Global efforts must be ramped up to stem poverty

The report that nearly 20 million more people faced food crises last year amid armed conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic and weather extremes is alarming. But this is not the end of the story. The outlook for this year is very grim, according to a report by the Global Network Against Food Crises.

The humanitarian agency, set up in 2016 by the European Union and United Nations, also warned that acute food insecurity has continued to worsen since 2017, the first year of its annual report into food crises.

Defined as any lack of food that threatens lives, livelihood or both, acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse impacted at least 155 million people last year, the highest number in the report’s five-year existence.

Two out of three people affected by food crises last year were in Africa, though other parts of the world were not spared, with Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and Haiti among the 10 worst-hit locations.

The causes are not far to seek: from wildfires in California and locust attacks in Ethiopia to job losses caused by pandemic lockdowns in Italy and Myanmar, climate change and COVID-19 disrupted food production. All these factors tipped millions more people into hunger in 2020.

Now there are fears the situation could worsen as both the coronavirus crisis and wild weather exacerbate fragile conditions linked to conflict and poverty in many parts of the globe.

“Even before COVID-19 hit, 135 million people were marching towards the brink of starvation. This could double to 270 million within a few short months,” warned David Beasley, head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), last year. Which accounts for food riots taking place in several countries.

Perhaps the nation that took the most battering from the coronavirus is India. Last year, around 230 million Indians fell into poverty due to the pandemic with young people and women the hardest hit, and the current second wave threatens to make matters even worse, a new study has said.

India’s stringent months-long lockdown from last March put around 100 million people out of work, the report by the Bengaluru-based AzimPremji University said, with around 15 per cent unable to find jobs even by the end of the year.

Women were especially worse-off, with a staggering 47 per cent of female workers unable to secure employment even after virus restrictions were lifted, according to the study published on Thursday.

The report, which defined people in poverty as those living on less than 375 rupees ($5) per day, said: “Though incomes fell across the board, the pandemic has taken a far heavier toll on poorer households.”

Asia’s third-largest economy was in the throes of a prolonged slowdown even before COVID-19 struck, but the pandemic scuppered years of gain. An estimated 50 million Indians were expected to climb out of poverty last year, instead the poorest 20 per cent of households saw their entire income vanish in April and May as business ground to a halt.

Already the number of virus cases in the nation has soared above 21 million.”We must do everything we can to end this vicious cycle. There is no place for famine and starvation in the 21st century,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

That is easier said than done. Yes, in an age where billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is sending his SpaceX capsule to the International Space Station, where digital connectivity dominates every warp and woof of our existence, where automation is the name of the game, poverty is one pandemic humans seem unable to tame. The international community must ramp up its efforts to see that developing nations do not suffer acute food shortages. Apathy and neglect can be disastrous, leading to terrible consequences.