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World Hunger Day 2018: It’s About People

May 25, 2018

On May 28, 2018, join The Hunger Project in celebrating the eighth annual World Hunger Day! Started in 2011, World Hunger Day is an initiative by The Hunger Project that aims to raise awareness about the 815 million people living in chronic hunger worldwide. The day seeks to celebrate sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty and to inspire everyone to be a part of the solution!

Hunger is not just about food. That’s why this year’s theme for World Hunger Day is Hunger: It’s About People. The day will highlight the importance of fostering self-reliance. Join us in upholding the principles of human dignity and recognizing that every human is inherently creative, resourceful, and productive.

What you can do:

Decades of systematic marginalization have kept people from making lasting changes in their communities. That’s why The Hunger Project supports communities in changing mindsets through Vision, Commitment and Action workshops. We inspire individuals to move from “I can’t” to “I can” to “We can.” A holistic development approach — one that includes peace-building, social harmony, human rights and good governance — is essential to ensuring the empowerment of people.

Ending hunger is not about handouts. For 40 years, The Hunger Project has demonstrated success with sustainable, gender-focused strategies, led by communities. We prioritize three critical elements that, when combined, empower people to make significant progress in overcoming hunger:

  • Mobilizing people at the grassroots level to build self-reliance,
  • Empowering women as key change agents, and
  • Forging effective partnership with local governments.

By sharing and investing on World Hunger Day, you join Hunger Project partners and millions of people in rural communities who have reached across political and cultural boundaries in meaningful ways to act as agents of their own development.

Join us this World Hunger Day and take action to end hunger.

Learn more at www.worldhungerday.org

Facts & Figures

Successes

  • The prevalence of stunting fell from 29.5 percent to 22.9 percent between 2005 and 2016.
  • From 2005 to 2016 most regions achieved reductions in chronic malnutrition, with the rate of improvement fastest in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • More women are feeding their infants solely with breastmilk than ever before, providing a critical cornerstone for children’s survival, development, and long-term health prospects.
  • Globally, 43 percent of infants younger than six months were exclusively breastfed in 2016, up from 36 percent in 2005.

Undernourishment

    • World hunger is on the rise: the estimated number of undernourished people increased from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016.
    • While the world has made progress in reducing hunger since 2000, progress has been uneven, with levels of hunger still serious or alarming in 51 countries around the world.
    • South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara have the highest levels of hunger.
    • In 2017, 24 countries had populations in which at least one quarter of the population was undernourished.

Child Health

  • Nearly 23 percent of children under 5 affected were facing chronic malnutrition in 2016.
  • Stunting affects almost one in four children under the age of five years, increasing their risk of impaired cognitive ability, weakened performance at school, and dying from infections.
  • Malnourished mothers are more likely to give birth to underweight babies, and underweight babies are 20% more likely to die before the age of five.
  • Half of all deaths of children under the age of five are attributable to undernutrition.

Food Production/Environment

  • To feed another two billion people in 2050, food production will need to increase by 50 percent globally.
  • Yields for women farmers are 20-30 percent lower than for men, due to lack of access to improved seeds and equipment. Giving women farmers more resources could decrease the number of hungry people in the world by 100-150 million people!
  • Climate change is projected to cause an additional 250,000 deaths annually among children due to malnutrition, diarrhea and heat stress.
  • In low and middle income countries, lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities result in 1,000 deaths of children under five every day.

Other forms of malnutrition

  • Multiple forms of malnutrition coexist, with countries experiencing simultaneously high rates of child undernutrition and adult obesity.
  • In 2016, one in three women of reproductive age globally were affected by anaemia.

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