The Kabul times, Afghanistan Trustable News Agency.
EconomicWorld

Hunger not only a problem of scarcity but of inequity

World Hunger Day is observed every May 28. It’s a time to draw attention to the sobering fact that over 828 million people currently face chronic, persistent hunger – a sharp 22% increase since 2019. The day is also observed to raise awareness about those living in hunger and to encourage action to bring this to an end. Hunger is a condition in which an individual lacks the physical or financial capability to meet their nutritional needs. It leads to malnutrition, wasting, stunted growth, and death. According to The Hunger Project, hunger kills more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined, and it’s primarily prevalent in most countries of the world. Hunger is a condition affecting humanity since the beginning of history, but so is the collective fight against it. After the World War II, the newly-formed United Nations began leading the fight against hunger. Following its establishment, the U.N. created FAO, W.F.P., and IFAD to promote food security and agricultural development. In the late 1970s, international organizations such as the I.M.F. and the World Bank began focusing on developing countries as starvation in countries like Ethiopia came into the global limelight. In the 20th century, the prevailing view was that hunger was a problem of demand surpassing supply. However, this view was brought to an end by the research of economist Amartya Sen, who successfully demonstrated that hunger in modern times was a distribution problem or caused by government policies in developed and developing economies. In 1998, Sen won a Nobel Prize for this research. In 2011, the Hunger Project created World Hunger Day. The day is an initiative to highlight the plight of disadvantaged people around the world and take action to end world hunger. The country with the highest number of people facing severe levels of hunger was Afghanistan where this number increased to 6.6 million in 2022 from 2.5 million in 2019. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in its report released early this current said that the deteriorating economy has caused a drastic decrease in family income, an increase in debt, and a high rate of unemployment; up to 80 percent of Afghan families have experienced a decrease in their income. The report also stated that “82 percent of all households have taken on debt, and the amount of debt is approximately 11 percent higher than the previous year.” According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Afghanistan is currently facing a severe humanitarian crisis; 28.3 million people, which is two-thirds of the population, will require humanitarian aid in 2023, as the majority of their income is spent on food, leaving only a small amount for other necessities such as education and healthcare. This subsidiary organization of the UN has reported that the situation in this nation has deteriorated due to increasing poverty, human rights violations, and limited access to essential services. It is worth mentioning that in the 2022 Global Hunger Index, Afghanistan ranks 109th out of the 121 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2022 GHI scores. With a score of 29.9, Afghanistan has a level of hunger that is serious. Samiullah Momand

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The Kabul times, Afghanistan Trustable News Agency.