Hunger said to cost poor countries $450b yearly, but Ghana among successful with MDGs

Hunger is said to be costing the world’s poor countries as much as $450 billion every year, and the amount is more than ten times what is needed to half hunger by 2015 and meet the Millennium Development Goal One (MDG 1). Ghana is however, doing well in halving hunger.

A press release issued by aid agency, ActionAid and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com announcing the release of a new report ahead of a UN meeting to discuss progress on the MDGs in New York sometime next week, says the report reveals that 20 out of 28 poor nations are off track to halving hunger by 2015 and 12 of these are going backwards, despite UN claims that the world is on track to meeting the MDGs.

“If China, the most successful growing economy is removed from the scoring, the percentage of hungry people in the world is the same as when the goals were set two decades ago,” the report said.

According to the report titled ‘Who’s Really Fighting Hunger’ the DR Congo, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Pakistan and Lesotho rank bottom on the score card.  But surprisingly not just the poorest, war-torn or disaster-struck countries rank low.  Despite a radical and rapid increase in India’s economy, drastic cuts in agriculture and support to small farms, means nearly half of the country’s children are malnourished and one in five of the population is hungry.

The report cited the following countries among those doing well in addressing the challenges of poverty and hunger. These are Brazil, China, Ghana, Malawi and Vietnam. According to the report these countries top ActionAid’s scorecard, having slashed hunger by dramatically scaling-up investment in small farms and introducing social protection schemes such as public works employment, cash transfers, food rations, and free school meals.

Malawi, the report noted has reduced the number of people living on food hand outs from 1.5 million to 150,000 in just five years.  Brazil has halved the number of underweight children in less than 10 years.  China will meet its hunger goal five years early, it added.

Commenting on the report, ActionAid’s CEO Joanna Kerr said: “Fighting hunger now will be ten times cheaper than ignoring it.  Every year reduced worker productivity, poor health and lost education costs poor countries billions.”

“And the cost is not just financial.  If governments don’t act now over a million more children could die by 2015 and half of Africa won’t have enough food in ten years,” she added.

ActionAid in the release explained how it arrived at the $450 billion figure. It said a recent UN and World Food Programme cross country analysis of the economic impact of child malnutrition in Central America, determined that the opportunity cost of child malnourishment amounted to between 2% – 12% of GDP annually.  Ninety per cent of this impact was loss of productivity due to early deaths and lower education levels caused by hunger.  A further ten percent came from the cost of treating hunger-related diseases and from more children repeating school grades.

Projecting the lower end of this loss only for the regions with highest child hunger levels (sub-Saharan Africa and developing Asia), a conservative 3.5% reduction in GDP due to child malnutrition could cost these regions as much as $462 billion a year.  Rounded down, this is approximately $450 billion.

Recently, Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Alhaji Muhammed Mumuni told the media that Ghana has chalked some successes in MDGs One and Two, adding that “but more needs to be done in achieving Four and Five.”

The MDGs One and Two focus on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and achieving universal primary education while Four and Five centre on reducing child mortality and improving maternal health, he explained.

The following are the eight MDGs adopted by world leaders in 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015:

1.     Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

2.    Achieve universal primary education

3.    Promote gender equality and empower women

4.    Reduce child mortality

5.    Improve maternal health

6.     Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

7.    Ensure environmental sustainability

8.    Develop a Global Partnership for Development

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi