Acute hunger is driven by three things: conflicts, climatic shocks and the dramatic economic crisis.

Even though food is considered as essential commodity for survival, the global community is exceedingly indifferent to the issue. Worldwide, the people have been chiefly wasting this rudimentary ingredient. As a result, the global food crisis emerges. Apart from this, numerous other deadlier and nastier causes also aggravate this crisis. The food crisis is unique because it is unfolding amid a more difficult global context than with the food.

The debt levels of low to middle-income countries had ballooned, and their currencies had begun to depreciate. About 60 per cent of low-income countries today are in, or at high risk of, debt distress. Gradually the prices of products are soaring up to the sky. It has been estimated that as many as 828 million people go to bed hungry every night around the world. The number of those facing acute food insecurity has soared from 135 million to 345 million since 2019. A total of 49 million people in 49 countries are teetering on the edge of famine. Today, millions of children are facing the worst hunger crisis that the world has seen in decades. Forty-five million people are close to starvation right now.

High food prices have triggered a global crisis that is driving millions more into extreme poverty, magnifying hunger and malnutrition. Since 2020, when the World Food Organization program assisted 116 million people, each year has been record-breaking. This year it will assist over 150 million people. Acute hunger is driven by three things: conflicts, climatic shocks and the dramatic economic crisis.

Siraj Ahmed Phull

IBA University, Sukkur Sindh