Hunger on the Rise

• Author: David Dawe/Denis Drechsler

World hunger spiked sharply in 2009, significantly worsening an already disappointing trend in global food security since 1996. The combination of food and economic crises has pushed the number of hungry people worldwide to historic levels. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that 1.02 billion people were undernourished in 2009-about 100 million more than in 2008. As a result, reaching the World Food Summit target and the Millennium Development Goal for hunger reduction looks increasingly out of reach.

Poor harvests are not to blame. The FAO estimates that total cereal production in 2009 was only slightly below the record high set in 2008. Instead, the increase in hunger is mainly a result of poor people’s inability to afford the food that is produced. Many drew down savings during the food price crisis and have now lost jobs as a result of the global economic crisis.

Food prices increased considerably in developing countries during the 2006-08 world food crisis and were still high when the economic crisis started. Domestic prices of staple foods were typically 17 percent higher at the end of 2008 than two years earlier, after adjusting for inflation. This seriously hurt the purchasing power of poor consumers, who often spend 40 percent of their income on staple foods.

Thus, the global economic crisis hit developing countries at a...