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 More than 2.8 billion people, close to half the world's population, live on less than the equivalent of $2/day. More than 1.2 billion people, or about 20 per cent of the world population, live on less than the equivalent of $1/day. South Asia has the largest number of poor people (522 million of whom live on less than the equivalent of $1/day). Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of people who are poor, with poverty affecting 46.3 per cent or close to half of the regions' population. Nearly 1 billion people are illiterate; more than 1 billion people do not have access to safe water; some 840 million people go hungry or face food insecurity; about one-third of all children under five suffer from malnutrition. The estimated cost of providing universal access to basic social services and transfers to alleviate income poverty is $80 billion, which is less than 0.5 per cent of global income. The top fifth (20 per cent) of the world's people who live in the highest income countries have access to 86 per cent of world gross domestic product (GDP). The bottom fifth, in the poorest countries, has about one per cent. The assets of the world's three richest men exceed the combined Gross Domestic Products of the world's 48 poorest countries. In 1998, for every $1 that the developing world received in grants, it spent $13 on debt repayment.   Food is a basic necessity. Those who are fortunate try to eat three square meals a day; however, over 840 million people around the world go hungry every day. And more than half a billion people are undernourished. They do not get enough vitamins and minerals from the food that they eat to stay healthy. Hunger also kills. Every day 34,000 children under age five die from hunger and related causes. Why are so many people going hungry? One of the main causes of hunger is poverty. Most of the people who are hungry do not have enough money to purchase the food they need. The poorest and most food-insecure people live in Africa, while the largest number of continually undernourished people live in the Asia-Pacific region. However, hunger remains especially severe in South Asia, where growing poverty, debt, economic decline, poor terms of trade, fast population growth, unfavorable weather, war, and government collapse have all contributed to the continent’s food problems. In the United States, the share of the population facing hunger has risen, but hunger in wealthy nations is neither as severe nor as widespread as in developing countries. Hunger is also an environmental problem with fresh water, land, forests, and fisheries continually being used at or beyond capacity. In the competition for resources, poor and hungry people, lacking economic and political clout, have become even more marginalized. This is true especially in countries where land holdings are not even or fair, and poor families are forced to move onto fragile land and to overcrowded cities. War is also a cause for hunger War slows or stops food production and marketing. Food supplies are often taken and used as instruments of war, crop cycles are interrupted, seeds and breeding livestock are consumed in desperation, and children suffer lasting damage as a result of insufficient food. Even if fighting never occurs, heavy military spending depletes resources away from food production, education, and health care. What are some of the causes of hunger? How does war affect the availability of food? What are some of the areas around the world where people experience hunger? How many meals do you eat on a typical day? | Global Summaey: Children and HIV/AIDS 2004 | The Search for Peace (A) | The Search for Peace (B) | POVERTY ERADICATION (A) | Poverty Eradication (B) | Social Development | A Human Rights Approach to Issues (A) | | Vincentian Issues A | Vincentian Issues B | The Whole World Knew | | Return Home | About Us | What's New | Current Focus | Articles | Great Links | Email Form | |
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