The Hunger Project’s 2023 Annual Report highlights the impact of our work in partnership with 12.4 million people across 9,540 communities.

In nine countries in Africa, The Hunger Project’s Epicenter Strategy mobilizes clusters of rural villages into “epicenters,” which band together 5,000-15,000 people to carry out community-led,  integrated strategies to meet basic needs. Community members at epicenters create and run their own development programs across sectors such as food security, nutrition, health, education, women’s leadership, income-generation, and climate resilience. 

At the end of 2023, 78 epicenters had declared self-reliance after a multi-year partnership with The Hunger Project, meaning over 1.2 million community partners are now living in a self-reliant community where they have the confidence, capacity, and skills to act as agents of their own development and continue to make sustainable progress. In addition to epicenter sites, special project sites across Africa also utilize The Hunger Project’s core mobilization methodologies in community mobilization and leadership development for sector-specific outcomes, such as community reforestation, nutrition, meaningful access to internet, inclusion of people with disabilities, water and sanitation, land conservation, and agricultural entrepreneurship.

In India, The Hunger Project works with empowered women interested in being elected to local government positions to meet the development needs of their communities. Across six states, The Hunger Project supports the leadership development of women leaders in local village councils (panchayats), each of them champions for gender equality, social and economic development and nutrition. The Hunger Project’s Adolescent Girls Program, teaches girls life skills, their rights, and the importance of active citizenship. 

In Bangladesh, The Hunger Project mobilizes local “animators” (trained volunteers), youth, women leaders and local government representatives across 166 unions, encompassing nearly 2,850 communities, to support peaceful, effective local democracy and meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Community partners design and implement holistic, bottom-up strategies focused on nutrition, active citizenship, peace, income-generation, climate resilience, girls’ rights and more in order to achieve the SDGs in their communities.

In Mexico, The Hunger Project supports community-led development initiatives, focusing on the people who are the most marginalized, particularly Indigenous women. Communities to achieve their community-owned visions, including work to ignite sustainable local entrepreneurship, build effective relationships with local government, empower women and girls with leadership development and support networks, indigenize food systems, promote economic resilience, and ensure food security and nutrition. 

In Peru, The Hunger Project works with a partner organization, CHIRAPAQ, a coalition of indigenous organizations who are promoting access to opportunities, the exercise of women’s and Indigenous rights and collaboration with local and regional governments.

Learn more about our work.