Zeroing in on ending hunger

Efforts to eradicate hunger in the next eight years will require a radical rethink given the global upswing in hunger and food insecurity caused by COVID-19, climate change, and conflict.

To kickstart this process, a new report from Action Against Hunger, in partnership with Devex, offers a rare window into the development community’s current thinking on the topic, including practical proposals for what should change.

Based on a survey of over 860 local and international food security and nutrition experts — from international NGOs, bilateral donors, private foundations, corporations, and United Nations agencies — the report gathers exclusive insights and is supplemented with in-depth interviews with 12 high-level experts. It underscores the need for bold collective action now in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 on achieving zero hunger and making up for the gains lost in the past few years.

While nearly 90% of respondents believe the number of people experiencing hunger will increase over the next five to 10 years, two-thirds believe achieving zero hunger is still possible if current approaches change or the 2030 deadline is extended.

“Despite the enormous challenges that lie before us, despite the setbacks in our common journey, we can end hunger in our lifetimes,” stressed Action Against Hunger’s CEO Charles E. Owubah. “What we need now is cutting-edge, holistic approaches, bold and sustained actions, and new voices to commit to creating a future without hunger.”

The report lays out what some of these approaches might look like.

1. Hold governments more accountable

Respondents think the main challenges affecting hunger-related government programs include conflicting ministerial or political interests and priorities, a disconnect between policies and implementation, and a lack of funding or budget allocations.

A failure to also holistically address the root causes of hunger — including the interrelated but constantly evolving challenges of poverty, gender inequality, the climate crisis, conflict, displacement, and other violations of international humanitarian law — was cited by another 54% of respondents as among the top three reasons why current anti-hunger approaches are falling short.

According to 90% of respondents, tackling these root causes will require different approaches in lower-income countries, where social and economic inequality are main barriers, and in high-income countries where, hidden hunger and obesity are issues.“The causes are similar, but the solutions, as with everything in development, are very context specific,” noted Lawrence Haddad, executive director at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.

Interviewees’ proposals for HICs included greater use of early-life interventions, stronger social safety nets, nutritional education, and the incentivization of private sector food retailers to invest in low-income neighborhoods.

2. Take a localized approach

Thirty-three percent of survey respondents believe current approaches to eradicating hunger are failing because they are not driven by local or community-level stakeholders.

“It’s not enough to allow people to be part of something,” noted Saul Guerrero, senior nutrition adviser at UNICEF. “You need to facilitate a conversation or a process that defines what it is that they bring into a conversation and allow the space for them to play that role.”

The interventions that respondents believe will be most impactful include: addressing structural inequalities that exclude marginalized stakeholders from decision making; establishing community feedback mechanisms to monitor progress, successes, and failures; and shifting decision making and ownership from global to local organizations.

Governments, INGOs, and other groups must also ensure that partnerships with local communities, and the dialogues that underpin them, are meaningful. Survey respondents’ priority areas here include integrating local Indigenous knowledge and practices into hunger-related assistance, and having local communities drive program and policy design.

3. Collaborate in high-impact activities

Stakeholders should also be unified in the zero hunger fight, investing in high-impact activities where they are needed most, say respondents. For example, the Ceres2030 partnership has created a road map for investment in 10 priority areas — including enabling participation in farmers’ organizations, vocational programs for rural youth, and scaling up social protection programs — which will require donor governments to double the aid they provide for food security and nutrition by 2030.

But getting practitioners to collaborate effectively can be challenging. For example, many INGOs can only attract funding when they are able to demonstrate impact, and this can deter them from forming partnerships, noted Haddad. However, “do you want to be in control of something with a very small impact, or do you want to be a contributor to something that has a very big impact?” he asked. “That’s the choice they face.”

Asked to rank challenges preventing the private sector from meaningfully engaging in anti-hunger partnerships, 67% of survey respondents said a tendency for corporate interests to override humanitarian or development agendas was a key obstacle.

Interviewees argued however that it is possible to find intersections where private interests meet the public good, with private-sector contributions focusing, for example, on supply chain strengthening or advocacy.

4. Embrace innovation

The survey additionally points to a need for more innovation in efforts to eradicate hunger, in terms of the approaches followed, processes adopted, and technological tools applied. The areas where respondents see most opportunity for innovation to be developed or integrated include the reduction of food loss and wastage, the strengthening of value chains, and research and development.

Interviewees also called for a departure from business-as-usual and a move toward the scaling up of more impactful approaches, such as anticipatory action, no regrets programming, and the mainstreaming of resilient agricultural practices already used by Indigenous communities.

Recent crises, while laying bare weaknesses in the systems that intersect with hunger and its solutions, have also created learning opportunities that could spawn future innovation in building resilience and restoring momentum toward achieving SDG 2.

For example, survey respondents believe the top lesson to be drawn from the COVID-19 pandemic is the need to strengthen local food systems by encouraging community-level food production. To build resilience against climate-related shocks, 71% see accelerating the development and use of climate-resilient crops and agricultural techniques as a top priority.

Together against hunger

These and other insights from the report will stimulate and inform a series of targeted debates and workshops that Action Against Hunger will host ahead of its Together Against Hunger convening in October 2022, as it seeks to build a new road map toward food security for everyone.

As the report demonstrates, hunger is far from inevitable, and — with increased commitment and definitive action — it remains firmly within humanity’s grasp, stressed Owubah. “If we could send a man to the moon more than 50 years ago, we can end hunger in our lifetimes.”

To learn more insights on rethinking approaches to zero hunger, read the full report. For the latest stories on food security and nutrition, visit Devex food systems.