World Vision asks the U.S. government to increase its response to the global food crisis. The future of families like the Lakanas hangs in the balance.

June 2009

By Marie Bettings and Shawna Templeton

Emily Lakana shares a special bond with her daughter Tamatia. The two have encouraged each other through a lot, including the current drought.

Three consecutive years of drought have left many of Kenya’s rural communities in desperate circumstances. “Life here is quite difficult,” says Emily. “We are going without food.”

Food prices soar

The price of staple foods, like beans and corn, has skyrocketed in Kenya. The price of flour has risen by nearly 300 percent. Many families spend almost all of their income on food.

Once in a while, Tamatia’s father finds work as a day laborer. But in this community of cattle herders, the drought affects most people’s income, so there is not much work to be had.

“Sometimes I have to beg for food,” Emily solemnly admits.

Even before food prices started rising significantly last year, more than 963 million people worldwide faced hunger. Now, because of higher food prices and the global financial crisis, nearly 1 billion people face extreme hunger and poverty. (Watch a video about Jonise, another mother in Haiti who has experienced anguish as a result of the food crisis — and life-saving assistance from World Vision.)

An estimated 907 million people who are hungry live in developing countries — that’s more than the population of the European Union, the United States, and Canada combined.

The number of undernourished people in the world increased by 75 million in 2007, largely due to higher food prices.

Children suffer the most

As food prices soar, the poorest populations — especially children like Tamatia — are the most severely affected.

Insufficient nutrition during critical growth phases is known to result in poor physical and cognitive development in children. Malnourishment can cause physical and mental stunting for life, further deepening the cycle of poverty.

Death from hunger-related causes is a very real threat. Moderately underweight children are more than four times more likely to die from infectious disease than are well-nourished children. According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition contributes to more than half of deaths among children under 5 worldwide.

United States a key player in battle against global hunger

In response to this threat — exacerbated by the global financial crisis — World Vision is urging the U.S. Congress to expand hunger reduction, child nutrition, and agriculture development programs to combat world hunger.

“Ensuring that every person has enough basic food is a moral decision, but it’s also a strategic choice that strengthens the global economy over the long term,” says Robert Zachritz, World Vision’s director of advocacy and government relations.

“It's far more effective and far less expensive to prevent these types of humanitarian crises than it is to try to fix them.”

Zachritz says that interventions like food aid, school feeding programs, and child/maternal health and nutrition programs help meet the basic needs of the poor. Increased investment in sustainable agriculture development will empower small-scale farmers, who are some of the world’s poorest people.

“While it’s tempting to take care of ourselves before we address the needs of others,” he adds, “it’s absolutely critical that the world’s richest nations do not neglect the world’s poorest during these tough economic times.”