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AUTHOR Cohen, Marc J., Ed.TITLE Causes of Hunger: Hunger 1995. Fifth Annual Report on the

State of World Hunger.INSTITUTION Bread for the World Inst., Silver Spring, MD.ISBN ISBN-1-884361-50-1PUB DATE 1994-00-00NOTE 147p.; For companion "User's Guide" designed for group or

individual study of "Causes of Hunger," see SO 029 326.Photographs may not reproduce well.

AVAILABLE FROM Bread for the World Institute, 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite1000, Silver Spring, MD 20910, telephone: 301-608-2400($14.95 members, $17.95 non-members).

PUB TYPE Reports Descriptive (141)EDRS PRICE MF01/PC06 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS Adult Education; Age Discrimination; Environment; Ethnic

Discrimination; Foreign Countries; Higher Education;*Hunger; Nutrition; Politics; *Poverty; RacialDiscrimination; *Religion Studies; Secondary Education; SexDiscrimination; Social Bias; Violence; *World Affairs;*World Problems

ABSTRACTThis comprehensive report shows how hunger is interrelated

with other social ills, including powerlessness, violence, poverty,environmental destruction, and discrimination. More than a billion people aretoo poor to afford an adequate diet and other essential of life such ashealth care, housing, sanitation, safe water, and education. In the UnitedStates, an estimated 30 million people cannot afford to buy enough food tomaintain good health. The report shows how thousands of private organizationsand millions of individuals are helping hungry people in the United Statesand worldwide. The report contains two essays for an overview of the problemof hunger and seven other essays on various aspects of the hunger problem.Essays include: (1) "Introduction: The Courage to Choose" (Richard A. Hoehn);(2) "Overview of World Hunger" (Peter Uvin; Marc J. Cohen; A Cecilia Snyder;Richard A. Hoehn; Maureen Harris); (3) "Cause 1: Powerlessness and Politics"(Marc J. Cohen); (4) "Cause 2: Violence and Militarism" (Daniel U.B.P.Chelliah; (5) "Cause 3: Poverty in a Global Economy" (Don Reeves); (6) "Cause4: Population, Consumption, and Environment" (Nancy Wright; A. CeciliaSnyder; Don Reeves); (7) "Cause 5: Racism and Ethnocentrism" (International:Sarita Wardlaw Henry) (United States: Billy J. Tidwell); (8) "Cause 6: GenderDiscrimination" (A. Cecilia Snyder); and (9) "Cause 7: Vulnerability and Age"(Children: Urban Jonsson) (Elderly People: Jashinta D'Costa). The appendixcontains 6 tables, a list of abbreviations, a 46-item glossary, notes, and abibliography. (EH)

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Hunger 1995

Causes of Hunger

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Fifth Annual Report on the State of World HunkerBEST COPY AVAI LE

Hunger 1995

Causes of Hunger

Fifth Annual Report on the State of World Hunger

FOR THE WORLD

r_Jr_u100 WAYNE AVENUE STE. 1000

SILVER SPRING, MD 20910USA

*11ZCover and text

printed on recycled paper

Bread for the World Institute

President President EmeritusDavid Beckmann Arthur Simon

DirectorRichard A. Hoehn

EditorMarc J. Cohen

Art DirectorTimothy Achor-Hoch

©1994 by Bread for the World Institute, 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1000, Silver Spring, MD 20910, USATelephone: (301) 608-2400 FAX: (301) 608-2401

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except forbrief passages quoted in a review.

Printer: Communications Graphics, Baltimore, MD

Cover photo: NASA

Manufactured in the United States of America

First edition published October 1994

ISBN 1-884361-50-1

4ii Causes of Hunger

Table of ContentsForeword

by David Beckmann 1

Introduction: The Courage to Chooseby Richard A. Hoehn 2

Overview of World Hungerby Peter Uvin, Marc J. Cohen,A. Cecilia Snyder, Richard A. Hoehn,and Maureen Harris

Causes of Hunger

Cause 5: Racism and EthnocentrismInternational by Santa Ward law Henry 72The United States by Billy J. Tidwell 79

Cause 6: Gender Discriminationby A. Cecilia Snyder 85

Cause 7: Vulnerability and AgeChildren by Urban Jonsson

9 Elderly People by Jashinta D'Costa94

100

Cause 1: Powerlessness and Politicsby Marc J. Cohen 21

Cause 2: Violence and Militarismby Daniel U.B.P. Chelliah 35

Cause 3: Poverty in a Global Economyby Don Reeves 47

Cause 4: Population, Consumption, andEnvironmentby Nancy Wright, A. Cecilia Snyder,and Don Reeves 61

AppendixTables

Global Demographic Indicators 105

Global Health, Nutrition,and Welfare Statistics 109

Global Economic Indicators 113Poverty and Hunger Statistics

Developing Countries 117United States Poverty Trends 120

United States State Poverty Conditions 120

Sources for Tables 122

Abbreviations 123

Glossary 124

Notes and Bibliography 126Sponsors and Cosponsors 135

Now Available:

Causes of Hunger: A User's Guide

For Christian Congregations

A n interactive, intergenerational guide to help organize group orflindividual study of Causes of Hunger. The guide includesactivities, worship aids, Bible studies, and a resource list adapt-able for classes, weekend retreats, and evening meetings. Orderfrom Bread for the World Institute. Cost: $5.00 plus postage andhandling. To order, call (301) 608-2400 or FAX (301) 608-2401.

BEST COPY AVAILANnger 1995 iii

ForewordCAUSES OF HUNGER shows how hunger is interrelated with other so-

cial ills powerlessness, violence, poverty, environmental destruction, anddiscrimination. All these ills have roots in distorted values. Tackling hunger andrelated social problems starts with ethical choices.

We have the means to end hunger. Eliminating widespread hunger in theUnited States is feasible and affordable. Changed U.S. policies could also give ahuge boost to progress against world hunger. But we need to choose, asindividuals and as a society.

Our hunger report last year urged that some of the effort already devoted tohelping hungry people be shifted toward transforming the politics of hunger. Thisyear's report is a more fundamental call to choose what is good and right.

Bread for the World Institute is associated with Bread for the World, a Christiancitizens' movement against hunger. Bread for the World's members account formuch of U.S. citizen action on behalf of poor and hungry people in othercountries. We also make a difference on issues that are important to hungrypeople within the United States. A key to the effectiveness and persistence of thisgrassroots movement is its grounding in Christian moral teaching and faith.

Guilt is not a good motivator. Those who do not grow weary in well doing areoften nourished by an inner, spiritual feast for Christians, joy in response toGod's grace; for others, according to their own traditions.

With only a mustard seed of faith great things are possible. We can end masshunger, and that would be a giant step toward a more wholesome, sustainablesociety and world.

PresidentBread for the World Institute

1 Causes of Hunger

Introduction:The Courage to Chooseby Richard A. Hoehn

CAUSES OF HUNGER probes the most pro-found moral and spiritual contradiction of our age thepersistence of hunger in a world of plenty.

Twenty percent of people in the developing worldsuffer chronic undernutrition. More than a billion peopleare too poor to afford an adequate diet and other essen-tials of life such as health care, housing, sanitation, safewater, and education. More than one-third of the peoplein the world lack the vitamins and minerals they need tolearn, work, and achieve full potential.

In the United States, an estimated 30 million peoplecannot afford to buy enough food to maintain goodhealth. One of every five children lives in poverty andsometimes goes hungry. More than 10 percent of thepopulation depends on food stamps for part of their diet.

Bread for the World, other public and private agen-cies, and thousands of committed individuals havehelped reduce world malnutrition rates over the past 20years (see "Overview of World Hunger"). But massivehunger persists in most parts of the world. There is stilla wide gap between humanity's professed moral valuesand our collective action. We have allowed hunger tospread in some places, notably Africa, some countriesthat are struggling through the transition from commu-nism, and the United States.

Our previous report, Hunger 1994: Transforming thePolitics of Hunger, showed how the thousands of privateorganizations and millions of individuals who are help-ing hungry people could actually bring hunger in theUnited States to an end and make dramatic stridesagainst hunger worldwide. To do this, the anti-hungermovement must become more political.

The world community has the knowledge and re-sources to eliminate hunger. In the United States, weclearly need an expansion of federal food programs andother domestic anti-poverty programs, and a reform offoreign aid and other policies toward developing coun-tries. Reforms along these lines are spelled out in the1989 Bellagio Declaration on world hunger and the 1991Medford Declaration on U.S. hunger, endorsed byscores of experts and by organizations representingmillions of people.' But despite the educational andorganizing efforts that have brought incremental

progress in recent years, we still lack sufficient politicalwill to take even obvious and relatively uncontroversialactions that would reduce hunger.

This report shows how hunger is one piece of a com-plex of interrelated social ills. Hungry people in theUnited States depend on food stamps, but many wouldnot need food stamps if they had access to good jobs.Hungry people in Sudan need food aid, but if they werenot living in a war zone, they would be able to plantand harvest crops needed to survive.

Just as providing jobs or ending wars could reduceworld hunger, progress in reducing hunger can lead toprogress on other fronts. For example, less hunger andpoverty would surely mean that social tensions thatoften lead to violent conflicts would recede.

Thus, people who are moved to end hunger findthemselves united with people who are working againstwar, communal violence, racism, poverty, human rightsabuses, gender discrimination, and despoliation of theplanet. Ending hunger is part of a larger vision for soci-ety, a vision exemplified in this excerpt from the biblicalbook of Isaiah:

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth . . .

J e r u s a l e m to be a d e l i g h t and her p e o pl e a joy . . .

weeping and cries for help shall never again be heardin her.There no child shall ever again die an infant,no old person fail to live out life;every child shall live a hundred years before dying. . . .

People shall build houses and live to inhabit them,plant vineyards and eat their fruit. . . .

My people shall live the long life of a tree,and my chosen shall enjoy the fruit of their labor.They shall not toil in vain or raise children formisfortune.For they are offspring of the blessed of the Lordand their issue after them;before they call me, I will answer,and while they are still speaking I will listen.The wolf and the lamb shall feed togetherand the lion shall eat straw like other cattle.They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy moun-tain, says the Lord.

Isaiah 65:17-25 (adapted from New English Bible)te44

Hunger 1995 2

Introduction

The Importance of ChoicesCauses of Hunger is about the conscious and often

unconscious choices we make choices we make asindividuals, and collective choices we make asconsumers and as voters; choices that may appear in-nocuous in their own right but may contribute to theperpetuation of hunger, poverty, racism, and violence.

For example, in 1991, U.S. citizen-consumers chose tospend:

More on jewelry and watches ($30.1 billion) than onfederal food and nutrition assistance ($28.5 billion), orthe entire Gross Domestic Product of 20 low-incomecountries in the world;

More than three times as much on tobacco products($47.8 billion) as on foreign aid ($15.9 billion);

Almost twice as much on toys and sporting goods($32.2 billion) as federal housing assistance ($17.2billion); and

More on household cleaning and polishing prepara-tions ($52.8 billion) than on federal contributions toeducation, training, and employment services ($43.4billion).2

No one consciously decides to buy a can of beerinstead of a can of baby milk. Yet it is easy to make whatappear to be small, individual choices without beingquite aware of their cumulative consequences and thetradeoffs that are being made. The fact is that choices,just like votes in an election, do finally add up to out-comes.

A volunteer who served in Iraq during the Gulf Warreported, "Twenty years of work by my [developmentorganization] was wiped out by a single surgical airstrike." The choices made by governments which indemocratic countries reflect individual voters' choicescan make important differences to hungry people.

What choices would bring historical reality closer toreligious and humane visions such as Isaiah's newJerusalem?

Causes of Hunger outlines broad changes in politicsand economics to empower poor people, and changes inattitudes to protect vulnerable groups and nature. It offersa critique of the attitudes that contribute to powerlessnessamong hungry people, racial and ethnic conflict, poverty,

3 Causes of Hunger

environmental damage, war and violence, discrimination,and neglect of vulnerable people. These are the sins thatconspire to foment mass hunger in a world of plenty.

Causes of Hunger urges that we ground our choicessmall and large, individual and collective, political andeconomic in ethical values. These include empower-ment and justice, stewardship of common resources forthe common good, and affirmation of diversity and com-munity. The persistence of mass hunger is, at its root, amoral and religious challenge.

Empowerment and JusticePeople are poor and hungry because they lack the

power to be otherwise, in part because they are dominat-ed by others who are more powerful.

Power can be used for good or ill. It is good to havesome control over one's life and environment, to beprotected from the whims of nature and other people,to express and develop one's own potential. But peopleoften use power to dehumanize others and destroynature.

The struggle for power can foster a culture of vio-lence, manifested in hunger, rape, child abuse, murderon street corners, ethnic conflict, militarism, and war. Italso fosters acceptance of the idea that problems aresolved by attacking and destroying rather than support-ing and nurturing.

"Powerlessness and Politics" (Cause 1) examines theuses and misuses of political and economic power, andadvocates empowerment of marginalized peoples, partic-ularly through grassroots organizations. It shows that byfeeding hungry people and changing public policies,mainstream society can help vulnerable people transformthe politics of hunger.

The history of the 20th century has to a large extentbeen a history of wars first of "world wars" and now ofmany "small" wars. "Violence and Militarism" (Cause 2)points out that war, civil strife, and militarism lead tohunger, uprooting people from their homes and families,creating refugees, draining resources into military bud-gets, and destroying the environment and infrastructurethat people need to survive. This chapter suggests that, insituations where power and interests clash, opposingparties should pursue conflict resolution and peace mak-ing as alternatives to violence.

Causes of Hunger

Despite the crises in Bosnia and Rwanda, fresh windsare breathing hope across some parts of the globe. Thefearsome Berlin Wall is rubble. Positive change is occur-ring in South Africa and the Middle East. The civil andhuman rights, women's, peace, environmental, and relat-ed movements have empowered hundreds of millions ofpeople. People are no longer content to have othersdecide things for them.

