This report from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies analyzes the causes and impacts of hunger and malnutrition from emergency and long-term perspectives.
This year's World Disasters Report focuses on the growing crisis of hunger and malnutrition. Smallholder farmers who produce half the world’s food are among the almost 1 billion people who go to bed hungry every night. Millions of children suffer the irreversible effects of undernutrition. Increasing food insecurity weakens people’s resilience to disasters and disease, and people everywhere are experiencing the increasing volatility of food prices.
This report analyses the causes and impacts of such vulnerability at community, national and international levels – during and after emergencies, and from a longer-term perspective. It examines the challenges of the globalized nature of food-related vulnerabilities, and the need for a cross-disciplinary approach. The report acknowledges the complexities involved, that the issues of global food security, hunger and malnutrition go to the core of virtually all the major components of the functioning of the international system, from international trade to climate change, from water scarcity to scientific innovation. What political action is needed to reform a failing global food system unlikely to provide sufficient food for a population projected to rise to 9 billion by 2050?