The State Of Food Insecurity In The World 2005

The State of
Food Insecurity in the World

2005

Eradicating world hunger –
key to achieving
the Millennium Development Goals

Acknowledgements The following FAO staff provided The key estimates on food consumption
technical contributions: Josef and undernourishment used in The
The State of Food Insecurity in the Schmidhuber, Global Perspective State of Food Insecurity in the World
World 2005 was prepared as a Studies Unit (ES); Jakob Skoet, Office of 2005 were produced by the Basic Food
collaborative effort within FAO led by the the Assistant Director-General (ES); and Agriculture Statistics Service and
Economic and Social Department (ES). Haluk Kasnakoglu, Ricardo Sibrian, the Socio-Economic Statistics and
Amanda Gordon, Cinzia Cerri and Analysis Service of the FAO Statistics
Overall leadership was provided by Seevalingum Ramasawmy, Statistics Division, respectively.
Hartwig de Haen, Assistant Director- Division (ES); Gero Carletto, Marcella
General, ES, assisted by Prakash Shetty, Vigneri and Carlo Azzarri, Agricultural The Publishing Management Service of
Chief of the Nutrition Planning, and Development Economics Division the General Affairs and Information
Assessment and Evaluation Service (ES); Gina Kennedy and Frank Martinez- Department (GI) provided editorial,
(ESNA), who served as chair of the core Nocito, Food and Nutrition Division (ES); language editing, graphic and
technical team. Valuable conceptual and Mark Smulders, FIVIMS Coordination production services. Translations were
editorial assistance was provided by Unit (ES); Alexander Sarris, Henri provided by the Meeting Programming
Andrew Marx. Josserand and Harmon Thomas, and Documentation Service of GI.
Commodities and Trade Division (ES);
Other members of the core technical Marcela Villareal, Gabriel Rugalema and
team in the ES Department were: Yianna Lambrou, Gender and Population
Kostas Stamoulis, Agricultural and Division (Sustainable Development
Development Economics Division; Ali Department [SD]); Lavinia Gasperini,
Arslan Gurkan, Commodities and Trade Mirella Salvatore and Jeff Tschirley,
Division; Jorge Mernies, Statistics Research, Extension and Training
Division. Division (SD).

Published in 2005 by the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy
The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the
expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its
authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
The designations employed and the presentation of material in the maps do not imply the expression
of any opinion whatsoever on the part of FAO concerning the legal or constitutional status of any
country, territory or sea area, or concerning the delimitation of frontiers.
The mention or omission of specific companies, their products or brand names does not imply any
endorsement or judgement by FAO.
All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product for
education or other non-commercial purposes are authorized without any prior written permission from
Copies of FAO publications the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of material in this
can be requested from: information product for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission
of the copyright holders.
SALES AND MARKETING GROUP Applications for such permission should be addressed to the Chief, Publishing Management
Information Division Service, Information Division, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy or by e-mail to
Food and Agriculture Organization of copyright@fao.org.
the United Nations © FAO 2005

E-mail: publications-sales@fao.org ISBN 92-5-105384-7
Fax: (+39) 06 57053360 Printed in Italy
Web site: Photographs
http://www.fao.org/icatalog/inter-e.htm From left to right on cover: FAO/19682/G. Bizzarri; FAO/17617/G. Diana; FAO/22784/G. Diana.

About this report

A
s the international community an essential condition for achieving highlighting ways that hunger
reviews progress towards the the other MDGs. holds back development and hunger
Millennium Development The first section of the report reduction could accelerate
Goals (MDGs) and prepares for the analyses long-term trends in progress.
mid-term review of the World Food reducing undernourishment and Tables (pp. 30–35) provide: FAO’s
Summit (WFS), The State of Food explores the impact of economic latest estimates of undernourishment
Insecurity in the World 2005 focuses growth, governance and natural and of progress towards the WFS
on the critical importance of disasters. and MDG targets for reducing
reducing hunger, both as the explicit The second section examines hunger; and key indicators for the
target of the WFS and MDG 1 and as each of the MDGs separately, other MDGs.