In a world where power is broadly shared, all citizens,especially those traditionally excluded, would be able toassert their concerns and interests in the life of politicalcommunity. Civic culture and democracy would flourish.Justice, not "just us," would be the political norm. No onewould have to fear for the next day's bread.

Stewardship and the Common Good"Poverty in a Global Economy" (Cause 3) and "Popula-

tion, Consumption, and Environment" (Cause 4) discuss acomplex web of factors that shape the context in whichhumans live and struggle to survive.

Lack of money to buy food and lack of land to growcrops are the immediate causes of most hunger. Threequarters of a billion of the earth's peopleare desperatelypoor; they are also undernourished. Their misery exposesour collective failure to practice sound "economics" a

term that has its origins in the concept of "householdmanagement," referring to the stewardship of acquiringand managing property in order to support the family.These two chapters suggest that the human household isnot being well managed, that the present generation isrobbing Old Mother Hubbard's garden as well as hercupboard. If we continue to let this happen, what will beleft to meet her grandchildren's needs?

Human beings must consume natural resources tohave food, shelter, and safety; and these, in turn, areprerequisites to life's higher goals. But in wealthy soci-eties, the means (money, wealth) sometimes replace theends (human fulfillment) for which they exist. "Good" in"the good life" is reduced to "goods." Pursuit of materialgoods and private consumption replace spiritual, artistic,and intellectual pursuits; family and civic mindedness.

The $341 billion spent in the United States in 1993 onrecreation and entertainment, for example, is 100 timesthe amount spent on the Special Supplemental FoodProgram for Women, Infants, and Children.' Our individ-

ual decisions about entertainment and politics contributeto this scandal.

The crisis of spirit in industrialized countries and thedeterioration of family and communal values are interre-lated with a culture that thinks first in terms of financialgoods rather than the good of humanity or nature as awhole. Excessive individualism and the high failure rateamong marriages and families have other causes, too.

But a culture dominated by commercial values erodesfamily and community values. Family-oriented systemstreasure familial and community ties and encourageshared activities, stability, and loyalty.' In contrast, a cul-ture oriented toward production and "success" spawnsmobility, prosperity, and segmented relationships. Ittends to look upon people and nature in terms of theiruse and consumption value.

Over time the market system shapes the values thatgovern the choices we make. . . . It is no wonderthat a great many parents in our country sacrificefamily values for greater riches, even in familiesthat are already living like royalty in materialterms by the standards of human history. It is nowonder that men in America typically channel thebest of their enemies into the pursuit of professionaladvancement and choose to allocate little time forfriendship. It is no wonder that shopping centers,not parks or sacred groves, become centers of ourcommunities.

Andrew Bard Schmookler5

Choice needs to regain its moral content. We must bewilling to make hard choices on behalf of the commongood, to ask which individual and collective decisionsenhance the human community and nature and whichcontribute to the community's impoverishment. We needto fashion a society that encourages and supports goodmoral choices both private and public.

A good steward exercises responsible care over thatwhich has been entrusted. In today's interdependentworld, that is just about everything, everywhere, andeveryone. Tuberculosis and trade, refugees and refuse,

Hunger 1995 4

Introduction

cash and conflict, all flow across national borders. Thewind does not stop at dotted lines on a map. The globeis not so much shrinking as our consciousness andability to act transnationally are enlarging. The fate ofhumanity and nature are also vitally linked.

Our world cries out for public, as well as privatestewardship of people and nature. As we decide to putfirst things first in our economic life, we will changeeconomic policies and institutions as well as lifestylechoices. We will invest in people, because of the imme-diate benefits and to enhance their productivity. We willseek economic policies that foster decent jobs for every-one who can work a daunting goal in a world thatmust generate some 2 billion new jobs over the next 30years to keep up with an expanding population. Wewill grapple with the problems of rapid populationgrowth among many of the world's poor people, unsus-tainable patterns of consumption among the world'saffluent people, and food and agriculture systems whichstrain their environmental underpinnings.

Economics, population, and environment are com-plex matters. Well-meaning people will disagree aboutthe likely effects of policies. But the policy debate nowis dominated more by special interests than differentviews of how best to reduce poverty, hunger, and envi-ronmental destruction.

Fundamentally, we must shift from preoccupationwith getting and spending economic growth to thegoal of sustainable development. This concept empha-sizes poverty reduction, environmental protection, anddemocratic participation rather than expansion of grosseconomic activity as an end in itself. Economic growthis often important to reducing poverty and improvinggeneral well-being, especially in poor countries. ButGNP growth is inadequate as a measure and profoundlymisleading as a vision of progress.

We want a world rich with the beauty of healthy,happy people and a bountiful nature. And basic to at-taining and living the good life is moral choice, thepursuit of the common good, and spiritual depth.

5 Causes of Hunger

Diversity and CommunityMany people go hungry because of discrimination or

neglect, on the basis of race and ethnicity (Cause 5),gender (Cause 6), or age (Cause 7). Discrimination canseize your job, beat you up, and steal your meal. Itdetermines who suffers the most; who is allowed tosurvive; who may share food at the world's table.

We must design a new paradigm of sustainablehuman development that not only generates eco-nomic growth but distributes its benefits equitably;that regenerates the environment instead of de-stroying it; that empowers people rather thanmarginalizing them. It is development that givespriority to the poor, that enlarges their choices andopportunities, and that provides for their participa-tion in events and decisions that shape their lives. Itis development that is pro-people, pro-poor, pro-nature, pro-jobs, and pro-women.

In the final analysis, sustainable human devel-opment is the famine that didn't happen, therefugees that didn't march, the ethnic violence thatdidn't explode, the human rights that weren't vio-lated, the environment that wasn't degraded. . . .

And it must be sustainable from one generation tothe next.

James Gustave Speth,Administrator, United NationsDevelopment Program

Discrimination distorts the natural process of estab-lishing personal and collective identity. Early socializa-tion records "tapes" deep in consciousness which teachthoughts, feelings, and practices for effective action in acomplex world. These tapes shape individual identityme, my gender, my race, us, my family, my community,my tribe, my religion. Sympathy goes first to groupswith which we identify. The tapes also teach about "theother," the stranger, the alien, the foreigner, "them;" andare a basis of tribalisms, nationalisms, ethnocentrisms,and religious intolerance.

Causes of Hunger

Discrimination takes many forms. But its core is dehu-manization treating people as less than fully human.Discriminatory beliefs, feelings, and practices make peo-ple just like us humans with hopes and fears, failuresand successes into objects rather than living, breathingsubjects.

When those suffering discrimination do not have thepower to mount an effective challenge, society, throughcoercion, institutionalizes discrimination in customs, poli-cies, and law. The coercion may take the form of brutephysical force, economic clout, or cultural traditions soweighty that even those who are discriminated againstmay come to think their situation is natural, good, andfair. They may even adopt and act out stereotypes whichhave been forced on them.

In many cases, whole groups of people who are rela-tively weak children, for example, or elderly peoplesuffer neglect from groups of people who are better ableto fend for themselves.

People are discriminated against when they do notreceive a fair share of what life has to offer. They areborn in the "wrong place" or with the "wrong body," andare excluded from food, health care, education, andother necessities and graces of life.

In a world without discrimination, everyone would trulyhave an equal opportunity for a good life. Communitieswould be composed of a diversity of colors and styles thatmirror the diversity of nature. People less able to take careof themselves would be cared for. One way to make thatvision a reality may be to build on common experiencesto create alliances of women and men, young and old,and people of every hue in common cause: the affirmationof life-giving, life-nurturing community.

The Courage to ChooseImagine you were given a menu at birth from which

to choose family, nation, and physical characteristics.Among the choices you must make are:

Rwanda with 40,610 persons per physician (beforethe 1994 genocide) or Austria, where the figure is 230per physician.

Burkina Faso where there is a 91 percent chanceyour mother will be illiterate or Switzerland, whereeveryone can read and write.

Guinea-Bissau where you are likely to die by age 39or Japan, where you will live to age 79.56

Any raciaVethnic mix and your choice of gender, withthe implications that accrue.

Whether a person is born in one nation or another,with an IQ of 55 or 155, blind or sighted, to one familyor another, rich or poor makes all the difference. Chil-

dren born at ground zero at zero hour in Hiroshima in1945 lived five-minute lives. The lottery of birth is thesingle greatest influence on the quality of life, includingwhether a person will be poor, hungry, or powerless.

Many people would choose to be part of a minorityraciaVethnic group and/or female in spite of disadvan-tages. None would choose hunger, illiteracy, impoverish-ment, or a short life span. Yet, we sometimes blame orignore disadvantaged people for the accidents of theirbirth.

The other side of the story is that choice can overcomemany of the effects of chance. After the lottery of birth,choice is the second most important ingredient in life.Families can provide nurture, care, and mentoring fortheir children or make choices that result in the neglectof children. Adults can make powerful choices that im-prove themselves and society. I have watched as a blind,professionally-dressed African American tapped his whitecane to negotiate a busy street crossing in a dangerous,drug-infested neighborhood, while carrying a tiny infanton his back. Courageous choices can overcome physicallimitations and social stigmas. It's just harder.

Thousands, if not millions, of people pray the serenityprayer each day:

God grant me the serenity to acceptthe things I cannot change,the courage to change the things I can,and the wisdom to know the difference.

Anti-hunger activists can think of it as the courage-to-choose prayer, because hunger is something we certainlydo not feel serene about, nor have to accept. We canbequeath a better world to the future. All we need is thecourage, the determination, and the political will toachieve a world that is more just, peaceful, and respectfulof the integrity and diversity of creation. This choice, how-ever, requires changes in the way we think and act. Not

Hunger 1995 6

Introduction

guilt; just responsible action.Morality is about redressing the accidents of birth and

upbringing. Life is not fair, but civilization should try tomake it fairer. In our personal lives, we can care for thechildren and elderly people around us, and reach out todisadvantaged people in our own communities. And ascitizens, we can join together to influence policy decisionsthat affect us all.

Hunger in a world of plenty is an indictment of themoral condition of modem society. Public morality isabout building a society that encourages and supportsgood decisions; about building the structures that enableothers as well as ourselves to have the good life; aboutdoing unto others as we would have them do unto us,whether they live next door or far away.

The spiritual crisis of society is a loss of meaning, tran-scendent values, and constructive action. People who lackmeaning are looking for it in all the wrong places; or noteven looking.

The sharing of food is one of the most central experi-ences of human life in family and community, ritualized inreligious meals and feast days. Food connects people withnature, one another, and God. By working to end hungerand its interrelated causes, such as racism and gender bias,we affirm our community with all people, particularlythose in need.

Eating and sharing food can be an occasion for thanks-giving. Many of us have enough, and more than enough.

Part of the lure of the anti-hunger movement is its feasi-bility. The United States could certainly eliminate masshunger in its midst within a couple of years and at a veryaffordable cost. The program is clear: continued and ex-panded private charitable action, combined with expan-sion of the federal food programs and other anti-povertyprograms. We also know a lot about reducing hungerworldwide. Revamping U.S. foreign assistance and otherU.S. policies toward the developing countries would dra-matically accelerate global progress against hunger. Thesmall step of ending hunger would be a giant moral leapfor humankind.

Economic, social, and political forces can block theachievement of a hunger-free world. We may not elimi-nate domination, impoverishment, and discrimination inour lifetime. But, no matter what the end result or shape ofthe future, we are called to be merciful in a merciless

7 Causes of Hunger

world, to do justice in an unjust world.People who are active in such efforts come to find the

work profoundly satisfying. It is meaningful to know thatthe gifts one has received are being shared; to alleviatehuman distress and protect the environment; to be amongthose who help make a future that is more peaceful, hu-mane, and beautiful. The entire anti-hunger movement is adeeply spiritual endeavor.

As I disembarked from a bus in Indonesia, I asked thetour guide whether his job paid enough to live.

"Oh yes," he assured me, "It pays quite well. After I haveworked a couple of months as a tour guide, I have enough

During the terror of the 1980s, I had occasion totravel with Bishop Medardo Gomez in his home-land of El Salvador. We North Americans acted asa protective international shield.

His favorite term for us was "compafieros" (com-panions) from the Latin "cum" (with) and "panic"(bread). "Compafieros," he would say, "you are theones who break bread with me. You share with methe bread of suffering and the bread of hope inadversity."

Rev. John F. Steinbruck, Pastor,Luther Place Memorial Churchand N Street Village,Washington, D.C.

money to go work for two or three months on an ecologi-cal project to save the jungles of Kalimantan (Bomeo)."

I am Christian; he is probably Muslim. Our skin color,income, family arrangements, and cultures differ. My ac-tivism is focused on justice for hungry people, his on pro-tecting the environment. Yet this stranger serves as aninspiration and reminder of the community of people ofevery race and clan who share in the spiritual work ofcontributing, each in their own way, toward freedom,justice, and sustainability.

The goal is clear. The resources are available. The op-portunity is ours to give as we have received and love aswe are loved..

Dr. Richard A. Hoehn is director of BFW Institute.

12

Causes of Hunger

AcknowledgmentsWe are deeply grateful for the valuable insights provided

by sponsors, cosponsors, and colleagues at a May 1994 con-sultation and in response to drafts of this report. The diverse

list of sponsors European and U.S., domestic and interna-tional, secular and a wide cross section of religious organiza-tions, vividly illustrates that concern for, and action to end,hunger transcends many social divisions.

The following people participated in the May consultation:John Lapp, Mennonite Central Committee; Cheryl Bartz,

National Peace Corps Association; John Coonrod, The HungerProject; Peter Mikuliak, Church World Service; Patricia Young,U.S. National Committee for World Food Day; Jud Dolphin,Food Research and Action Center; Lisa Carr, Catholic Charities;Carol Capps, Church World Service/Lutheran World Relief;David Karns, Christian Children's Fund; Jennifer Urff, WorldHunger Year; Lindsey Ford, Share Our Strength; Nelle TempleBrown, House Banking Committee; Janet Green, Inter Action;Augusta Hammill, Second Harvest; Susan Van Lopik, ChristianReformed Church Committee on Relief; and Mike Rock and

Richard Cobb, Winrock International.

