There are fewer people going hungry today than there were 20 years ago. But across the globe, some harsh realities persist.
Faced with a regional crisis that shows no signs of abating, millions of Syrian and Iraqi refugees have exhausted their resources and are now entirely dependent on food assistance. In Ethiopia, U.N. agencies are bracing themselves for a significant surge in the number of people in need of food aid, after poor rains have once again wreaked havoc on food supplies. And as violence in Yemen enters its sixth month, the country is edging ever closer to famine.
Despite its vital role in stamping out world hunger, food aid has come under intense fire in the past decade — with critics arguing that it is overwhelmingly driven by the interests of donor countries and exporters. Since then, an increasing number of donors, aid agencies and nongovernmental organizations have chosen to diversify their food-related interventions to cover a wider spectrum of instruments — including in-kind food aid, cash assistance, production and market support.