The Millennium Development Goals and links to reducing hunger

MDGs Selected targets Links to reducing hunger

1 Eradicate extreme
poverty and hunger
• Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people
whose income is less than US$1 a day
• Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people
• Hunger perpetuates poverty by
reducing productivity
• Poverty prevents people from producing
who suffer from hunger or acquiring the food they need

2 Achieve universal
primary education
• Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls
alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary
schooling
• Hunger reduces school attendance and
impairs learning capacity
• Lack of education reduces earning
capacity and increases the risk of hunger

3 Promote gender
equality and empower
women
• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary
education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of
education no later than 2015
• Hunger reduces school attendance
more for girls than for boys
• Gender inequality perpetuates the cycle
in which undernourished women give
birth to low-birth weight children

4 Reduce
child mortality
• Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015,
the under-five mortality rate
• More than half of all child deaths are
caused directly or indirectly by hunger
and malnutrition

5 Improve
maternal health
• Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the
maternal mortality ratio
• Undernourishment and micronutrient
deficiencies greatly increase the risk of
maternal death

6 Combat HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other
diseases
• Have halted, by 2015, and begun to reverse the spread of
HIV/AIDS
• Have halted, by 2015, and begun to reverse the incidence
• Hunger spurs risky behaviour that
accelerates the spread of HIV/AIDS
• Undernourished children are more than
of malaria and other major diseases twice as likely to die of malaria

7 Ensure environmental
sustainability
• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into
country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of
environmental resources
• Hunger leads to unsustainable use of
resources
• Restoring and improving ecosystem
• Halve the proportion of people without sustainable functions are key to reducing hunger
access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation among the rural poor

8 Develop a global
partnership
for development
• Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable,
non-discriminatory trading and financial system
• Address the special needs of the least developed countries
• Subsidies and tariffs in developed
countries hamper hunger-reducing
rural and agricultural development
• Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of
developing countries

2 The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005

Contents

Foreword
4 Towards the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goal targets:
food comes first

Undernourishment around the world
6 Counting the hungry: long-term trends in the developing world
8 Economic growth and hunger reduction
10 The role of governance in hunger reduction
12 Hunger hot spots: the complex impact of natural disasters

Towards the Summit commitments
14 Education and undernourishment: the virtuous cycle of feeding bodies and minds
16 Gender equality and the empowerment of women: keys to progress in
reducing poverty and hunger
18 Reducing hunger, saving children’s lives
20 Improving maternal health and breaking the cycle of poverty, hunger and malnutrition
22 Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis: the role of undernutrition
as both symptom and cause
24 Improving environmental sustainability and food security by empowering
the rural poor
26 Increased aid and more equitable trade: keys to forging a global partnership
for development
28 The way ahead: shifting into forward gear on the twin-track approach to the WFS
and MDG goals

30 Tables

36 Sources

The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005 3

Foreword
Towards the World Food Summit and Millennium
Development Goal targets: food comes first

“We pledge our political will and our common and national commitment to achieving food • As the underlying cause of more
security for all and to an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an than half of all child deaths,
immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present hunger and malnutrition are the
level no later than 2015.” (Rome Declaration, 1996) greatest obstacle to reducing
child mortality (MDG 4).
“We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and • Hunger and malnutrition increase
dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty …”. (Millennium Declaration, 2000) both the incidence and the fatality
rate of conditions that cause a
majority of maternal deaths during

