The Cost of Cutting Humanitarian Support – Food Tank

The drop in humanitarian aid from the United States and Western European countries is likely to exacerbate food insecurity on the African continent where hunger and malnutrition are already deteriorating, says Maximo Torero, Chief Economist for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. 

Last year 8.2 percent of the global population faced hunger—down from 8.7 percent in 2022, according to the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report from the United Nations. But in African countries, where 20 percent of the total population is food insecure, the same downward trend is not being seen.

By 2030, “60 percent of people in hunger [in the world] will come from Africa,” Torero tells Food Tank. This projection is based on current data and it’s likely to worsen as countries pull back on international aid. Torero expects that the consequences of these decision will hit Africa the hardest. “That’s where I see the major impact of the reduction on [official development assistance] and on humanitarian support from developed countries.”

The cuts will not only hurt food and agriculture systems, Torero explains. It will also hit the health and education sectors, “which are crucial for the agri-food system to be able to provide and reduce hunger and improve nutrition.”

Torero, however, tries to find the good in this concerning news, and he is hopeful that national governments can find ways to use the funding available more efficiently. 

“It’s a continent that has this amazing institutionality,” Torero tells Food Tank. “They know the priorities. They know what they want to achieve. The fact now is that governments need to take action and find a way to resolve this gap in support that they are not going to have in the next [few] years.”

Watch or listen to the full conversation with Maximo Torero on “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg” to hear about unlocking the potential of Africa’s youth through opportunities in food and farming systems, what’s driving food price inflation to outpace global inflation, and our job to drive the “wild horse” that is AI. 

Photo courtesy of Ali Mkumbwa, Unsplash

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