see this in the crisis periods, when it comes with an extreme issue”. He explains that only a 10% of these deaths occur as a result of a big events, normally as a consequence of weather disasters, for example. The other 90% of people are still dying every day but it goes unnoticed by both the media and the people.
Help them to help themselves
“The food crisis is a result of the world's attitude,” says Mr Holder. “If politicians work together, these people would be less vulnerable.” World Bank Group are working towards this as its study has been released ahead of the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Paris.
For Mr Holder, however, the way to solve this problem is to give these people the tools they need in order to make them less vulnerable and dependent: “From The Hunger Project we concentrate on 20.000 villages across 12 countries in Africa, India, Bangladesh and South America by helping them to empower themselves.”
Apart from being caused by a lack of knowledge and tools, according to Mr Holder, hunger also derives from other problems such as low levels of health and education.
“The world needs to understand that there is a need for these 5 billion people to help the 1 billion by working in partnership,” he says. In his opinion, instead of perceiving hunger and hungry people as the same problem, we should see hunger as one problem but hungry people as the potential solvers of it. “All energy and efforts must be focused on empowering them by giving them the skills they need to go over their situation,” he stated.
Part of people's passivity towards hunger and poverty is also due to the image spread of “hungry” people: “When people see these skinny children full of flies around their mouth, they perceive hunger as a hopeless problem, the only wish that comes to their mind is to feed them, but that wish is actually impossible.”
Mr Holder wants to demystify this belief: “People that suffer from hunger or poverty are not just dying people, most of them are strong and have potential enough to take advantage of the help we can provide them.”
His key point is that we need to help them to help themselves.
By Eva Fernandez
[Image courtesy of Wikimedia]
This data was published today by the World Bank, a source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world.
According to the report, the World Bank’s food price index increased by 15% between October 2010 and January 2011 and is only 3% below its 2008 peak. Since last June, there has been sharp increases in the global prices of wheat, maize, sugar and edible oils, with a relatively smaller increase in rice prices. The prices of other food items essential for a healthy diet in many countries have also increased, such as vegetables in India and China, and beans in some African countries.
The global food price increase has affected local prices in many countries, “particularly countries with a high share of food imports and limited fiscal space, as well as increases in poverty”, reports the study.
“Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world,” said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick. “The price hike is already pushing millions of people into poverty, and putting stress on the most vulnerable, who spend more than half of their income on food.”
As the research explains, since June 2010, there has been an increase in the number of people living in poverty in low and middle income households; the figure now stands at 44 million.
However, the truth is that hunger and poverty has been an everyday problem in many countries for a long time.
“According the the UN reports, over the last few years, there has been about 1 billion people living on less than 1.25$ per day,” said Tim Holder, Country Director UK for the global NGO The Hunger Project, who spoke exclusively to The Fresh Outlook.
Mr Holder highlights that over 20,000 people die every day due to hunger, but claims that “the world tends to see this in the crisis periods, when it comes with an extreme issue”. He explains that only a 10% of these deaths occur as a result of a big events, normally as a consequence of weather disasters, for example. The other 90% of people are still dying every day but it goes unnoticed by both the media and the people.
Help them to help themselves
“The food crisis is a result of the world's attitude,” says Mr Holder. “If politicians work together, these people would be less vulnerable.” World Bank Group are working towards this as its study has been released ahead of the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Paris.
For Mr Holder, however, the way to solve this problem is to give these people the tools they need in order to make them less vulnerable and dependent: “From The Hunger Project we concentrate on 20.000 villages across 12 countries in Africa, India, Bangladesh and South America by helping them to empower themselves.”
Apart from being caused by a lack of knowledge and tools, according to Mr Holder, hunger also derives from other problems such as low levels of health and education.
“The world needs to understand that there is a need for these 5 billion people to help the 1 billion by working in partnership,” he says. In his opinion, instead of perceiving hunger and hungry people as the same problem, we should see hunger as one problem but hungry people as the potential solvers of it. “All energy and efforts must be focused on empowering them by giving them the skills they need to go over their situation,” he stated.
Part of people's passivity towards hunger and poverty is also due to the image spread of “hungry” people: “When people see these skinny children full of flies around their mouth, they perceive hunger as a hopeless problem, the only wish that comes to their mind is to feed them, but that wish is actually impossible.”
Mr Holder wants to demystify this belief: “People that suffer from hunger or poverty are not just dying people, most of them are strong and have potential enough to take advantage of the help we can provide them.”
His key point is that we need to help them to help themselves.
By Eva Fernandez
[Image courtesy of Wikimedia]
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