We also received comments and assistance from: Charles D.

Paoli llo, Society for International Development; Jayne Wood,Devres, Inc.; Ellen Messer, Alan Shawn Feinstein World HungerProgram, Brown University; Robin Shell and Karen Randau,

Food for the Hungry International; Father William Byron,Georgetown University; Nancy Wright, Coordination in Devel-opment, Inc.; Suzanne Gervais, Cornell University; Patricia L.

Kutzner, World Hunger Education Service; Suleiyman Nyang,Howard University; Remy Jurenas, Congressional ResearchService; and John Halvorson and colleagues on the national

staff of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The following BFW/BFW Institute activists, board members,and staff provided comments and assistance: Lindsey March,Maria Otero, Sheena Pappalardo, William Whitaker, BowyerFreeman, Frank Hoffman, Larry Hollar, Julie Jarvis, Ellen Jen-nings, Christine Matthews, Susan Park, Sharon Pau ling,Phoebe de Reynier, Kathleen Selvaggio, Lucilla Tan, andCarole Zimmerman.

We appreciate the editorial assistance provided by EllenHoffman, Don Reeves, A. Cecilia Snyder, Aaron Johnson, andNewman Fair. Jashinta D'Costa and Beth Morilla prepared the

statistical tables.

BEST COPY AVAILABLEHunger 1995 8

Overview of World Hun er

do.

Nearly 800 million people are chronically undernourished.

l&

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

by Peter Uvin, Marc J. Cohen,A. Cecilia Snyder, Richard A. Hoehn,and Maureen Harris

Two DECADES AGO, the 1974World Food Conference in Romeexpressed alarm at the prospect of long-term food shortages and massive starva-tion in developing countries. However,every year since then, the world has hadmore than adequate food supplies foreveryone to enjoy a minimally adequatediet (2,350 calories per person per day).Since 1974, the number and proportion ofchronically undernourished people (i.e.,people who do not consume enoughprotein and calories) in the developingworld has fallen significantly.

But global food supplies are not evenlydistributed. Nearly 800 million people (20percent of the developing world's popula-tion) remained undernourished in 1990,the last year for which complete informa-tion is available. At least two billion facedvitamin and mineral deficiencies thatposed serious health threats.

Seventy percent of the world's hungrypeople live in the Asia-Pacific region, butboth the number and proportion of hun-gry people has fallen there since 1970. Incontrast, the absolute number and per-centage of hungry people has increased insub-Saharan Africa. Persistent, growingpoverty has contributed to the continent'sfood problems, along with debt, economicdecline, poor terms of trade, unfavorableweather for agriculture, war, and govern-mental collapse. Poor economic condi-tions during the 1980s also led to increas-ed hunger in Latin America and theCaribbean. Hunger has declined substan-tially in the Middle East, but 12 millionpeople there remain undernourished.

Though many people are likely to thinkof famine when they hear the word"hunger," famine actually affects relatively

few people and the amountof food needed to prevent itis relatively small. Faminescan be caused by droughtand other natural catastro-phes, such as floods andearthquakes, or by humanactions such as war, civilconflict, and the use of foodas a weapon. The AlanShawn Feinstein WorldHunger Program at BrownUniversity estimates that in1992, 157 million people, or3 percent of the world's population, livedin countries affected by famine or foodshortage (though not everyone in thesecountries actually suffered from hunger).

In the industrial world, economicchanges have reduced wages among low-skill workers (see Cause 3). Governmentsface political and financial constraints ontheir ability to fund social welfare pro-grams. These trends have contributed togrowing food insecurity. In the UnitedStates, many low-income people find thatthey run out of food at the end of themonth. But hunger in wealthy nations isneither as severe nor as widespread as indeveloping countries.

Figure 0.1:Chronically Undernourished -

Developing Countries

942n 1000

.= n.111111750

I I I I I

A

500

I I I I I

2501 I I I I0

1970 1975 1980 1990

976

000036% 33% 26% 20%

Percentage of Population Undernourished

Source: U.N. Administrative Committee onCoordination/Subcommittee on Nutrition (ACC/SCN).

Overall Trends inDeveloping Country Hunger

According to the Food and AgricultureOrganization of the United Nations (FAO),the number of chronically undernourishedpeople ("people who on average duringthe course of a year did not consumeenough food" to maintain their weightand engage in "light activity"') in the de-veloping world began declining in 1975,from 976 million, to 786 million in 1990.During the same period, total populationin the developing world increased by 1.1

Hunger 1995 10

Overview of World Hunger

Table 0.1: Number of People Affected by MicronutrientMalnutrition (Millions),21988-1991

Region

Iodine Deficiency Vitamin A Deficiency Iron Deficiency

At Risk Goiter At Risk Blindness Anemia

Africa 181 86 18 1.3 206

Asia & Oceania 909 317 157 11.4 1,674

Americas 168 63 2 0.1 94

Europe 141 97 0 0.0 27

Eastern Mediterranean 173 93 13 1.0 149

World 1,572 655 190 13.8 2,150

Source: FAO and World Health Organization.

billion. As a result, the proportion ofundernourished people dropped from 36percent in 1970 to 20 percent in 1990.

Micronutrient deficiencies (e.g., inade-quate intake of iron, iodine, or otherminerals and vitamins) are a less obviousform of malnutrition than simple lack ofsufficient calories and protein. Lack ofiodine can lead to goiter (an enlargementof the thyroid gland) and mental retarda-tion. Vitamin A deficiency can causeblindness and death. Iron deficiencycauses anemia, which reduces work andschool performance and increases sus-ceptibility to disease. These problems of"hidden hunger" are more widespreadand have deeper consequences than isgenerally appreciated (see Table 0.1). Yetprevention or treatment is quite inexpen-sive and can be done without threatening"the existing economic and politicalstructures."' The essays on Causes 6 and7 discuss the health effects of hiddenhunger among women, children, andelderly people.

11 Causes of Hunger

AfricaHunger is widespread and getting

worse in sub-Saharan Africa. Long-termeconomic decline, international debt, lowcommodity prices, poor results from thestructural adjustment policies supported

1i

1000

750

500

Figure 0.2: Africa

250

01970 1975 1980 1990

O 1135% 37% 36% 37%


94 1121

128175

by the World Bank and the InternationalMonetary Fund, and civil strife all con-tributed to growing poverty and hungerin Africa in the 1980s.

One of every five African women ofchildbearing age is underweight (weigh-ing less than 100 pounds) and likely tobe malnourished. This heightens obstetricrisks and increases the chance of bearinglow birthweight babies.

Almost a third of African childrenunder age five are undernourished, aboutthe same proportion as in 1970.

The growth of food output has notkept pace with population growth.Average food availability per person isbelow minimum daily requirements, with

Causes of Hunger

1,500 fewer calories available per person perday than in the United States or Canada.

In 1992, drought and crop failures left23 million Southern and East Africansdependent on emergency food aid. Africaaccounted for over half of the emergencyfood deliveries to victims of war and civilunrest carried out by the United Nations(U.N.) World Food Program that year.Early warning systems set up in the mid-1980s and rigorous action by local com-munities, African governments, and inter-national donors avoided what could havebeen a massive famine.

By the end of 1993, African countrieshosted 6 million refugees, more than anyother world region. Millions more Africansare displaced within their own countries.Most uprooted Africans are extremelyvulnerable to hunger and depend on foodaid for survival.

In 1993-1994, the devastating combina-tion of war, mass migration, and poorweather again left millions of East Africansfacing a food crisis. Violence in Rwandamay have left 1 million people dead andnearly 5 million displaced out of a totalpopulation of 8 million. Ongoing civilstrife in Angola, Liberia, Sudan, andBurundi disrupted local food systems. Theinternational community was relativelyresponsive to relief needs, but hesitant insupporting mediation efforts and peace-keeping forces.

Asia-Pacific4Hunger in the Asia-Pacific region has

declined dramatically over the past 20years. The undernourished proportion ofthe population has dropped from one-thirdin South and Southeast Asia and nearly halfin China to 24 percent in South Asia, 17percent in Southeast Asia, and 16 percentin China. This impressive achievement

§ 1000

it. 750

E 5002iv

250

E

Figure 0.3: Asia-Pacific

1970 1975 1980 1990

40% 36% 25% 20%


Table 0.2: Malnutrition Rates for ChildrenUnder Five, Asia and the Pacific, 1975 and 1990

Child Malnutrition Rate

1975 1990

Sub-Region

South Asia 68% 59%

Southeast Asia 44% 31%

China 26% 22%

Source: ACC/S01.

resultedmuch of the region, complemented bylarge-scale public investments in nutrition,health, and education (see Cause 3). High

from strong economic growth in

BEST COPY AVAILABLE Hunger 1995 12


Table 0.3: Incidence of Anemia amongWomen of Childbearing Age, 1980s

Region All Women Pregnant Women

South Asia

Southeast Asia

Developing World Average

Source: ACC/SCN.

64 64

48 56

42 51

rates of population growth meant that theabsolute number of chronically under-nourished South Asians increased from255 million in 1970 to 277 million in 1990.During this same period, however, theabsolute number of hungry people de-clined in Southeast Asia (from 101 millionto 74 million) and China (from 406 millionto 189 million).

The scale of the decline in Asian-Pacifichunger since 1975 more than offset theworsening picture in Africa and LatinAmerica, and accounts for much of thetotal decrease in world hunger.

Average caloric availability per personis below minimum requirements in SouthAsia. In the rest of the region, it is ade-quate or better.

Despite the gains, Asia and the Pacificcontinue to face major hunger problems,especially among women of childbearingage and children. South Asia has the high-est proportion of underweight women ofchildbearing age in the world (60 per-cent), and Southeast Asia ranks second(44 percent).

South Asia also has the world's highestincidence of malnutrition among childrenunder five; Southeast Asia ranks second(see Table 0.2). Similarly, Asian childrenare more likely to suffer chronic undernu-trition: during the 1980s, the proportion ofchronically undernourished (or "stunted,"

13 Causes of Hunger

i.e., below the expected heights for theirage) children between two and five yearsold was 65 percent in India, 41 percent inChina, and 53 percent in the rest of Asia.All other developing regions have lowerrates of stunting.

Children who lose weight because ofshort term undernutrition can catch uplater, approximately regaining their nor-mal weight, provided they receive ade-quate food. Stunting, however is largelyirreparable. Stunted children are likely toremain below the average weight for theirage throughout their lives.

The proportion of undernourishedpreschool children (and of stunting) inSouth Asia, and to a lesser extent inSoutheast Asia, is striking. It is double therate in sub-Saharan Africa, although allother indicators of poverty, food availabili-ty per person, and child mortality aremuch worse in sub-Saharan Africa than inSouth Asia.

The numbers on childhood malnutritionare subject to much dispute. Some expertsargue that South Asian children actuallyneed fewer calories than children in theUnited States (whose growth rates are thebasis for international standards) and are"small but healthy." However, FAO andothers insist that when Asian children arefed better, their growth resembles that ofU.S. children.

Micronutrient deficiencies are especiallyserious in the region. Lack of vitamin Aamong preschool children is particularlysevere in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh,and the Philippines. Thirty-six percent ofAsians are at risk of goiter. The region'swomen are more likely to suffer from irondeficiency anemia during their child-bearing years than the average developingcountry woman (see table 0.3).

Causes of Hunger

Figure 0.4: Latin America

1000§

4,

_=E8

1r7

E

1000 g_

.

=

ESi

750 750

500 500

250

53 53 47 58

250

= _111.1_111111_INFMAgn_0

1970 1975 1980 1990

19% 17% 13% 13%


Latin America and theCaribbean

The international debt crisis and ensu-ing austerity policies caused an increase inhunger in Latin American and theCaribbean during the 1980s. The propor-tion and number of hungry people de-clined between 1970 and 1980. But theproportion stagnated and the number ofhungry people increased during the 1980s.

Between 1975 and 1990, malnutritionrates for children under five declinedfrom 19 percent to 15 percent in CentralAmerica, and from 16 percent to 8 percentin South America. Families and some gov-ernments made special efforts to protect

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Figure 0.5: Middle East

32 26 15 12

1970 1975 1980 1990000023% 17% 10% 5%


children from the hardships provoked bythe debt crisis.

Income inequality in the region is along-standing cause of hunger. Hunger isusually worse in rural areas and especiallyamong indigenous people.

Middle EastBetween 1970 and 1990, hunger declined

dramatically in both relative and absoluteterms in the Middle East, from 23 percent ofthe population (32 million people) to 5percent (12 million). Higher oil prices madesome countries rich and brought a degree ofprosperity to most of the region, allowingincreased food imports.

Hunger 1995 14


Food availability per person increased28 percent from 1970 to 1990. Undernutri-tion in preschool children fell from 20percent in 1975 to 13 percent in 1990.

There are major variations among coun-tries in the region, however, and the Gulfwar of 1990-1991 created serious foodproblems. People in Iraq have been hard-hit by the international embargo, andcountries such as Yemen, which depend-ed on labor migration to the Gulf, havealso suffered.

Figure 0.6: Average UnemploymentRate in Member Countries of the

European Union, 1985-1994

10%

5%

15 Causek0Htzkg

Western EuropeThe member countries of the European

Union (EU) have faced slow economicgrowth and high unemployment duringthe 1990s. There is a trend of reducedsocial spending, often defended as thekey to renewed economic vigor. All thisincreases the potential for food insecurityamong low-income people.

In 1993, almost a quarter of the laborforce was without work in Spain, alongwith 12 percent in France, Denmark, andItaly; 10 percent in the United Kingdomand Belgium; 9 percent in Germany; and 6percent in the Netherlands. Unemploy-ment rates for youth aged 16 to 24 areespecially worrisome: 23 percent inFrance, 28 percent in Italy, and 33 percentin Spain.

