August 2015

ENDING WORLD HUNGER BY 2030 WILL REQUIRE $267 BILLION ANNUALLY

A combination of social protection and targeted pro-poor investments could effectively take people out of hunger and extreme poverty.

By Kanaga Raja

Third World Network.Features

            Eliminating world hunger by 2030 will require an additional US$267 billion per year during the period 2016-2030 in order to fund social protection as well as pro-poor investments in rural and urban areas, a new United Nations report has said.

            This would average $160 annually for each person living in extreme poverty over the 15-year period, said the report, which was presented in Rome on Friday.

            The report was prepared by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

            In an advocacy note accompanying the report, the heads of the three UN agencies said: "We can end poverty and hunger by 2030. But we will need a new approach that combines public investment in social protection with public and private efforts to raise investment levels in productive sectors – especially in rural areas and particularly agriculture - to much higher levels than in a ‘business as usual' scenario."

            Increasing aggregate investments is expected to increase growth, employment and thus, incomes, they said, adding that properly designed and implemented investments to achieve Zero Hunger will increase the productivity and incomes of small-scale producers, while offering broader opportunities for the poor and vulnerable.

            According to the heads of the FAO, IFAD and WFP, of the total average annual financing of $267 billion needed, some $151 billion will be for additional pro-poor investments in the productive sectors – $105 billion for rural development and agriculture and $46 billion for urban areas.

            "To sustainably eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, we need to boost both private and public investment to raise rural and agricultural productivity and incomes, as well as to promote more productive, sustainable and inclusive food systems. Farmers are the major source of investment in the sector, but formal systems of credit and insurance often discriminate against them, especially smallholder family farmers and others less well endowed," they said.

            "To break the vicious cycle of poverty and hunger, people who are extremely poor and hungry have to be assisted – through social protection. Adequate, well-designed social protection would enable the people in this category to quickly overcome poverty, hunger and under-nutrition," the heads of the three UN agencies also said.

            "The message of the report is clear: if we adopt a ‘business as usual' approach, by 2030, we would still have more than 650 million people suffering from hunger. This is why we are championing an approach that combines social protection with additional targeted investments in rural development, agriculture and urban areas that will chiefly benefit the poor," said FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva in a FAO news release.

            "Our report estimates that this will require a total investment of some $267 billion per year over the next 15 years. Given that this is more or less equivalent to 0.3% of the global GDP, I personally think it is a relatively small price to pay to end hunger," Da Silva added.

            "This report helps us to see the magnitude of the challenge ahead of us, but we believe that we won't see gains in reducing poverty and hunger unless we seriously invest in rural people," said IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze, in the same press release.

            "Given the right kind of tools and resources, small-scale agricultural producers and rural entrepreneurs can transform struggling communities into thriving places," he further said.

            "We need a dramatic shift in thinking to help the world's poorest break the cycle of hunger and poverty by 2030. We cannot allow them to be left behind," said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin. "We must invest in the most vulnerable and ensure that they have the tools they need not only to overcome hunger, but to enhance their resources and capabilities."

            According to the report, despite progress in recent decades, including the near achievement of the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of hungry people in the world by the end of 2015, about 795 million people – or around one in nine – still suffer from chronic (dietary energy) undernourishment, or hunger.

            The eradication of hunger by 2030 is likely to be a target of the new Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) to be approved in September 2015 at the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Ending hunger is also in line with the Zero Hunger Campaign promoted by the UN Secretary-General, and closely linked to the Sustainable Development Goal 1 target to eliminate poverty by 2030.

            To achieve Zero Hunger by 2030, the international community needs to build upon approaches and options that have proven to be effective, and which ensure continuous access to food for the undernourished, and improve livelihood opportunities for the poor and hungry.

            To estimate the additional investment requirements, the report begins with reference to a "baseline" "business as usual" scenario, in which around 650 million people would still suffer from hunger, or chronically inadequate dietary energy, in 2030.

            The report contrasts this with a combined social protection and investment scenario whereby public-funded transfers will be used to lift people out of chronic hunger by ensuring that they reach a $1.25/day income which corresponds to the World Bank-determined poverty line level.

            This social protection measure would cost an additional $116 billion per year – $75 billion for rural areas and $41 billion for urban areas.

            Some $151 billion in additional pro-poor investments – $105 billion for rural development and agriculture and $46 billion for urban areas - would also be required to stimulate income generation to the advantage of those living in poverty.

            The combination of social protection and investments would bring the total to $267 billion.

            To be pro-poor, investments in urban and rural areas, including in agriculture, should be properly targeted so that the poor could earn enough to overcome poverty.

            In the longer term, as the incomes of the poor increase because of investments, the need for social protection to close the poverty gap declines, said the report.

            According to the FAO release, in rural areas, pro-poor public investments could target small-scale irrigation and other infrastructure benefiting smallholders.

            These could include measures such as food processing to reduce post-harvest waste and losses, as well as stronger institutional arrangements for land and water tenure, credit facilities, labour legislation, and other areas, to make farm and off-farm activities and markets accessible to marginalised groups, including women and young people.

            In urban areas, the additional investments should ensure that people living in extreme poverty will eventually be able to provide for themselves.

            The investments could, for example, target capacity building to impart entrepreneurial and other skills, including craftsmanship, and ensure fair labour contracts, provide credit facilities, housing as well as nutrition-related services.

            The FAO release noted that social protection in the form of cash transfers will eliminate hunger immediately, and will improve nutrition by allowing the poor to afford more diverse and thus healthier diets and also fight "hidden hunger" – micro-nutrient deficiencies, including the inadequate intake of vitamins, iron and other minerals.

            According to the report, a combination of social protection and targeted pro-poor investments can quickly take people out of hunger and extreme poverty while raising earned incomes for the poor in the medium term.

            "Doing so requires an appropriate mix of public and private investments, and appropriate policies and coordinated programmes to ensure that the poor actually benefit from such additional investment and the growth and employment opportunities thus generated," it said. – Third World Network Features.

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About the author: Kanaga Raja is the Editor of the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS) in Geneva, Switzerland.

The above is an edited version of an article published in SUNS #8061, 13 July 2015.

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