(introduction...)
* This Chapter introduces food and logistics
managers to basic information on hunger, food insecurity, and household coping
strategies, and the role that food plays in programming.
|
Approximately 800 million people in the world today do not
have access to sufficient food to meet the needs for a healthy and productive
life, according to FAO estimates. They are food-insecure. They often go hungry
and are not sure when they will have their next meal. Between 10 and 12 million
preschool children died last year from hunger and diseases related to
malnutrition. Although there is enough food in the world today to feed everyone
if it were distributed evenly, 25 developing countries (including about half of
the African nations) could not insure sufficient calories per capita even if all
food available nationally were redistributed. Even in areas where there is food
available in the aggregate, access to food by households and individuals is
affected by poverty - the poor often lack adequate resources to secure
consistent and reliable access to food. (1994 World Food Day Report. The
President's Report to the US Congress, October 16, 1995) |
Large-scale poverty persists in the world today because of a
number of interrelated economic, political, social, and environmental changes
taking place globally and within developing countries. Economic crises
experienced in the last two decades have forced many developing countries to cut
back social services which provide safety nets for their poor populations. Jobs
have not been created as fast as the population has grown, and there are greater
inequities in the distribution of income, resources, and opportunities.
Political changes in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in instability and military
insecurity, contributing to increased global poverty. Political and natural
emergencies are on the rise, such that 59 million people have been directly
affected. In addition, population growth rates have outstripped the
environmental carrying capacity in most parts of the world, leading to
tremendous environmental degradation. This is manifested in the destruction of
tropical forests, the loss of biodiversity, and water and air pollution.
Finally, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has reached crisis proportions. By the year 2000,
90% of the infections (estimated to be over 90 million cases) will occur in the
developing world.
Poor people's basic livelihoods are being threatened the world
over. In 1992, 1.3 billion people (more than 20% of the world's population)
lived in absolute poverty and were not able to meet their basic needs for food,
clean water, shelter, education, and basic health care. Nearly two-thirds of
these people live in South Asia or Africa. By the year 2010 these numbers could
reach 1.8
billion.