In mid-1993, the EU poverty rate (de-fined as those receiving incomes belowhalf the EU average) was nearly 23 per-cent. Homelessness affected an estimated5 million people, about 1.5 percent of theEU population. The number of food banksin the region has grown rapidly since thefirst one opened in Paris in 1984.

Twenty-seven percent of Europe's pop-ulation is at risk of iodine deficiency, in-cluding 10 million people in Germany.

At the end of 1993, Western Europehosted about 900,000 refugees, largely asa result of fighting in former Yugoslavia.

North AmericaThe United States

U.S. hunger decreased significantlybetween the late 1960s and mid-1970s.This was partly because the federal gov-ernment substantially expanded its foodand nutrition programs, and partly be-cause of broad-based economic growth.

But hunger increased in the 1980s be-cause of cutbacks in social welfare

O

4'

Causes of Hunger

Figure 0.7: United States

gtiC=o

.1

4 Adl

1000

6-^

750

Cl0,

500

250E

20 30

01985 1990

"4a

G8% G12%Hungry Percentage of Population

spending and long-term decline in theaverage worker's real wages. Between1985 and 1990, the number of people inthe United States who lacked enough toeat each month increased by 50 percent,from 20 million to 30 million 12 percentof the total population. This included 12million children under the age of 18.5

A weak economy in the early 1990scontributed to further growth in the ranksof hungry people. The unemployment ratein 1993 averaged 6.7 percent. Twenty-sixmillion people utilized food pantries andsoup kitchens affiliated with the SecondHarvest national food bank network in1992-1993. Twenty-seven million people

participated in the Food Stamp Program inApril 1993; a year later, the figure wasnearly 28 million.

Much U.S. hunger runs in cycles, ap-pearing the last week of the month whenfood stamps, Social Security benefits, andpaychecks run out. Unbalanced diets arealso a problem. Food donated to charita-ble agencies may not be high in nutrition.Low-income people often do not haveaccess to large grocery stores, and so mustshop in smaller convenience stores wherenutritious foods may be unavailable orexpensive.

For years, anti-hunger groups such asBread for the World have urged the estab-lishment of a national nutrition monitoringsystem. The U.S. government is now final-ly putting it into place, so we will in thefuture have better information on hungerin the United States.

Growing Poverty. Poverty hasincreased in the United States in recentyears, contributing to food insecurity. In1992, inflation-adjusted median householdincome ($30,786) was $2,000 less than in1989.

More than 40 percent of all poor peopleworked some time during 1992 and morethan 9 percent worked full time. The fed-eral minimum wage of $4.25 an hourabout $750 a month for full-time workbefore Social Security and income taxdeductions is inadequate to support afamily. In 1993, the real value of the mini-mum wage was 22 percent below theaverage level in the 1970s.

Holes in the Safety Net. The maxi-mum median monthly benefit possiblefrom Aid to Families with Dependent Chil-dren (AFDC), the main welfare program,plus food stamps, is $647 for a family ofthree, 72 percent of the poverty line.AFDC provides cash assistance to needychildren up to age 18 and their single

1 BEST COPY AIWA Tr4,1,;4 P t r 1995 16

Every fifthchild in theUnited Statesfaces hunger.


mothers or caretakers. In 1993, 14 millionparents and children in 5 million familiesreceived benefits. The value of AFDCpayments averaged 66 percent of thepoverty line in 1970 but only 41 percentby 1991.

One of every six U.S. residents receivedfood stamps or other federal food assis-tance in 1993. Yet cost-effective federalfood programs such as the Special Supple-mental Food Program for Women, Infants,and Children (WIC) are underfunded, andcannot enroll all the eligible people.

Food stamps are vouchers which canbe redeemed for food at grocery stores tohelp poor families meet their basic nutri-tional needs. Eighty-seven percent of re-cipients are women, children, or elderlypeople. Food stamps provide, on average,seventy-five cents per person per meal per

17 Causes of Hunger

day. They are not much help to homelesspeople who lack kitchens to store andprepare food. During the early 1980s, asthe poverty rate was rising, the govern-ment cut hundreds of thousands of peoplefrom the rolls and reduced the benefits of15 million. The cuts were restored in thelate 1980s.

Although the Food Stamp Program is anentitlement with funding available to alleligible people, it is estimated that only 51to 66 percent of those eligible actuallyparticipate, due in part to poor outreachefforts. The Mickey Leland ChildhoodHunger Relief Act of 1993 made importantchanges to update the program to reflectfood needs in light of higher costs forhousing and cars.

Canada

Poor people in Canada are increasinglyreliant on charity to feed themselves andtheir families. Social and economic entitle-ments are declining.

In 1992, the number of people livingbelow the poverty line grew to 4.3 millionpeople (16.1 percent of the Canadianpopulation). Single parent families headedby women below age 65 and childrenyounger than 18 are those who are mostoften poor.

Child poverty continues to be high,though lower than in the United States.About 18 percent of all Canadian childrenlive in poverty. According to the CanadianAssociation of Food Banks, 40 percent offood bank recipients are children. In 1994,an estimated 800,000 children receivedassistance from a food bank. More than 25percent of homeless Canadians are chil-dren. The number of communities withfood banks grew from 436 in 1993 to 463in 1994, and most food banks servedmore people.

In 1993, the province of Alberta passedlegislation to balance the budget by 1996.

Causes of Hunger

In order to achieve this goal, massive cutswere made to social programs.Allowances for basic necessities such asshelter and food were slashed. Conse-quently, the number of needy peopleassisted at food banks increased. In somecommunities, food banks reported thatdemand for their services had increasedby 86 percent.'

In Newfoundland, the collapse of thecod fishing industry has meant the loss of30,000 jobs. A five year, $1.9 billion gov-ernment program, The Atlantic GroundfishStrategy (TAGS), will provide emergencyfinancial and job retraining assistance.Most participating fishermen have never-theless lost 70 percent of their income. Nomore than a third of those who lost theirjobs will ever work in fishing again.'

Former Soviet Union andCentral and Eastern Europe

The former Soviet Union and Centraland Eastern Europe have been undergo-ing unusually rapid and tumultuous eco-nomic and political change. Widespreadviolence is contributing to hunger in theformer Yugoslavia and several of thenewly independent states of the formerSoviet Union. Poverty and weakeconomies have created serious foodproblems in former Soviet Central Asia.

In contrast, in Central and Eastern Eu-rope, the transition from communism tomarket capitalism seems to be takinghold. Food prices are slowly stabilizingand there is a general trend toward pur-chasing less expensive vegetables andbread rather than higher priced dairy andmeat products.

Central and Eastern EuropeIn Poland, Hungary, and the Czech and

Slovak Republics, food prices stabilizedbetween 1991 and 1993 after initial

soaring increases following the end ofgovernment subsidies. Incomehas fallen, but a wide range ofnew goods have appearedon the market, increasingthe choices available.

The Slovak Republichas the weakest economy amongthese countries. Relatively highinflation and unemploymentare expected to continue in1994, with further declines infood intake likely.

In Albania, Romania, andBulgaria, the development ofan efficient market orientedfood system has proceededmore slowly. All three coun-tries experienced steep foodprice inflation in 1993.

Former YugoslaviaThe situation in former Yu-

goslavia remains grim. Nearlythree million people in Bosniaare at risk of hunger and expo-sure, and are dependent onUnited Nations rations. Theircondition is worsened byBosnian Serb forces' systematicblocking of relief convoys.Food and medicine are clearlyused as weapons in the violentstruggle over Bosnia's future.

In the besieged city of Srebrenica, tens ofthousands of starving Muslims have beenshelled daily by the Serbs and existing on adiet of tree buds and cakes made fromground corn cobs. Disease and hunger wereresponsible for killing many of the 1,000children who died in Srebrenica betweenOctober 1992 and May 1993. Air drops offood and medicine have helped, but 10percent of the children experience scurvy, adisease caused by vitamin C deficiency. A

_1111/16.__

Table 0.4: Average CalorieSupply Per Person, SovietUnion, 1990

Republic

Moldova

Turkmenistan

Ukraine

Kyrgyzstan

Belarus

Azerbaijan

Russia

Uzbekistan

Kazakhstan

Tajikistan

Armenia

Georgia

Source: FAO.

1990 Average

Calorie Supplyper Person

3,485

2,757

3,363

2,710

3,212

2,704

3,153

2,635

3,025

2,546

2,778

2,494

9wL Hunger 1995 18


third of the city's refugees are less thanthree years old.

The Serb siege of Gorazde in Marchand April 1994 blocked food and medicalsupplies for the city's 65,000 people. Serbsdelayed the evacuation of seriouslywounded people.

Baltic StatesThe governments of Estonia, Latvia, and

Lithuania have removed or reduced virtual-ly all Soviet-era subsidies and regulation ofproduction, wages, domestic commerce,and foreign trade. Incomes are decliningwhile food prices are increasing. Non-foodprices have also risen, making living condi-tions unduly difficult for many.

Former Soviet UnionIn 1990, before the breakup of the Sovi-

et Union, the constituent republics en-joyed average calorie supplies per personin excess of minimum requirements (seeTable 0.4). The variation between Moldo-va, where the supply was highest, andGeorgia, where it was lowest, was 40percent, with average availability per per-son lower in Georgia than in South Ameri-ca. Since independence, the continuedstate of civil strife in Georgia has likelyworsened the food situation.

The newly independent states' agricul-tural imports fell considerably in 1993-1994compared to the year before. Crop yieldsrose due to partly to improved weather,but mainly because of higher prices.

In Russia, overall food consumptiondropped in 1993, while inflation soared toan annual rate of 1,000 percent. Foodprices grew more slowly, but the ratiobetween the incomes of the highest andlowest 10 percent of earners increasedfrom eight to one in 1992 to 11 to one in

19 Causes of Hunge,e. 24

1993. Unemployment was estimated at 8percent to 11 percent. There was nowidespread hunger in 1992, as Russiansstill consumed over 2,500 calories per dayon average, and most enjoyed a diet similarto that of Northern Europeans. In the Unit-ed States, the average intake is 2,200 calo-ries per day.

Ukraine's 1993 inflation rate was 2,700percent, up from 2,500 percent in 1992.But there is no evidence of hunger, eventhough average wages are $10 to $30 amonth, and less for people on pensions.Food prices increased by 117 times in1993, while wages increased by 19 times.Household expenditure on food rose from32.8 percent in 1990 to 40.4 percent in1992, and is estimated to have exceeded50 percent in 1993. Unemployment ratesare expected to increase substantially in1994. People subsist through black mar-kets and informal barter networks, butunless the situation improves, food prob-lems could loom in the future.

The economic situation in Belarus hasdeteriorated in the past several years. Be-tween 1990 and 1993, the price index formost food items increased 500 to 700 times.

The Central Asian republics of Turk-menistan and Uzbekistan primarilygrow cotton. Its cultivation has taken overmore of the land that once produced fruit,vegetables, and meat. Rural diets haveworsened. Maternal malnutrition iswidespread and many newborns showsigns of starvation. Turkmenistan's officialinfant mortality rate of 66.1 per thousandlive births was the highest in the SovietUnion in 1989. The governments are nowtrying to diversify agriculture and increasegrain production to improve the healthand economy of the region.

Causes of Hunger

AfIrovinestanovl

Dr. Peter Uvin is affiliated with the Alan Shawn Fein-stein World Hunger Program at Brown University andthe Community Economic Development Program atNew Hampshire College. Dr. Marc J. Cohen is seniorresearch associate at BFW Institute and editor ofCauses of Hunger. A. Cecilia Snyder and Dr. RichardA. Hoehn are, respectively, research associate anddirector at BFW Institute. Maureen Harris is a nutri-tionist and BFW Institute volunteer.

Sk

moo* memo

Bosnian refugee in Croatia;newspaper headline reads:"Through Terror to GreatSerbia?'1

Photo: UNIICR

BEST COPY AVAILATifiger 1995 20

Powerlessness and Politics

Moto: CN}ICR

Afghan refugees in Iran awaiting repatriation. A stronger anti-hunger movement would makethe needs and interests of hungry people a higher priority for policy makers.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 40

by Marc J. Cohen

Hunger is a question of politics andpower. In democracy or dictator-ship, lack of political influence

contributes to the persistence of hunger.Although international organizations pro-vide assistance that can reduce hunger,they are reluctant to challenge the politicalstructure that controls the allocation ofresources. Case studies show that it is pos-sible to overcome the powerlessness thatunderlies hunger. We need to strengthenpolitical forces that favor hungry people,especially organizations that empowerpoor and hungry people themselves.

Hunger is not just about eating enoughcalories or having enough iodine in the diet.Fundamentally, hunger is a political question:hungry people lack the power to end theirhunger. The web that connects politicalpower and hunger manifests itself globallyand within nation states and communities.

Ending hunger requires appropriatepublic policies. These include direct foodassistance, education, sound agriculturalpractices, affordable health care, sanitationand safe water systems, job creation, andassuring access to productive assets. Mus-tering the political will to make anti-hungerpolicies a top government priority requiresa strong public constituency.

Hungry people need to be empoweredand thus require resources and organiza-tions which they can truly call their own.People of good will who are neither poornor hungry have an important role to playin empowering hungry people and intransforming the politics of hunger. Thoseaffected by hunger must participate fully indevising and implementing solutions. But awide array of individuals and organizations

(both public and private) can help by pro-viding technical assistance, training, funds,and solidarity, and by advocating policychange.

Hungry people lack resources: theygenerally do not own land to grow food,and their incomes are too low to afford toprovide their families an adequate diet on aregular basis. They also usually lack effec-tive organizations to articulate their inter-ests. As a result, governments frequentlyfail to enact anti-hunger programs andinstead devote their attention to peoplewith wealth and power, who can readilyeffect political change.

Yet policies to end hunger have a highsocial payoff. Improved nutrition meansmore productive workers, healthier people,and children who reach their full potentialas members of the human family.