O
nly ten years now remain before Food comes first pregnancy and childbirth (MDG 5).
the 2015 deadline by which • Hunger and poverty compromise
world leaders have pledged to As this report documents, hunger and people’s immune systems, force
reduce hunger and extreme poverty by malnutrition are major causes of the them to adopt risky survival
half and to make substantial gains in deprivation and suffering targeted by strategies, and greatly increase
education, health, social equity, all of the other MDGs (see diagram, the risk of infection and death
environmental sustainability and facing page): from HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
international solidarity. Without • Hungry children start school infectious diseases (MDG 6).
stronger commitment and more rapid later, if at all, drop out sooner and • Under the burden of chronic
progress, most of those goals will not learn less while they do attend, poverty and hunger, livestock
be met. stalling progress towards herders, subsistence farmers,
If each of the developing regions universal primary and secondary forest dwellers and fisherfolk may
continues to reduce hunger at the education (MDG 2). use their natural environment in
current pace, only South America • Poor nutrition for women is one of unsustainable ways, leading to
and the Caribbean will reach the the most damaging outcomes of further deterioration of their
Millennium Development Goal (MDG) gender inequality. It undermines livelihood conditions. Empowering
target of cutting the proportion of women’s health, stunts their the poor and hungry as custodians
hungry people by half. None will opportunities for education and of land, waters, forests and
reach the more ambitious World employment and impedes progress biodiversity can advance both food
Food Summit (WFS) goal of halving towards gender equality and security and environmental
the number of hungry people. empowerment of women (MDG 3). sustainability (MDG 7).
Progress towards the other MDG
targets has also lagged, particularly
in the countries and regions where
efforts to reduce hunger have Progress towards the MDG targets by subregion
stalled, as the accompanying graph
clearly illustrates.
Number of MDG targets (out of 20 selected targets)
Most, if not all, of the WFS and 15
MDG targets can still be reached.
On track, low risk Progress lagging, moderate risk
But only if efforts are redoubled and 12
No change or worsening, high risk
refocused. And only by recognizing
and acting on two key points: 9

1. without rapid progress in reducing 6
hunger, achieving all of the other
MDGs will be difficult, if not 3
impossible; and
0
2. the fight to eliminate hunger and North East Southeast Latin Western Oceania SouthSub-
reach the other MDGs will be won Africa Asia Asia America/ Asia Asia
Saharan
Caribbean Africa
or lost in the rural areas where Hunger reduction on track Hunger reduction lagging or worsening
the vast majority of the world’s Source: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
hungry people live.


Giving priority to rural areas
Running in reverse: persistent hunger slows progress towards other
Millennium Development Goals
Given the importance of hunger as a
cause of poverty, illiteracy, disease
and mortality, given the fact that 75
percent of the world’s hungry people
live in rural areas, it is hardly MDG 8
…reduced capacity
surprising that these same rural to access
markets
areas are home to the vast majority and resources…
of the 121 million children who do 2
DG
MDG 7
not attend school, of the nearly …unsustainable …reduced
11 million children who die before use of natural
resources...
M
school attendance,
learning capacity...
reaching the age of five, of the
530 000 women who die during MDG 1
pregnancy and childbirth, of the
300 million cases of acute malaria
and more than 1 million malaria
deaths each year. Clearly, to bring
…risky survival
G6

these numbers down, to reach the strategies, Hunger and malnutrition …less education
MD

MDG targets, priority must be given spread of lead to… and employment
to rural areas and to agriculture as HIV/AIDS,
MD
MDG
for women
malaria, other …poverty and... and girls...
G3
the mainstay of rural livelihoods, diseases...
3
through sustainable and secure
systems of production that provide
employment and income to the poor,
MD

