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How much money would it take to end world hunger? [1]
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Date: 2023-05
When tech entrepreneur Elon Musk challenged the United Nations last year to show him a $6 billion plan that would end world hunger, he got in return a proposal that would save 42 million people in 43 countries from starvation.
Since Musk’s challenge, the hunger crisis has worsened—increasing the number of people in need, and driving up costs. Extreme hunger has more than doubled in the world’s worst climate hotspots, and about 1 in 10 people worldwide suffer from chronic hunger—meaning they do not consume enough food to maintain a normal, active lifestyle.
At Oxfam, we’ve been focused on food and hunger since our founding. So we’re going to explain what money could accomplish, step by step: How close are we to Zero Hunger; how much money could help achieve it; and what money can’t solve, including what else we must do if we are serious about ending world hunger.
How close are we to ending world hunger?
Seven years after world leaders committed to end hunger by 2030, the crisis is heading in the wrong direction. The UN reports that 150 million more people are affected by hunger since the start of the global pandemic. That means as many as 828 million people experienced hunger in 2021—more than three times the size of the US population.
There are two main dimensions of the crisis:
Some people suffer from extreme hunger—meaning their lack of adequate food puts their lives and livelihoods at risk. Many fled their homes due to conflict, the effects of climate change, and lost income as a result of economic lockdowns during the pandemic.
Others suffer from chronic hunger. This includes mostly women farmers that work small plots of land. Many lack access to finance as well as other support to improve their farming practices and are now increasingly unable to grow enough food because of extreme weather events.
"It is abysmal that with all the technology in agriculture and harvesting techniques today we are still talking about famine in the 21st century,” said Mohanna Ahmed Ali Eljabaly from the Yemen Family Care Association. “This is not about one country or one continent, and hunger never only has one cause. This is about the injustice of the whole of humanity.”
How much money could help end world hunger?
Current estimates suggest that as of this year, we need donor governments to invest around $37 billion every year until 2030 to tackle both extreme and chronic hunger.
Let’s start with extreme hunger. We need about $23 billion just this year to meet the needs of people facing starvation and acute malnutrition.
These resources—primarily for cash and food assistance—represent almost half of what is needed to meet the world’s overall humanitarian needs.
But world leaders never fully fund what is needed every year. In 2021, they contributed only 46 percent toward the total cost of global humanitarian needs.
So how much more money would it take to address chronic hunger? According to Ceres2030, an initiative led by foundations, universities, and scientists working to find solutions to hunger, donor governments would need to invest an additional $14 billion on average in foreign aid every year until 2030 to end hunger sustainably.
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[1] Url:
https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/how-much-money-would-it-take-to-end-world-hunger/
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