The Problem ofHunger and Power

The case of the Philippines illustrateswell the connection between hunger andpower. Most people live in rural areas, but10 percent of the population owns 90 per-cent of the land. Politically prominent fami-lies and multinational companies own hugeplantations. Affluent urban professionalshave invested in smaller farms. Meanwhile,70 percent of rural people earn too little toafford an adequate diet. Two-thirds ofthem are landless or sharecroppers. Thisunjust pattern has fueled 25 years of armedrebellion. Most Filipinos support land re-form, but landowners dominate theCongress. The 1988 agrarian reform lawcovers little farmland, and few poor ruralhouseholds have received any of the landthat is available for redistribution.

U.S. public policies are also biasedagainst hungry people. Between 1978 and

Hungry peoplelack the powerto end theirhunger.

Hunger 19.95 22

Just as lack ofpolitical influence

causes hunger,hunger can

contribute tolack of clout.

23 Causes of Hunger


1989, the federal minimum wage lost25 percent of its purchasing power. By1991, full-time minimum wage work onlypaid $8,840 per year. The poverty level atwhich a family of three might achievebare food security was $10,723. Between1981 and 1990, Congress refused to in-crease the minimum over $3.35 per hour.During this period, Congress reducedcorporate, capital gains, and top personaltax rates. Between 1980 and 1990, theafter-tax income gains of the richest onepercent of income earners (2.5 millionpeople) equalled the total income of thepoorest 20 percent (50 million people).Members of Congress get most of theircampaign dollars from people in the toptax brackets, along with representatives ofnarrow special interest groups.

The Philippines and the United Stateshold regular elections and enjoy opencivil societies (i.e., space for voluntaryassociations). Under authoritarian govern-ments, hungry people have even lessinfluence over policy and freedom topursue their rights and interests collective-ly. In the 1970s and 1980s, the militarydictatorship in Sudan seized unused farmand forest land to create large mechanizedfarms. Often, villages received no com-pensation and had no avenues for legalappeal. The policy reduced the land avail-able for fallowing and grazing and less-ened access to fuel wood and wild foods.This increased the severity of famines in1984-1985 and 1990-1991.

Just as lack of political influence causeshunger, hunger can contribute to lack ofclout. It is often difficult (though not im-possible, as shown below) for peoplewho are struggling for basic survival tobecome effective participants in politicsand policy-making. How does this com-plex relationship play itself out at theglobal level?

26

International PoliticsDuring the colonial era, international

economic and political power coincided.Colonialism was a system of politicaldomination and unequal exchange, ascolonies provided raw materials and farmproducts and bought colonizers' manufac-tured goods. Today, few colonies remain.Some former colonies now have per capi-ta incomes and levels of industrializationrivaling those of some onetime colonizers(compare Singapore, Taiwan, and SouthKorea to Spain and Portugal). But formost former colonies now called "devel-oping" or "Third World" countries theold trading patterns remain intact. Coppercontinues to dominate Zambia's exports,and sugar those of the Dominican Repub-lic. The northern hemisphere still controlsdisproportionate wealth.

International Economic Power. In-dustrial countries maintain their economicpower through such mechanisms as high-er tariffs on processed imports from devel-oping countries than on raw materials.These restrict sales of more profitablegoods, the production of which wouldcreate jobs and help reduce hunger. Suchtariffs also mean less foreign exchange fordebt service and imports. Many poorcountries manufacture clothing and tex-tiles for export, but wealthy countriesrestrict imports of such goods. These bar-riers cost the developing countries $80billion per year, more than they receive inaid from rich nations.

Industrial countries do import manufac-tured goods from developing countries atreduced tariffs, but this generally involvesshipping parts to the Third World for as-sembly and re-import. A relatively smallshare of the profits go to developingcountries. The chief beneficiaries are in-dustrial country firms which manufactureand market the products. Poor and

Causes of Hunger

hungry people receive relatively little ad-vantage, and these programs mainly in-volve better-off developing countries.

The power imbalance is even codifiedinto international trade rules. The GeneralAgreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)bans most import quotas and export subsi-dies, but the United States (the dominantpower in world trade for much of thepost-World War II era) pressed to exemptagriculture from both prohibitions. GATT'sMulti-Fibre Arrangement also createdbecause of U.S. pressure has permittedtextile and garment import quotas. Theseexemptions have limited hunger- andpoverty-reducing employment in develop-ing countries while protecting the richcountries' declining industries and pre-serving their dominance of agriculturaltrade.

The recent agreement to tighten GATT'sagricultural export subsidy rules was not aresponse to Third World demands. Instead,it resulted from U.S. insistence that otherleading exporters, particularly France, end"unfair competition." Industrial countriesalso agreed to phase out textile quotas (tothe benefit of some developing countries)in exchange for stronger patent protectionsthat will profit rich countries and multina-tional firms.

International Political Power. Themain formal institution of world politics,the United Nations, reflects power realities.China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom,and the United States each have a veto inthe Security Council, which can authorizemilitary interventions such as the multina-tional force which expelled Iraq fromKuwait in 1991.

The most powerful countries do not faceU.N. limits on their actions. In 1984, theWorld Court (another U.N. body) orderedthe United States to stop miningNicaragua's ports. When the U.S.

government refused to recognize thecourt's jurisdiction, the court could take nofurther action.

In most U.N. councils and agencies,wealthy governments exercise "power ofthe purse" to gain policy leverage (see"Power, Hunger, and the World Bank," pp.25-26). One symbol of this is the custom ofappointing citizens of industrial countries tofill policy-making positions.

Quite a few U.N. agencies amongthem the U.N. Development Program, theU.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Foodand Agriculture Organization, the WorldFood Program, the U.N. Research Instituteon Social Development, and the Interna-tional Fund for Agricultural Developmentdeal directly or indirectly with hunger byproviding aid for long-term sustainabledevelopment, humanitarian relief, and tech-nical assistance, or conducting hunger-related policy research. Some agencieshave staked out a fair measure of policyautonomy for themselves. In many, howev-er, managers are reluctant to challenge thepolitical status quo internationally or withinmember countries. This is due to sensitivityto the policy preferences of donor govern-ments and a tendency to viewgovernments, rather than people, as con-stituents.

Beyond their manipulations of interna-tional institutions, the most powerful coun-tries often intervene directly in the affairs ofdeveloping countries. Sometimes this hasreduced hunger: development and humani-tarian aid has helped prevent faminedeaths, reduce infant mortality, boost agri-cultural productivity, and create jobs.

Other interventions, however, have in-creased hunger. During the 1960s and1970s, for example, Belgium, France, andthe United States repeatedly sent cash andmilitary forces to bolster Zaire's dictator,Mobutu Sese Seko. Western governments

0

In most U.N.councils andagencies, wealthygovernmentsexercise "power ofthe purse" to gainpolicy leverage.

Hunger 1995 24


Power, Hunger,and the World Bankby Nancy C. Alexander

The world has changed enormously since the founding of theWorld Bank (the Bank) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in1945. These international financial institutions (IFIs) were establishedto promote economic development and financial stability after WorldWar II. Now, many observers ask if the IFIs will adapt to the post-colonial, post-Cold War era.

The Bank lends developing countries $25 billion annually. Region-al development banks for Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin Americalend another $25 billion. The total is roughly equivalent to annualdevelopment assistance grants from industrial country governments.

The Debt Problem

Developing countries owe governments and private creditors atowering $1.5 trillion, equivalent to a third of their collective grossnational product.' Debt service is about 18 percent of their exportrevenues; for severely indebted, middle income countries, the figureis 33 percent.'

Half the debt is owed to governments and governmentalinstitutions, such as the Bank. The Bank and IMF are owed acombined $278 billion. They now receive more in principal and in-terest than they lend.3 In 1992, the Bank's net transfer to borrowingcountries was about -$0.8 billion.' Net IMF credits were -$373 millionin fiscal 1994.

Economic Reform Is the Cure Worse than the Disease?The IMF derives much of its power from its influence on foreign

investment and commercial loans. If a country's ability to pay its debtis uncertain, many foreign investors look to the IMF for a "credit rat-ing." The IMF offers credit when no one else will. Its approval is acarrot. The stick lies in policy prescriptions contained in most IMFcredits: balanced budgets, free markets, currency devaluation, and anexport emphasis. These measures are intended to restore financialstability, but often entail social hardships.

The Bank used to loan exclusively for development projectsconstruction of dams, roads, schools, and clinics. Since the debt crisisof the 1980s, the Bank has supported economic reforms ("structuraladjustment programs," or SAPs) similar to those favored by the IMF.The Bank's has planned SAPs with little regard for the impact onpoor people.

SAPs are controversial for environmental reasons, too. Developing

25 Causes of. Hunger,::3

saw him as a valuable opponent of com-munism in a mineral-rich, strategic region.Since 1965, Mobutu has looted Zaire's natu-ral resources, neglecting agriculture, infras-tructure, health, and employment. Eightypercent of the rural population lives inpoverty, with nearly 60 percent of all Zairi-ans experiencing hunger regularly or occa-sionally. By unofficial estimates, Zaire hasthe world's highest infant mortality rate andchild malnutrition rates of 42 percent to 65percent.

Hunger and Powerlessnessin Developing Countries

The dynamics of power in the develop-ing world change dramatically as onemoves from the countryside to cities.

"The Rich Eat the Poor:"Rural Power and Hunger.

Bangladesh has the world's highest mal-nutrition rate for children under five, 65percent. A quarter of its people consumeless than 1,800 calories a day. Eighty-sevenpercent live in rural areas, where thepoverty rate is 86 percent. As one analystnotes, "Bangladesh's development strategyis not peasant based, but rests on the sup-port of rural and urban elites. . . ."' Ruraldevelopment efforts tend to benefit land-lords and reinforce their power, often leav-ing the hungry worse off.

A study of a village in Bangladesh in the1970s found that one of the largest land-lords was also a ruling party activist andhad won a local government council post.He used his influence to gain control of aWorld Bank-financed irrigation system.This not only increased his farm's produc-tivity, but gave him an irrigation watermonopoly.'

This drama of landlords gaining politicalinfluence, capturing rural development'sbenefits, and reinforcing their power is

Causes of Hunger

played out in thousands of villagesthroughout the developing world. It leadsto sentiments such as those expressed byan elderly female farmworker on an absen-tee French landlord's plantation in Moroc-co: "The rich eat the poor."'

Landlords often control credit and com-mercial networks as well; this frequentlydirectly causes hunger:

Even with more than adequate foodsupplies and incomes, people starveeither because of parasites in theirstomachs or because parasitic land-lords/moneylenders . . . deprive themof access to the nutritional benefits offood.4

Shantytowns and Shadow Economies:Urban Power and Hunger.

Eighty percent of poor, hunger-vulnera-ble people in developing countries a

billion souls live in rural areas. The num-ber of hungry poor urban dwellers is grow-ing rapidly, though, especially in LatinAmerica. According to the U.N. Fund forPopulation Activities:

By the year 2000, some 90 percent ofthe absolute poor in Latin Americaand the Caribbean will be city-dwellers, along with 40 percent inAfrica and 45 percent in Asia. WorldBank estimates suggest that by 2000the number of urban households liv-ing in conditions of poverty will havemore than doubled from 1975 levelsof 33.5 million persons to some 74.3million.5

Many poor urban folk live in low quali-ty housing that lacks proper sanitation andsafe water, and is located in hazardousenvironments.

The more fortunate among poor citypeople have low, but relatively stable in-comes from wage employment or small

countries export food and natural resources to earn hard currencyfor debt service and imports. Ninety percent of Africa's exports areprimary commodities. Their value has dropped precipitously for overa decade. SAPs have encouraged increased exports, sometimes atgreat environmental cost.

IFIs and Sustainable Development"Poverty reduction," according to Bank President Lewis Preston,

"must be the benchmark against which [the Bank's] performance as adevelopment institution is judged." Eighty percent of the world'speople receive 15 percent of income, so poverty reduction is a moralimperative. However, IFIs, including the Bank, are owned by andaccountable to governments, not citizens. Member governments mayor may not care about reducing poverty and hunger; many areundemocratic. The Bank's board gives mixed messages to the 7,000member staff about the importance of sustainable development, es-pecially environmentally sound reduction of hunger and poverty.Economic rate of return remains the Bank's prime measure for pro-ject success and failure.

Undemocratic GovernanceThe IFIs' governance structure is frankly undemocratic. Instead of

each member government receiving one vote, power is proportionalto monetary contributions. Five of the Bank's 24 executive directorscontrol 39 percent of the votes (the United States has 17 percent;Japan, 7 percent; and France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, 5percent each). Nineteen directors representing 171 countries have 61percent of the votes.

Even if this structure were changed, the IFIs would pay attention torich country governments. They provide the institutions' financialbacking.

IFIs and "Grassroots Democracy"IFI projects and SAPs are often designed in Washington or a bor-

rowing government's finance ministry and imposed on populationswith little prior consultation. The Bank is realizing that this top-downapproach often has negative environmental, social, and economicconsequences. It is exploring whether or how, as a large institutionwith an average project size of $100 million, it can engage stakehold-ers in decisions.

In 1994, BFW Institute launched a project to make the IFIs moreaccountable, especially to poor and hungry people. The project en-courages partnerships among citizens' groups worldwide andbetween citizens' groups and their governments, in order to strength-en popular influence on IFIs.

Nancy C. Alexander leads BFW Institute's IFI Accountability Project.

31BEST COPY AfiattrE19" 26


Rural development projects in Bangladesh tend to benefit landlords, and reinforce their power, but landless laborershave gained new employment opportunities.

businesses. But many depend on the "infor-mal sector" for survival: casual labor in con-struction, marginally viable petty commerce,prostitution, and theft.

Poor urban families frequently need creditto afford food, medicine, clothing, trans-portation, and education. They becomehighly dependent on landlords, labor bro-kers, shopkeepers, wholesalers, and usurers.Frequently, these patrons control local politi-cal offices and civic organizations, and bro-ker the distribution of government and chari-table welfare services. As in the countryside,aid sometimes reinforces existing economicand political power relationships.