G4
MD

thus improving their access to food. …impaired …weakened
MD

Yet, in recent decades, agriculture maternal immune systems,
G5
G5

and infant rising child
and rural development have lost health... mortality...
ground on the development agenda.
Over the past 20 years, resources for
these sectors have declined by more Source: FAO
than 50 percent. That must change.
And we can be encouraged by signs
that it is indeed changing, that both
national governments and “the global epicenter of extreme mortality, empowers women, lowers
international donors are recognizing poverty is the smallholder farmer”. the incidence and mortality rates of
the critical importance of rural areas If increased recognition leads to HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis,
as the location and agriculture as the scaled-up action, the MDGs can still and helps reverse the degradation of
engine for reaching the MDGs. be reached. soil and water resources, the
After years of dwindling support For far too long, hunger and destruction of forests and the loss of
to agriculture, the countries of the poverty have driven an infernal biodiversity.
African Union have committed engine of deprivation and suffering It can be done.
themselves to increasing the share (see diagram). The time and the
of their national budgets allocated to opportunity have finally come to
agriculture and rural development throw that engine into forward gear
to 10 percent within five years. The – to turn hunger reduction into the
Commission for Africa has driving force for progress and hope,
emphasized that “agriculture is key as improved nutrition fuels better
to Africa”. The United Nations health, increases school attendance, Jacques Diouf
Millennium Project has stated that reduces child and maternal FAO Director-General


Counting the hungry: long-term trends
in the developing world

B
oth the World Food Summit is reduced by half, nearly 600 million the rising trend experienced in the
in 1996 and the Millennium people in the developing world will past decade.
Summit in 2000 set goals for still suffer from chronic hunger. To In sub-Saharan Africa, the
reducing hunger by half between a reach the WFS target of 400 million, prevalence of undernourishment has
baseline period (c. 1990) and the the proportion of the population who been decreasing very slowly,
year 2015. The target date is are undernourished would need to although the speed of progress
drawing near, but the targets be reduced not by half, but by two- improved in the 1990s. The region
themselves are not. thirds. will need to step up the pace
Although significant progress has dramatically to reach the MDG target.
been made towards achieving the Regional-level Progress towards the WFS goal
MDG target of halving the proportion progress uneven has been even slower and more
of the population who are uneven. Global gains in the 1980s
undernourished, the pace will need Among developing regions, only were owed entirely to progress in
to be accelerated if the goal is to be Latin America and the Caribbean Asia. In all other developing regions,
reached by 2015. has been reducing the prevalence of the number of hungry people
Achieving the WFS goal of hunger quickly enough since 1990 to actually increased.
reducing the absolute number of reach the MDG target by maintaining Since the WFS baseline period,
hungry people from about 800 its current pace. The Asia–Pacific progress has slowed significantly in
million to 400 million will prove region also stands a good chance of Asia and stalled completely
more challenging, requiring much reaching the MDG target if it can worldwide. Only Latin America and
more rapid progress (see graphs, accelerate progress slightly over the the Caribbean reversed the negative
below). The world population is next few years. trend of the 1980s to register
expected to grow by approximately In the Near East and North Africa, progress in the 1990s, although
two billion between the baseline on the other hand, the prevalence of sub-Saharan Africa did succeed
period (1990–92) and 2015. So, even hunger is low, but it is increasing, significantly in slowing the rise in
if the proportion of that larger rather than decreasing. To reach the the number of undernourished
population who are undernourished target, the region needs to reverse people.

Long-term trends in the proportion and number of undernourished by region, 1980–82 to 2000–02

Proportion undernourished (%) Number of undernourished (millions)
40 1 000

35
800
30

25
600
20

15 400

10
200
5

0 0
1980–82 1990–92 2000–02 2015 (MDG) 1980–82 1990–92 2000–02 2015 (WFS)
Developing world Sub-Saharan Africa Asia/Pacific Latin America/Caribbean Near East/North Africa
Source: FAO


MDG 1

Country progress towards step up the pace to reach it by 2015. increasing or effectively unchanged
the MDG target 23 countries have seen little change, in the other 12 countries in this
and in 14 countries the prevalence of group, where hunger will remain a
To gauge progress towards hunger has been increasing. major problem even if the goal is
achieving the MDG target at the To put these numbers in reached.
national level, it is useful to look at perspective, it is important to take Most of the countries in all other
the ratio of the prevalence of hunger account of levels of hunger in these groups have succeeded in reducing
in 2000–02 to the prevalence in the countries. If countries are divided hunger, including two-thirds of
baseline period, 1990–92. into groups based on the current countries in the group where
Hunger is not a problem in six prevalence of undernourishment, it between 20 and 34 percent of the
developing countries where fewer becomes apparent that progress has population are undernourished.
than 2.5 percent of the population been most difficult where hunger is None of the countries in this group
are undernourished. Another seven most widespread. has yet reached the target, however.
countries have already effectively Only 4 of the 16 countries where At the other end of the spectrum, 15
reached the MDG target by reducing more than 35 percent of the of the 23 countries where fewer than
the proportion of hungry people in population are undernourished are 10 percent of the population are
their population by at least half. making progress towards achieving undernourished are making
More than 40 other countries are the MDG target. None has yet progress in reducing hunger,
making progress towards achieving reached it. The prevalence of including five countries that have
the target, although many will need to undernourishment is either already reached the MDG target.

