WASHINGTON, D.C. – According to the 14th annual report of Bread for the World Institute, a non-profit anti-hunger education and research organization, the number of people in the U.S. and the developing world who suffer from hunger is increasing. Bread for the World is a sister organization of non-profit Christian humanitarian group, Bread for the World, which seeks justice for hungry people by engaging in research and education on policies related to hunger and development.
Bread for the World Institute claim that there needs to be more national efforts put into fighting hunger both domestically and nationally and achieve the goal that was set in the mid-1990s, which was to cut hunger in half globally by 2015.
“We know what needs to be done to turn the corner in the battle against hunger,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World Institute.
“Clearly, if the United States is to meet its goal of cutting hunger in half by 2010, our nutrition programs must be retooled and reformed to not only modernize and strengthen the current initiatives, but also to extend their reach to those people falling through the cracks,” Beckmann said
The goal to cut number of hungry people from 800 million to 400 million by 2015 was set at the World Food Summit of 1996 by the United States along with other nations. That meant reducing the number of hungry people in developing countries from about It also meant to reduce the number of people living in homes at risk of hunger from 30.4 million in 1995 to about 15.2 million in 2010.
Bread for the World addressed four specific reforms that need to be pursued to relieve U.S. hunger:
· Increase participation in the federal food assistance programs;
· Enhance the programs’ efficiency and integrity;
· Improve participants’ nutrition in addition to increasing their access to enough food; and
· Better integrate the programs with and build on successful community-based efforts.
In terms of fighting global hunger, there was a dramatic progress in making change as hunger in developing countries decreased from the 1970s through the mid-1990s; the number of people who suffered from hunger decreased from 30% to 20%. However over the past several years, the number has increased again by 5 million people annually.
Bread for the World Institution proposed an agenda as to what must be done to reduce global hunger. Their report says that what is more urgent is strengthening people and their communities so that they can support themselves with food than simply providing them with food. It also suggested:
· Sending girls to school, as more than 100 million children in the developing world do not have access to a basic education, 60 percent of them girls;
· Supplying families with mosquito nets to ward against malaria;
· Providing medicines to those afflicted with HIV/AIDS and also stepping up education and prevention measures; and
· Promoting policies that make fertilizer and drip irrigation available to farmers so they can grow food and earn money.
In addition, the report emphasized the need of fairer trade rules and deeper debt relief to help developing countries to overcome hunger and poverty.