But another element of city life changesthe equation. As a leading developing coun-try scholar has pointed out, rural poor peo-ple are usually "dispersed and disorganized,"and hence politically "voiceless."' City folk,

27 Causes of Hunger

in contrast, live close together, often incrowded multifamily dwellings. They arefrequently better educated (since schoolingis more accessible in cities) and more politi-cally savvy than their country cousins, mak-ing them easier to organize into labor unionsor community associations. Urban discontentcan mean considerable disruption; in capitalcities, it can topple national governments.This gives urban poor people power relativeto the government that rural poor people donot enjoy. So cheap urban food policies maybe bad economics, especially in relation tolocal farm output, but they are usually excel-lent politics.

This urban clout transcends the dividebetween relatively democratic and highlyauthoritarian regimes. The repressive, market-oriented Pinochet government in Chile main-tained social spending, including nutrition

32

Causes of Hunger

programs for poor children and publichealth services. This resulted from pressurefrom labor unions and other nongovern-mental organizations. Hunger analysts JeanDreze and Amartya Sen conclude that au-thoritarian governments "may have strongincentive to respond to popular demands"for anti-hunger policies.' One incentive inChile was that 83 percent of the people livein cities.

Finding Common Ground. ThePinochet regime's responsiveness to urbanpoor people is just one example of howpoor and hungry people can sometimesgain political power. This depends uponorganization, and often on coalitions andbargaining. Even in situations of opposedinterests, e.g., between landlords on theone hand and tenant farmers or landlessagricultural workers on the other, thereexists some common ground.

Bangladesh offers several examples.Rural development projects and new agri-cultural technology have benefitted land-lords, but landless laborers have gainednew employment opportunities. Cheapfood policies can hurt producers, but land-less people and even some small farmerspurchase all or most of their food in mar-kets and have a stake in affordable prices.It would be very expensive for the govern-ment to subsidize prices for bothconsumers and producers, but it could doso if it cut the budget of the politicallyinfluential military. A coalition among farm-ers and food consumers (who includesome politically influential groups, such ascivil servants and professional people)could demand such a policy and wieldcountervailing power.

A segment of Bangladesh's poor ruralpopulace benefits from the Public FoodDistribution System (PFDS), which makesfood available at reduced prices. The sys-tem mainly serves bureaucrats, the military,

teachers, employees of large enterprises,and city residents (without regard to in-come), all groups with political sway. Thepart which serves poor rural dwellers isknown for corruption, and is highly depen-dent on external food aid. When resourcesare tight, it is always the lowest priority.But there are real benefits to hungry peo-ple. Programs such as PFDS that have abroad constituency of hungry and non-hungry people are usually less fragile polit-ically than programs that help only verypoor people.

The Politics of Hunger inthe United States

As in the developing world, the needsand interests of poor and hungry peopleare seldom a high priority on U.S. policy-makers' agenda. The federal governmentstill spends hundreds of billions of dollarsannually on the military, despite the end ofthe Cold War. Billions more go to:

intelligence agencies;

the space program;

farm programs;

subsidies for water use, mining, and themerchant fleet;

the savings and loan bailout;

pork barrel projects that benefit well-placed communities and firms; and

home mortgage tax breaks.

Unlike supporters of these programs andtheir well-heeled lobbyists, low-incomepeople seldom contribute to or work inpolitical campaigns, and they account formany of the unregistered eligible voters. Incontrast to most other industrial countries,the United States puts the burden of voterregistration on citizens rather than the gov-ernment. Often, registration conditions

Hunger 1995 28


Hunger 1994: Transforming the Politics of Hunger recommends

seven priority areas for transformative action against hunger:

1. Individuals and agencies assisting hungry people can ex-pand what they do to influence government policies.

2. Religious communities can teach how social concern flowsfrom a relationship with God and help motivate involvementin effective political action.

3. Low-income people's organizations can be strengthened,especially in their capacity to influence government policiesthat affect them.

4. Organizations which help low-income people can morefully engage people of color, especially in decision making.

5. The media can move beyond stories of pity and charity toexplain the causes of hunger, and people and organizationsconcerned about hunger can make a bigger effort to influ-ence the media.

6. People can expand and strengthen anti-hunger advocacyorganizations.

7. People and organizations working against poverty andhunger can become more aware of themselves as parts of alarge, potentially dynamic movement.

(such as inconvenient locations, shorthours, and even hostile personnel) leadpoor people to drop out of the electoralsystem. Recent federal legislation hassought to ease access to registration, but upto now politicians have seldom felt theneed to appeal to hungry people for votes!'

Transforming thePolitics of Hunger

In Hunger 1994: Transforming the Poli-tics of Hunger BFW Institute showed howthe thousands of private organizations andmillions of individuals in the United Stateswho are helping hungry people at homeand abroad could actually end hunger in

29 Causes,of Hunger

the United States and make dramatic stridesagainst hunger worldwide by becomingmore political (see box at left). Mainstreamsociety can help empower vulnerable peo-ple and support constructive changes inpublic policies.

Feeding hungry people can be part ofsuch a strategy. Hunger service agenciescan facilitate the creation of poor people'sorganizations, assist in voter registration,and encourage clients and their own staffand boards to advocate public policies thatcontribute to hunger reduction. These poli-cies include full funding of federal foodprograms, aid to sustainable development,and changes in economic policies to fosterincome-earning opportunities for poorpeople at home and abroad.

Similarly, in developing countries, intel-lectuals committed to social change, for-eign nongovernmental development orga-nizations, and other organizations ofnon-hungry people can provide vital ser-vices to poor people's organizations andwork to change public policies. This ishappening in many places:

The Bangladesh Rural AdvancementCommittee, in collaboration with OxfamAmerica, offers credit and training torural poor people and helps them createviable organizations.

In India, the media have played an es-sential role in pressing the central gov-ernment to implement famine reliefpolicies that have greatly reduced emer-gency food needs in that country.

Kenya's National Council of Womentook the lead in encouraging local com-munities to plant trees to combat landdegradation.

In Brazil, hundreds of nongovernmentalorganizations (NGOs) representing atremendous variety of social sectors

34

Causes of Hunger

have formed coalitions on such issues ashunger, public health, ethical govern-ment, environmental policy, urban de-velopment, and land reform.

The empowerment of hungry people isan essential element of any strategy toovercome hunger.

Toward Solutions:Empowering Hungry People

Sometimes, as in El Salvador and SouthAfrica until quite recently, efforts to em-power hungry people lead to violent re-pression. But hungry people sometimesdecide that resisting oppression is prefer-able to the "quiet violence" of hunger.9

Involving hungry people in planning,administering, and evaluating policies andprograms which affect them in otherwords, treating people as subjects ratherthan objects is a matter of human rightsand dignity. The 1992 "World Declarationon Nutrition," issued at the InternationalConference on Nutrition, recognizes this,calling "access to nutritionally adequateand safe food . . . a right of each individu-al"' (for more information, see "The Rightto Food," 31-32). It also states:

Policies and programs must be direct-ed toward those most in need. Ourpriority should be to implement peo-ple-focused policies and programs thatincrease access to and control of re-sources by the rural and urban poor,raise their productive capacity andincomes, and strengthen their capaci-ty to care for themselves. We mustsupport and promote initiatives bypeople and communities and ensurethat the poor participate in decisionsthat affect their lives."

When once powerless people participatein politics and the policy-making process,

they are more likely to see programs thatserve their own interests enacted. Poorpeople may well make mistakes, perhapspushing for policies that will help them inthe short-term but hurt over the long haul.But participation allows poor people tolearn from mistakes. They can also betterarticulate how power sharing and reducedhunger benefit everyone.

All this requires organization. One devel-opment theorist defines genuine "people'sorganizations" as those set up to pursuemutual benefits, with leaders accountableto the members. Poor people's organiza-tions are most effective when they are, inthe main, self-reliant, though they maywork in alliance with other groups.'

People's organizations have the bestchance of developing where governmentrespects freedom of association, an inde-pendent judiciary prevents powerholdersfrom interfering with this right, and foreignintervention does not nullify people's ef-forts to define and control their situations.

Even under very restrictive conditions,poor and hungry people often organize toaddress immediate concerns, such as im-proved government services or more equi-table distribution of resources. Such people'sorganizations sometimes go on to help pro-mote democracy at the national level.

It is no accident that the trend towardpolitical pluralism and representative gov-ernment in Africa, Asia, Latin America, theformer Soviet Union, and Central and East-ern Europe has gone hand in hand withthe proliferation of popular organizations.Today there are 18,000 registered NGOs inthe Philippines and 3,000 in Brazil.

In Zambia, labor unions which had agi-tated for improved living conditions led thefight to restore multi-party democracy. In1991, the head of the labor movement waselected president, defeating the country'sindependence leader and only previous

The empower-ment of hung?),people is anessential elementof any strategy toovercome hunger.

3 BEST COPY AV M/4111995 30


The Right to Foodby Richard A. Hoehn

It is paradoxical, but hardly surprising, that the right to foodhas been endorsed more often and with greater unanimityand urgency than most other human rights, while at thesame time being violated more comprehensively and system-atically than probably any other right.'

The field of human rights is littered with abuse and paradoxes.Governments boycott each other over violations of civil and politi-cal rights while neglecting the violence of hunger among theirown children. They are oblivious to the contradiction. Civil andpolitical rights freedom of expression and association, the rightto vote and due process of law often have little meaning tothose who lack food.

The Hague and Geneva Conventions promise enough nutri-tious food for good health for prisoners in time of war, but fewnations guarantee food for families in time of peace. All should.

The 1974 World Food Conference produced a Universal Decla-ration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition whichnames social inequalities, conflict, neo-colonialism, and racialdiscrimination among the causes of hunger. It asserts that each"man, woman, and child has the inalienable right to be free fromhunger and malnutrition in order to develop fully and maintaintheir physical and mental faculties."

The United Nations has undertaken peacekeeping efforts,passed resolutions, and established anti-hunger agencies. TheGeneral Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of HumanRights, later elaborated in the International Covenant on Econom-ic, Social, and Cultural Rights:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate forthe health and well-being of himself and his family, includ-ing food, clothing, housing and medical care, and necessarysocial services, and the right to security in the event of unem-ployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or otherlack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

More than 120 international declarations, conventions, and"right to food" related resolutions address: the rights of children;elimination of racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination; popula-tion policy and natural resource use; minimum wages; and therights of indigenous people.'

The preamble to the U.S. Constitution seeks "to form a more

31 Causes of Hunger313

president in free and fair balloting.NGOs from developing and industrial

countries are increasingly working together(though they sometimes differ on bothstrategy and substantive positions). Such acoalition challenged international policiesand power structures at the 1992 U.N. Con-ference on Environment and Development,for example.

Citizens' movements in the industrialworld have an important role to play inopposing their governments' harmful inter-ventions in developing countries (e.g., thebroad movement in the United Stateswhich opposed U.S. military involvementin Central America in the 1980s) and inseeking a fairer international economicsystem. A coalition of U.S. religious, labor,and human rights groups has sought tomake respect for workers' rights a part ofU.S. trade policy.

Other examples illustrate how empower-ment leads to sustainable progress againsthunger.

Case StudiesKerala"

The people of the Indian state of Keralahave shown how to reduce hunger andimprove well-being even under conditionsof general poverty and little economicgrowth. The state has a higher literacy rateand lower infant mortality and birth ratesthan the rest of India. Nutritional standardsequal or exceed those of other states.Health, food, and education are availablewithout regard to gender, caste, or urbanvs. rural residence. Only 35 percent ofIndia's rural villages have ready access tohealth centers and subsidized food shops,but in Kerala the figure is 99 percent. Mostchildren participate in nutrition programs.

Strong and persistent organizations ofpeasants, workers, women, and low statuscastes explain these successes. A tradition of

Causes of Hunger

widespread education and literacy dating tothe 19th century has helped political mobi-lization. These organizations have enjoyeddedicated, honest leaders, and have pressedto maintain high quality services for all Ker-alites. So even though parties supportingtheir demands have alternated in office withmore conservative forces, the state has con-tinued to offer social service programs. Ker-ala still faces many problems, including highunemployment, but it shows how well-organized and determined people can trans-form their lives.

ORAP in Zimbabwe"The Organization of Rural Associations

for Progress (ORAP) has sought to helppoor rural people in the southern Africannation of Zimbabwe draw on the strength oftheir own culture to achieve sustainablelivelihoods. In Matabelaland, one of threeprovinces in which ORAP works, there is along tradition of amalima, or collective self-help, as well as an extended family struc-ture. ORAP also draws on village organiza-tions which grew out of the country'sstruggle to end white minority rule.

ORAP provides funds and technical assis-tance to groups of five to 30 families whopool their resources for mutual aid. Theorganization does not approach communi-ties, but rather responds to their requests.

ORAP seeks to engage villagers in a pro-cess of educational dialogue, through whichthey gain a clearer sense of their problemsand how development projects (such asrecreating traditional village granaries, raisinglivestock or cash crops, education, sanitationsystems, promoting stoves that use less wood,and starting sewing clubs) address them. Thedialogue also involves how to relate to thegovernment, e.g., whether to undertake activi-ties requiring government permits.

According to ORAP staffer CorneliaNkomo, projects are a vehicle for develop-ment, not development itself, which is "help-

perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, pro-vide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, andsecure the blessings of Liberty. . . ." But where basic needs are notmet, justice has not been established, domestic tranquility isthreatened, a nation is more difficult to defend, the general wel-fare has not been achieved, and the most basic freedom to live

has not been secured.In 1976, prompted by Bread for the World, the U.S. Congress

passed the Right to Food Resolution. It affirms that all people"have a right to a nutritionally adequate diet." More recent state-ments call for the "right to food security" assured access forevery person, primarily by production or purchase, to enoughnutritious food to sustain productive human life.