Progress and setbacks: ratio of prevalence of undernourishment in 2000–02 to prevalence in 1990–92
Countries grouped by prevalence of undernourishment in 2000–02 (MDG target = 0.5)

≥ 35% undernourished 20–34% undernourished
2.5
Already reached MDG
2
Progressing
1.5 Little change
Worsening
1

0.5

0
Congo

Angola
Haiti
Mozambique
Rwanda
Central African
Rep.
Zimbabwe
Zambia
Yemen
Madagascar
Sierra Leone
United Rep.
of Tanzania
Liberia
Burundi
Dem. People’s
Rep. of Korea
Dem. Rep. of
the Congo

Namibia
Chad
Thailand
Guinea
Malawi

Lao People’s
Dem. Rep.
Pakistan
Bolivia

Sri Lanka
Cameroon
Togo
Sudan
Mongolia
Cambodia
Kenya
Niger
India
Philippines
Dominican
Rep.
Nicaragua
Bangladesh
Honduras
Senegal
Mali
Panama
Gambia
Botswana
Guatemala

10–19% undernourished 5–9% undernourished 2.5–4% undernourished
2.5
2
1.5

1

0.5

0
Ghana
Peru
Viet Nam
Mauritania
China
Lesotho
Benin
Jamaica
Suriname
Colombia
Côte d’Ivoire
Paraguay
Nepal
Uganda
El Salvador
Trinidad and
Tobago
Burkina Faso
Swaziland
Bolivarian Rep.
of Venezuela

Kuwait

Islamic Rep.
Guyana
Myanmar
Gabon
Indonesia
Brazil
Nigeria
Mauritius
Algeria
Mexico
Morocco
Jordan

Cuba
Chile

Ecuador
Uruguay
Costa Rica
Syrian
Arab Rep.
Egypt

Saudi Arabia

of Iran
Lebanon

Turkey

The graph does not include countries where the prevalence of undernourishment is less than 2.5 percent and those for which there are insufficient data,
including Afghanistan, Iraq, Papua New Guinea and Somalia. Ethiopia and Eritrea are not included because they were not separate entities in 1990–92. Source: FAO


Economic growth and hunger reduction

L
ogic suggests, and ample according to progress in reducing economic growth and hunger
evidence confirms, that hunger, no clear pattern emerges reduction are indeed related. If
sustained economic growth (see graph). As might be expected, progress towards the MDG target is
leading to increased productivity and the group of countries where hunger plotted for countries that registered
prosperity at the national level will increased during the 1990s also positive economic growth during
result in reduced hunger (see graph, registered the worst economic both the 1980s and 1990s, the
below). That being the case, it is performance. Far from growing, trendline is clearly steeper,
tempting to conclude that countries their per capita gross domestic indicating a stronger correlation
need only speed up economic growth product (GDP) shrank at an average between the pace of economic
to reach the hunger reduction rate of 1.4 percent per year. Every growth maintained over a longer
targets of the MDGs and the WFS. other group recorded gains. period and the rate of progress in
Cross-country analyses Among these other groups, there reducing hunger.
conducted across the developing is no evident correlation between This trend suggests that sustained
world suggest, however, that the pace of economic growth and the growth may have a cumulative and
economic growth alone, in the rate of progress in reducing hunger. stronger impact on hunger reduction.
absence of specific measures to Paradoxically, the group that made It could also be interpreted as
combat hunger, may leave large the most rapid progress in reducing evidence that the impact of economic
numbers of hungry people behind hunger registered relatively slow growth on hunger only becomes
for a long time, particularly in rural economic growth. evident over time. An FAO study found
areas. These analyses have also Similarly, if changes in GDP for that it takes longer for economic
shown that economic growth has a individual countries during the growth to have an impact on hunger
far greater impact on hunger when it 1990s are plotted against progress reduction than for improved nutrition
occurs in rural areas and in towards the MDG target of reducing to stimulate economic growth.
countries that have already created the proportion of people who suffer Certainly the relationship between
fertile conditions through rural and from hunger by half, the trendline is economic growth and hunger
human resource development. almost flat (see graph). Examining reduction flows in both directions. An
If rates of economic growth are changes over a longer period, examination of the costs of hunger in
compared for countries grouped however, reveals evidence that The State of Food Insecurity in the

GDP in the 1990s and GDP growth in the 1990s
Economic growth and
prevalence of and hunger reduction by
hunger reduction
undernourishment in 2000 quintile

Log of average per capita GDP, 1990s Average growth in per capita GDP (%) Change in undernourishment, 1990s
8.0 2.0 10

7.5 1.5 0
7.0 -10
1.0
6.5
0.5 -20
6.0
-30
0.0 0 1 2 3 4
5.5
Average growth in per capita GDP (%)
5.0 -0.5
Countries’ progress in reducing hunger Countries with growth in 1980s and
0.0 by quintile, 1990–92 to 2000–02 1990s
<5 5–9 10–19 20–35 > 35 Countries with growth only in 1990s
Prevalence of undernourishment Worsening Slow Progressing Fitted for growth in 1980s and 1990s
for country group, 2000 progress rapidly Fitted for growth only in 1990s
Source: FAO; World Bank Source: FAO; World Bank Source: FAO; World Bank


MDG 1

World 2004 concluded that the
Economic growth and the reduction of hunger in Botswana and Peru,
present discounted value of the loss
1990–2000
of productivity over the lifetimes of
people whose physical and cognitive
capacities are impaired by low birth Both Botswana and Peru registered strong the HIV/AIDS pandemic, for example, with
weight, protein-energy malnutrition economic growth during the 1990s. But in more than 35 percent of the adult
and shortages of essential vitamins terms of reducing the prevalence of hunger, population infected. In Peru, the infection
and minerals adds up to 5 to 10 the two countries parted ways. Peru reduced rate is less than 1 percent.
percent of GDP in the developing the prevalence of hunger by almost
world. Another FAO study analysed 70 percent to reach the MDG target 15 years Economic growth and hunger
the relationship between nutrition ahead of schedule. In Botswana, on the other reduction in Botswana and Peru
intake and economic growth in Sri hand, the prevalence of hunger increased
in the 1990s
Lanka. It found that GDP growth even as the national economy surged ahead. Botswana
GDP per capita
responds quickly to improvements in Tellingly, the agricultural GDP in Peru
Agricultural
nutrition, with a 1 percent increase in grew even faster than the rest of the GDP per capita
Proportion
protein intake yielding a 0.49 percent economy, fueled in part by diversification undernourished
increase in GDP in the long run. into value-added, non-traditional exports Peru
that boosted farm incomes and created GDP per capita
The key role of agricultural growth processing jobs. The agricultural GDP in Agricultural
GDP per capita
Botswana fell by almost 40 percent. Proportion
undernourished
Numerous studies have provided Many other factors contributed to the
-60 -40 -20 0 20 40
evidence that the impact of disparity between Botswana and Peru.
Change 1990–2000 (%)
economic growth on reducing Botswana has been hit extremely hard by
Source: FAO; World Bank
hunger and poverty depends as
much on the nature of the growth as
on its scale and speed. A World
Bank analysis of data from India, for areas and in the agriculture sector when the national GDP took off and
example, found that growth in rural had a much greater impact on agricultural growth stumbled. A
reducing poverty than did urban and similar link between agriculture
industrial growth. sector growth and hunger reduction
Analysis of the relationship can be seen when comparing
Agricultural GDP growth
between growth and reductions in Botswana and Peru – countries that
in the 1990s and progress
hunger reveals a similar pattern. If both boasted rapid growth in GDP in
towards the MDG target
countries are grouped based on the 1990s, but with different impacts
their success in reducing hunger on hunger (see box).
Average growth of agricultural GDP (%/year)
during the 1990s, the group that These and other examples tend to
0.6
made progress towards the MDG support the conclusions that economic
0.3 hunger reduction target was the only growth alone is important, but not
0.0 one where the agriculture sector sufficient to reduce hunger, and that
grew (see graph). growth in the agriculture sector of
-0.3
Comparisons within and between developing countries has a much
-0.6 countries yield further evidence that greater impact in reducing hunger
-0.9
the composition of growth matters. than do urban and industrial growth.
In India, for example, the prevalence Furthermore, progress also hinges
-1.2 of hunger decreased sharply during on many other factors, including
-1.5 the 1980s, while the agriculture rates of HIV infection, trade openness
Worsening Stagnant Progressing sector thrived and the national and political stability, control of
Countries grouped by progress economy stagnated. But progress in corruption and other features often
towards the MDG hunger target
reducing hunger stalled during the grouped under the rubric of
Source: FAO; World Bank
second half of the 1990s, precisely “governance” (see pages 10–11).