John Haughey, ethicist at Loyola University, argues that a moreformal official commitment to the right to food would help tochange U.S. politics and culture. The public usually supports mea-sures to protect the civil rights spelled out in the Bill of Rights, butrelatively few U.S. citizens or public officials believe that everyonehas a right to eat.

The human rights movement has made great strides. Evensome totalitarian governments feel a need to show that they arenot abusing civil rights. International moral sentiment has conse-quences.

However, in the 20 years since the adoption of the UniversalDeclaration on the Elimination of Hunger and Malnutrition, mil-lions of people have died or been physically or mentally impaireddue to malnutrition.

No one is against the right to food. But we must transform thepolitics of hunger to translate the emerging human consciousnessof the right to food into day-to-day food security for all people.One effort to achieve this is the campaign for a global Food Secu-rity Treaty, launched in 1994. It seeks to create U.N. enforcementmechanisms akin to peacekeeping forces to prevent the use offood as a weapon and assure that everyone actually does enjoyan adequate diet.'

Dr. Richard A. Hoehn is director of BFW Institute.

ing people become what they want to be."Most ORAP staff are recruited from the vil-lages, so the organization is primarily a "cul-tural grassroots movement." How has thisaffected hunger? Nkomo says that since 1984,no one living in the areas in which ORAPworks has gone hungry, despite periodicsevere droughts.

37 Hunger 1995 32

We musttransform the

politics of hungerto translate the

emerging humanconsciousness ofthe right to foodinto day-to-day

food security forall people.


One strong feature of ORAP is its empha-sis on productive, income-earning projects.When poor people anywhere are asked whatthey most want, the answer often has to dowith jobs and income-earning capacity. Butpeople's organizations often lack sufficientknowledge or power to create jobs or swaynational policies to create jobs, so they pushinstead for social services. ORAP is also un-usual in its ability to deal with national policy;most organizations of poor people are localand focused on local problems.

ORAP has pressed the government formore extensive land reform, and persuadedthe Ministry of Agriculture to permit directgrain sales from one village to another with-out going through the state grain marketingagency. This effort to ease the marketingmonopoly has helped reduce the droughts'impact and strengthened economic linksamong the villages.

ORAP is nonpartisan and works withpeople from both of Zimbabwe's majorethnic groups. However, the governmentbanned the organization from working intwo provinces for a year, accusing it of parti-sanship in the political and ethnic strugglesof the 1980s. Nkomo notes, "When youempower people, they challenge structures,"and fearful reaction by powerful people ispredictable. More recently, though, otherZimbabwean organizations have looked toORAP's combination of service delivery andsocial mobilization as a model.

Nutrition Education and Action in Barahona,

Dominican Republic's

In 1976, Caritas Dominica, the charity ofthe Dominican Republic's Roman CatholicChurch, established a nutrition center inBarahona, a small port and sugar processingtown located in the country's southwest, thearea of the most severe malnutrition. Later, asecond center opened; the two facilitiesfocused on providing supplemental foods

33 Causes of Hunger3 S

(mainly using foreign food aid) to severelymalnourished children, improving familyincomes, and nutrition education in the cityand surrounding villages.

The centers trained women to work ascommunity health promoters. Eventually,they took the initiative to reorganize theproject toward increased emphasis on "self-development." They obtained new fundingfrom Caritas Holland and other Europeanaid agencies.

The project focused increasingly on en-gaging the region's women in discussions ofwhat caused their health and nutrition prob-lems. They identified one problem as theirlack of access to clean water, while sugar-cane plantations, which supply the country'smain export, had plenty of water. They alsoexplored how to use locally available foodsto plan affordable, nutritious meals.

The project continued to promote incomegeneration. It emphasized producing food(small livestock such as chickens and rab-bits, as well as vegetables) which partici-pants could both consume and sell.

In the 1980s, the world price of sugarcollapsed. The Dominican government'sforeign debt mounted, and it expanded themoney supply so that it could continue toprovide essential services. Prices rose, butwages stagnated. Malnutrition rates, whichhad declined in the 1970s, increased. As theprice of financial assistance, the InternationalMonetary Fund pressed the government toraise water fees to balance its budget. Thenew rates threatened to make clean waterunaffordable for many poor people.

The Barahona nutrition project organizeda non-payment campaign. The governmentcut off participants' water, but the projectwomen worked with the water utility em-ployees' union to get it restored. Researchersfor Oxfam United Kingdom and Irelandcomment on how the women had masteredpolitics as "the art of the possible":

Causes of Hunger

Inhere was something which could bedone within the control of the people.They could not change the price ofsugar, or boycott the IMF. But theycould challenge their government asmediator between the internationalworld and their community's distresson a specific and pertinent issue.'6

ROCC, Lexington, Mississippi"The Rural Organizing and Cultural Center

(ROCC) is located in Holmes County, Missis-sippi, the fourth poorest county in the UnitedStates. In 1978, it helped organize a boycottof white merchants in Lexington, as a protestagainst racially segregated facilities and policebrutality against African Americans. Followingthe success of the boycott, ROCC surveyed1,000 families to learn their priorities. Theywanted an end to racial prejudice in thecriminal justice system; quality education forchildren; and better access to food, housing,and public assistance.

ROCC has undertaken projects to addresseach of these concerns. In addition to con-tinuing to challenge police abuses, it hasorganized community gardens to improvethe quantity and quality of local food sup-plies, worked against corruption at the localwater utility and sought improved watersafety, and helped to enhance the schoolcurriculum, with an emphasis on preparingstudents for work.

ROCC has also worked on trainingHolmes County residents for advocacy andpolitical participation. Organizers brief wel-fare recipients on the rights and benefitlevels to which they are entitled. Recipients

then lobby state agencies. In addition,ROCC has registered low-income voters andworked on electoral districts so as to assurefair representation for low-income and mi-nority people.

ConclusionIt is possible to overcome the powerless-

ness that underlies hunger. What is neededis the broadening and deepening of theglobal anti-hunger movement, and the em-powerment of poor and hungry people toparticipate as an integral part of that move-ment.

These case studies show that hungrypeople can obtain greater power, equity,and food security short of revolution. Thecommon elements include:

development of literacy and other basicskills;

creation of organizations that allow peo-ple collectively to pursue their interests asthey themselves define those interestsand bargain with already powerfulgroups; and

willingness to engage in sometimes diffi-cult struggles to make and keep gains.

There are no magic formulas. Specificcircumstances differ in every locale andcountry. Still, these examples show that theChilean poet Pablo Neruda was not dream-ing an impossible dream when he spoke ofa world where everyone could enjoy "thejustice of eating."''s

Dr. Marc J. Cohen is senior research associate at BFWInstitute and editor of Causes of Hunger.

It is possible toovercome thepowerlessnessthat underlieshunger.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Hunger 1995 34

Violence and Militarism

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The U.N. estimates that 105 million unexploded land-mines are buried in 62countries. Here, a U.N. staff member in Cambodia practices mine removal.

Figure 2.1 $35 Billion

Average Annual U.S. Government Research and

Development Spending, 1980s and 1990s:

Advanced Weapons vs. Environment

by Daniel U.B.P. Chelliah

This chapter explores violence andmilitarism, overt community vio-lence, and institutional violence as

causes of hunger and human suffering. Itsuggests a framework for overcomingviolence at the individual, community,national, and international levels based onways of managing and resolving disputesand on changes in attitudes and behavior.Hunger and poverty also contribute toviolence; reducing hunger can aid in re-ducing violence.

Hunger and ViolenceRwanda. In just a few weeks in 1994,

about 300,000 people were slaughtered inthe conflict between the Tutsis and Hutuextremists in Rwanda. More than 2 millionpeople took refuge in neighboring coun-tries.

Without food and water, hundredsstarved to death. Food supplies were plun-dered. Crop cycles were interrupted; seedsand breeding livestock were consumed.Markets broke down. Tens of thousands ofchildren suffered permanent damage fromtoo little food and related illnesses.

The conflict in Rwanda is only one ofdozens of current conflicts, and countlessinstances throughout history, in whichviolent struggles over resources and privi-lege have resulted in fear, chaos, uprooted-ness, genocide, disease, malnutrition, andhunger.

The world was startled by the gruesomemurders. People who watched this geno-cide and its after-effects on TV asked howhumans could inflict such atrocities oneach other.

Washington, D.C. James was a brilliant highschool student. He was shot in the head

and died immediately in inner-city Wash-ington,D.C. His mistake: being in the wrongplace at the wrong time, caught in thecrossfire between two drug gangs. Thou-sands in the United States die as James did,innocent victims of street violence.

The hunger consequences of overt streetviolence are less obvious than those of civilor international warfare, but nonethelessreal, with long-term effects. Daily nutritionsuffers as families' lives are disrupted, andas energy and resources are diverted toself-protection. Crime-plagued stores mustraise food prices. Children living in fearlearn poorly; youth drop out of school;both are less well-equipped for the rest oftheir lives less able to provide for thefood and other needs of their own families.

We all continue to ask, "Why this vio-lence?"

Chicago. Carlos, now 19, dropped out ofschool during the 10th grade, but reads atonly a third grade level. He feels badly thathe can find only occasional casual work,which does not enable him to support hisgirlfriend, Juanita, and their one-year-oldchild. They pretend they are not a family,so Juanita can qualify for Aid to Familieswith Dependent Children, food stamps,and Medicaid. They often run low on foodat the end of the month. Carlos feelstrapped. So far, he has avoided heavy druguse and turned down chances to get intodrug-dealing, but the huge profits aretempting.

Over time, the consequences of institu-tional violence poor education, jobless-ness, discrimination, poverty, hunger, pow-erlessness probably outweigh those fromincidents of overt violence. Many instancesof overt violence are symptoms of the myr-iad ways that violent attitudes and behaviorare woven into individual, societal, andinternational relationships. Denial of

4i

S30 Billion -

$25 Billion

$20 Billion

$15 Billion

$I 0 Billion -

$5 Billion

$1.4 Billion

0

Advanced Weapons R&D

[I] Environmental R&D

Source: Woriavalch Institute.

Hunger 1995 36


Street Dogs andFood Territories

I grew up in a small town in Southern India and used to haveevening discussions over coffee with my mother, who taught memany simple truths about life. One thing that irritated me in thosedays was the continuous barking at night of the stray street dogs,which disturbed my homework. "Why do they bark like this?," Iremember asking my mother. The answer was a basic truth whichhas helped me understand the reason for many sociopolitical,religious, ethnic, national, and international conflicts. "They arestreet dogs," she said. "They fight over their food territories, thestreets where they live."

Obtaining food plays a dominant role in human behavior aswell. My intent in narrating this event is not to degrade humans tothe level of dogs but to make the point that grabbing the sourcesof material goods, which include food, seems to be one cause ofhatred and violence. International order, just like order in thestreet, often depends on who controls food and the resources toproduce food.

37 Causes of Hunger

human dignity itself does mental andsometimes physical damage. Hunger, too,is often both a cause and a consequencein the cycle of institutional violence.

Common Understandingsof Violence

I asked several groups of people whatviolence meant. Children defined it as fightsin school and on the streets. They are afraidof other children carrying knives and gunsto school. Youngsters defined violence asthe tension growing from the old-fashionedways of parents and teachers. Women said,"It is the male-macho attitude." African-American friends said, "It is the color ofskin, my brother." White friends said, "It isthe dominance of one race over another,one religion over another, one nation overanother." One person said, "Violence is theabsence of nonviolence."

I use the term violence here to describe

4 -)

any act or situation that injures the healthand well-being of others (or one's self) bycausing physical or emotional pain.

We usually think of violence as harmfulactions against persons or property. Vio-lence at this level is the easiest form toassess, since it usually involves direct ac-tions with immediate consequences vio-lence among children in schools; withinfamilies and communities; among youthgangs in drive-by shootings and terror; andbetween neighbors in civil wars.

But violence is not only what we see. Italso includes destructive actions that maynot involve a direct relationship betweenthe victims and the institution or personsresponsible for harm.' Visible violence isthe tip of the iceberg.

Institutionalized forms of violence areoften so submerged from view as to bealmost invisible. In nearly every culture,violence perpetuated by social institutionsdenies human dignity and human rights tomany despite religious and governmentaldeclarations of equality for all. Discrimina-tion based on race, sex, age, or other fac-tors are forms of institutional violence. TheRural Organizing and Cultural Center inHolmes County, Mississippi (see Cause 1)focused on reducing police violence as itstop priority.

Violence at this level often results fromoppressive social policies. The oppressiveviolence of one community over others hasled to conditions of human degradation andhas periodically required a Moses, a Jesus, aMohammed, or a Gandhi to redeem themasses.

While responding to overt violence at thepersonal, community, and global levels iscritical in the short term, longer termchanges in underlying attitudes, behavior,and public policies are essential to over-coming violence and its effects on people,including hunger.

Militarism and ViolenceMilitarism is an institutional ex-

pression of violence. Nations, as wellas individuals, use violence and thethreat of violence as a means ofdomination and social control. Overtime, ordinary citizens come to ac-cept the tendency to look first formilitary solutions to issues whichmight be solved by other means.Violence and militarism almost in-evitably lead to hunger.

Human history is littered withconflicts based on communities'need to control land and sea in orderto produce or trade food. The stone,copper, bronze, and iron ages wereall marked by struggles over theownership of pasture lands by river-side and seashores. The effects ofthese struggles on hunger varied. Fightingitself nearly always increased hunger. Vic-tors often secured their own food supply,but at the expense of increased hunger orother suffering for the vanquished.

The 20th century started with a majorideological conflict in Europe and Russia.Millions lost their lives. World Wars I and IIkilled tens of millions of people, destroyedproperty worth billions, and led to hungerand deprivation for millions of people.Each war left thousands homeless, withoutwater, sanitation, electricity, and food. Star-vation deaths occurred throughout Europe.Churches and many private organizationsset up relief programs. After World War II,the Marshall Plan and the World Bankopened new possibilities for developmentand peace. The United Nations was createdin an attempt to build an alternative tosystems of warfare.