The role of governance in hunger reduction

A
nalysis of the impact of effectiveness, rule of law and control decreasing undernourishment. As a
economic growth on hunger of corruption – it is possible to group, only the countries where
and poverty suggests that differentiate accurately for two- hunger remained unchanged scored
initial conditions make a big thirds of the countries, without positive marks on the World Bank
difference (see pages 8–9). Poverty referring to any other factors that governance indicators.
falls significantly faster and farther are known to be important for This analysis suggests that the
when growth occurs in places where hunger reduction, such as economic absence of these aspects of good
the political situation is stable, and agricultural growth (see pages governance can be a major obstacle
corruption is rare and farm 8–9), education levels and the to hunger reduction but that
productivity and literacy rates are degree of inequality in access to achieving progress depends on
high. Many of these favourable initial food. many other factors.
conditions can be regarded as These governance indicators are
indicators of what is often called far less successful, however, in Delivering essential public goods
“good governance”. differentiating between countries
Definitions and measures of that made progress in reducing Many of these other factors are
governance vary considerably. The hunger during the 1990s and those included among the “public goods”
World Bank defines it as “the set of where the prevalence of cited by IFPRI as responsibilities and
traditions and institutions by which undernourishment has remained indicators of good governance.
authority in a country is exercised” unchanged or has increased (see Internal peace, rule of law, rural
and gathers more than 350 variables graph). infrastructure and agricultural
to compile six aggregate indicators. As might be expected, countries research, for example, are all
Other development agencies, where food security deteriorated essential for increasing agricultural
such as the International Food were also the least stable politically, production and reducing hunger and
Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), had the weakest rule of law and had poverty in the rural areas that are
have argued that good governance the most rampant corruption. Many home to three-quarters of the
extends to providing essential were countries where conflict had world’s hungry people.
“public goods”, ranging from peace shredded the political and legal When governments cannot
and security to roads and electricity fabric of governance. But these preserve internal peace, violent
in rural areas. Advocates of a same governance indicators were conflict disrupts agricultural
“rights-based” approach to also slightly negative for the group production and access to food. In
development maintain that good of countries that succeeded in Africa, per capita food production
governance must also include
support for essential human rights,
including the right to food.
Governance indicators, food security and hunger reduction
All three of these dimensions of
in the 1990s
governance are important to
reducing hunger and achieving food
Indicator average for country group Indicator average for country group
security. 0.5 0.3
0.4
0.0
World Bank indicators 0.3
0.2 -0.3
0.1
Economic analysis confirms that the 0.0 -0.6
World Bank’s governance indicators -0.1
-0.2 -0.9
can be used to differentiate, with -0.3 -1.2
considerable accuracy, between -0.4
those developing countries that have -0.5 -1.5
More food secure Food insecure Progress No change Worsening
achieved relatively low levels of (≤ 15% (≥ 15%
undernourished) undernourished) Progress in reducing hunger 1991–2001
hunger and those that have not.
Political stability Government effectiveness Rule of law Control of corruption
Using just four of the indicators
Source: World Bank; FAO
– political stability, government


MDG 1

has dropped by an average of budget expenditures invested in lunches in all of the country’s
12.4 percent during times of conflict. agriculture in proportion to the schools. Both nutrition and school
Weak rule of law also erodes importance of agriculture to the attendance have improved
agricultural productivity and food national economy falls far below the dramatically where the programme
security by making land tenure and scale of investment in countries has been implemented, particularly
contracts precarious and investment where the incidence of hunger is among girls. Given the critical role
unattractive. Failure to develop lower (see graph). of maternal nutrition and education
roads, electricity and in breaking the cycle of hunger and
communication links in rural areas Governance and the right to food poverty, the benefits will be felt for
makes it difficult and expensive for generations to come (see pages 16
farmers to get their produce to The affirmation at the World Food and 20).
market and to obtain fertilizer and Summit of the “fundamental right of
other agricultural inputs. everyone to be free from hunger”
Studies in China and India have highlighted another dimension of
Rural road density in selected
identified building roads as “the good governance – the obligation of
African countries, early 1990s
single most effective public goods states to respect human rights and
investment in terms of poverty fundamental freedoms. And the
reduction” (see graph). Evidence adoption in 2004 of “Voluntary Côte d’Ivoire
suggests that it has a similar impact guidelines to support the
Ghana
on reducing hunger. When China progressive realization of the right to
introduced secure household land adequate food in the context of Mozambique
contracts and started investing national food security” by the FAO
heavily in rural infrastructure and Council provided a practical tool to Nigeria
agricultural research in the late assist national efforts to fulfil that United Rep.
1970s, agricultural production obligation. of Tanzania
soared and hunger fell rapidly. Over The impact on governance and 100 300 500 700
the next two decades, total grain food security can be seen in several Road density (km/1 000 km2)
output increased by 65 percent and countries that have already Existing
the prevalence of hunger was recognized a “justiciable” right to Required to match India in 1950
(adjusted for population density)
reduced by almost two-thirds. food. In India, for example, the Source: Spencer
Tellingly, rural infrastructure Supreme Court mandated cooked
tends to be least developed in
countries and regions with the
highest levels of hunger. Road
Rural public investment and Commitment to agriculture for
density in Africa in the early 1990s,
poverty reduction in India countries grouped by prevalence
for example, was less than
of undernourishment
one-sixth the density in India
around the time of independence, Roads
% of population undernourished
in 1950 (see graph). Agricultural
R&D
Another way of gauging ≤4
Education
governance is to consider how well
Rural 5–19
government investment in development
agriculture and agricultural Soil and water
20–34
conservation
research corresponds with the
Health
sector’s importance to the national ≥ 35
economy and well-being. In the Irrigation
0 10 20 30
countries with the highest levels of 0 30 60 90 120 Agricultural orientation index*
hunger, where an average of about Number of poor lifted out of * The share of agriculture in public-sector expenditure
poverty per 1 million rupees divided by the share of agriculture in GDP.
70 percent of the population depend
Source: Fan et al. Source: FAO
on agriculture, the share of public


The State Of Food Insecurity In The World 2005

The State Of Food Insecurity In The World 2005

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (14)

Similar to The State Of Food Insecurity In The World 2005

Similar to The State Of Food Insecurity In The World 2005 (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

The State Of Food Insecurity In The World 2005