However, an uneasy Cold War contin-ued between the superpowers, drainingglobal financial, material, and human

Causes of Hunger

Figure 2.2: World Firepower

Each of these dots represents the quantity of firepower expended inWorld War II. The total above represents the size of the world's nuclearstockpiles if agreements between the United States and the former SovietUnion are honored. The total is 900 times more explosive power thanthat expended in World War II including some 10,000 nuclear war-heads, each far more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshimaand Nagasaki.

resources to build war machines.At the same time, new movements to-

ward independence and liberation fromcolonialism inspired leaders such as Gandhiin India. They challenged the ethical stan-dards of colonial powers which had longforced people to work in mines and onplantations and farms for minimal wages,determined on the basis of color and sex.The colonial powers also adopted a "divideand nile" strategy in many parts of theworld which ignited ethnic and religiousconflicts (e.g., the Belgians put the Tutsiminority in Rwanda in power over the Hutumajority).

Politically derived borders often crossedethnic community lines. For example, split-ting the Ottoman Empire into several na-tions after World War I left Kurdish minori-ties in Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria ratherthan creating a Kurdish state. This led toconflicts that continue even today.

Military expenditures mounted steadilythroughout the Cold War era in many

Hunger 1995 38


Militarism:Use of ResourcesDespite the end of the Cold War, the world continues to devotehuge resources to military preparations:

Global military expenditures are estimated at $767 billion for1994 more than the total income of the poorest 45 percent ofthe world's population.'

The "peace dividend" can be calculated from the reduction inglobal military spending from its peak of $1 trillion in 1987. Thepeace dividend has totalled $935 billion over the seven yearssince then. Part of it has financed social programs within coun-tries, but none has gone to boost declining international devel-opment assistance.

Further global military spending cuts of 3 percent per yearwould accumulate an additional $460 billion by the year 2000enough to more than double recent levels of development assis-tance.

Developing countries themselves spend about $125 billion peryear on military forces. One quarter of this would provide pri-mary health care for all their citizens, reduce adult literacy byhalf, and provide family planning to all willing couples.

World arms trade in 1992 totaled $18.4 billion, most of it origi-nating with the five permanent members of the United NationsSecurity Council. Military assistance in 1993 totaled $4.6 billion,nearly 75 percent from the United States most of that to Israeland Egypt.

The United States remains the largest exporter of arms, partly inresponse to fear of job losses in businesses and communitiesdependent on arms manufacturing. But reduced military spend-ing, coupled with increased development investment, couldcreate more employment and reduce tension, violence, andhunger.

39 Causes o Hunger 4 4

Figure 2.3: Global Advanced Weapons

R&D United States vs.

All Other Countries

AllIC\ U.S. - $35 Billion

World Total - $50 Billion

Source: National Catholic Reporter.

newly independent nations as well. Someof the rising expenditures were financedby the superpowers for their own pur-poses, but funding also came from scarcenational resources.

Effects of MilitarismGlobally, and in each nation, resources

spent on arms build-ups are not availablefor investment in food production, educa-tion, health care, or other developmentefforts. With rare exceptions, whereverarms are used, suffering and hunger in-crease. In addition to draining resources,military forces are regularly used by auto-cratic and military governments to pre-vent needed social, economic, and politi-cal changes to perpetuate institutionalviolence.

The Impact of WarfareAccording to the U.N. Development

Program:Global conflicts seem to be changingfrom wars between states to wars

within them. Of 82 armed conflictsbetween 1989 and 1992, only threewere between states . . . althoughoften cast in ethnic divisions, manyalso have a political or economiccharacter.3

Causes of Hunger

Civil wars are one of the most potentcauses of human suffering and underdevel-opment. Although the end of the Cold Warhas led to peace moves in those areas inwhich conflict had been fueled by EastWest antagonism, new wars have erupted.The 1990s opened with the Persian Gulfconflict, which displaced approximately 5million people. New and continuing civilstrife are the source of severe human disas-ters in the former Yugoslavia, Somalia,Sudan, Mozambique, Afghanistan,Nagorno-Karabakh, Sri Lanka, and Burma.The immediate costs and negative impacton long-term development are very high.

Warfare has always resulted in hungerand suffering for ordinary citizens. But thedamaging effects of the recent and currentfighting has shifted even more from com-batants to civilians. The proportion of civil-ian casualties has increased. Huge numbersof refugees have been forced from theirhomes and communities. Social and eco-nomic disruptions are usually more perva-sive from internal fighting than from aninternational war. Recovery from a civilwar is more difficult, since it requires coop-eration with "the enemy," while interna-tional war tends to unite a populationagainst their common outside enemy.

Frances Stewart, of the InternationalDevelopment Center at Oxford University,recently studied sixteen different develop-ing countries at war. In fourteen of thecountries, civilian deaths account for overtwo-thirds of the total. Only in Iran andIraq were military deaths higher than thoseof civilians.

Civil wars generate large numbers ofrefugees and internally displaced persons.In 1983, there were nine countries fromwhich more than 50,000 people had fled. Adecade later, there were 31. At the end of1993, more than 16 million refugees livedoutside their own country, not including

A GlobalDemilitarization Fund

I would like to propose the establishment of a Global Demilita-rization Fund. This fund could add dynamism to the current de-militarization trend by rewarding primarily, but not exclusively,the efforts of developing countries to:

Disarm and demobilize their armed forces;

Re-integrate military personnel into society through retrainingand re-education programs in order to expand their range ofchoices and economic opportunities;

Promote arms control and the shrinkage of arms productionfacilities; and

Encourage civic education and participation in fully democraticpolitical life.

Let the nations of the world, both rich and poor, commit them-selves to at least a 3 percent a year reduction in their militaryspending levels over the next five years. The rich nations shouldagree to earmark at least one-fifth of these savings towards a de-militarization fund which is under international jurisdiction.Developing countries should also agree to contribute a fraction,perhaps one-tenth, of these savings towards such a fund.

. . . the managelment] of the fund [should be decided by] the1995 U.N. Conference on Social Development.'

Oscar Arias, winner of the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize

millions more who have permanently relo-cated. Thirty-eight African countries hostedrefugees from other nations, but peoplehad fled from all but two of these as well.More than 3 million Afghans were refugeesin Pakistan and Iran.'

People who have fled their homes, butremained within their country, are harder toidentify, but are estimated to exceed 25million.6 Refugees rank near the bottom onevery social indicator. They are particularlyvulnerable to hunger, :usually having neither

4 t,BEST COPY AvAtedlif 1995 40


TABLE 2.1

War and War-Related Deaths

Country

Deaths in

thousands,

1970s

Deaths in

thousands,

1980s

Percent

Civilian

Deaths,1970s

Percent

Civilian

Deaths, 1980s

Cambodia 1,156 65 75 22Afghanistan n/a 1,300 n/a 62Mozambique n/a 1,050 n/a 95Lebanon 100 63 75 65Angola n/a 341 n/a 94Sudan n/a 506 n/a 99Vietnam 1,000 n/a 49 n/aGuatemala n/a 140 n/a 75El Salvador n/a 75 n/a 67Ethiopia n/a 609 n/a 85Somalia n/a 55 n/a 91Liberia n/a 15 n/a 93

n/a= not available or applicable.Source: Ruth Leger Sivard, World Social and Military Expenditures 1991 (Washington: World Priorities, 1991); figures are approximate.

land to grow food nor wages from employ-ment to buy it.

The hunger effects of warfare depend onthe intensity of the fighting. Severe fightinghas almost immediate consequences. If peo-ple flee for their lives, as in Rwanda, hungeris almost immediate. Without food, fuel, orsafe water, illness and symptoms of hungerappear within days, especially among chil-dren. Starvation may appear within as littleas two or three weeks. Places like Bosnia,Sudan, and Cambodia provide additionaldeadly testimony. In some of theseinstances, withholding food is a deliberatestrategy of warfare.

Even where fighting is less severe, mar-kets and transportation are disrupted; foodand fuel supplies shrink and prices rise;utilities may be cut off; work is interrupted;and incomes stop. Countries at war in the1980s and 1990s showed falling per capita

41 Causes of Hunger 46

income. The worst per-formances were inMozambique, Liberia,Nicaragua, Afghanistan,and Guatemala. As al-ways, poor people aremost vulnerable.

If warfare continues,longer term effects con-tribute to hunger. Stew-art found that per capitafood productiondropped in all excepttwo of the sixteen coun-tries she studied bymore than 15 percent insix countries, with Cam-bodia, Nicaragua,Sudan, Angola, andMozambique the worstperformers. Export vol-ume (and thus, thelivelihoods of numerousworkers) fell sharply in

Afghanistan, Mozambique, Somalia,Nicaragua, Liberia, and Uganda.

Governments at war often must reduceexpenditures for social services such ashealth care, education, and food subsidyprograms. They usually also postpone repairand investment in social infrastructure, andschools, hospitals, and clinics are often sys-tematically destroyed in civil conflicts. Forexample, 40 percent of the primary schoolswere destroyed in Mozambique. Transporta-tion systems and energy projects were alsotargeted. Forty-four percent of the rail fleetwas destroyed.'

Another effect of war is long-term agricultur-al damage. Many or most farm animals werekilled in Afghanistan and Cambodia. The Unit-ed Nations estimates that 105 million unex-ploded land-mines are buried in 62 countries,more than 20 million in Angola alone.

Other long-term effects include losses of

Causes of Hunger

human resources. Half the doctors and 80percent of the pharmacists left Nicaraguaand Uganda.

Perhaps worst of all is the breakdown ofcultural and social relationships and institu-tions trust, respect for property, law, andintegrity (see table 2.2).

Stewart's study also showed that somegovernments of countries at war left fooddistribution to the market, while others in-tervened quite heavily. The most compre-hensive interventions occurred in Nicaragua,Mozambique, Iraq, and Iran, with a varyingcombination of price controls, subsidies,and rations. In Iraq, a food rationing systemintroduced after the imposition of economicsanctions in 1990 entitled every citizen to auniform ration at set prices. In fact, thisprovided people with only half of their pre-crisis calorie intake. There was widespreadhunger due to the economic collapse, thebreakdown of the plan, and disrupted sup-plies. Since the Gulf War, the ration systemhas provided only partial protection of nutri-tional standards."

Responses toMilitarism and Warfare

The international community copes withwarfare through humanitarian assistance,U.N. peacemaking and peacekeeping agen-cies, and a wide variety of other contacts,agreements, and understandings.

During the Cold War, humanitarianassistance was usually granted only tofriendly or strategic countries. This practiceseems to be diminishing, with humanitari-an need becoming the principal basis forassistance.

But delivering humanitarian aid duringcivil wars is often difficult. The people withthe greatest need are often opposed to theprevailing government, whether or notthey support armed resistance. Govern-ments almost always resist humanitarian

Table 2.2: Development Costs of War

Destruction of: Existing Capital

Physical Infrastructure Transportation SystemIrrigationPowerFactories

Social Infrastructure SchoolsClinics

Human Capital HealthMigrationKnowledge

Institutions ExtensionBanksHealth CareMarketing LinksEducational

Social/Cultural TrustWork EthicRespect for Property

assistance that might strengthen a rebel-lious faction. Great tension often existsbetween the principle that outsiders shouldnot intervene in the affairs of sovereignnations and widespread perception that aparticular government is threatening thelives and well-being of part of its citizenry.

Calls for emergency food assistanceduring civil strife seem likely to increase.Strategies of response to these hungeremergencies should ensure two linkages:

Planning and delivery of food assistanceshould engage all parties and enhancedispute settlement processes and thedevelopment of democratic institutions;

Food aid should be integrated with re-construction and longer term sustainabledevelopment.9

Developing new institutions for disputeresolution and the promotion of democracy

4 7 Hunger 1995 42

Poverty andhunger breed

violence.


is proceeding, albeit slowly. The role of theUnited Nations as peacemaker and peace-keeper is gaining momentum. The numberof U.N. peacekeeping missions hasincreased rapidly since 1989, as the interna-tional community has turned to the U.N. asits preferred vehicle for dealing with inter-nal conflicts. In some instances, warringfactions within a country have also turnedto, or accepted, a U.N. presence in settlingdisputes.

In his report, "Agenda for Peace," theU.N. Secretary General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, proposes that the world communitypay greater attention to dispute resolutionbefore the outbreak of violence throughactive diplomacy. He also proposes thedeployment of U.N. contingents of person-nel trained in preventive diplomacy, peace-making, and peacekeeping. He calls forsecure financing from the internationaldonors, emphasizes the role of the WorldCourt, recognizes the growing role of mili-tary and humanitarian interventions, andembraces peace enforcement efforts.

Bilateral, regional, and internationalagreements outside the U.N. system alsoplay important roles in resolving disputesand in modeling attitudes and means fordispute resolution between and amongnations. The United States has not seriouslyconsidered turning to war or threats of warin its dealings with Canada and GreatBritain for more than a century. War be-tween the United States and Europe, Ocea-nia, Japan, or Mexico also seems unlikelynow. Hundreds of formal conventions,agreements, and treaties, plus informalunderstandings, undergird most of theworld's trade and much of its foreign poli-cy the European Union, the Organizationof Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC),the Organization of African Unity, the Asso-ciation of Southeast Asian Nations, the ArabLeague, postal unions, and trade and


environmental agreements, to name a few.Each effort to resolve international or

civil disputes by non-military, non-violentmeans increases the body of relevant infor-mation and experience, and raises the like-lihood of such efforts succeeding. Probablyeven more important, the availability oftrusted mechanisms will reinforce a shiftaway from first or primary reliance on mili-tary force as a means to settle disputes.

Violence and Hungerin the United States

Poverty and hunger breed violence.People who live without steady income tofeed, house, and clothe their families tendto be especially prone to, and vulnerableto, violence.

In the United States, someone dies froma gunshot wound every 14 minutes. Theincidence of suicide and homicide aremuch higher in poor communities than inmiddle-class neighborhoods. The homiciderate in poor African-American communitiesis 159 per 100,000 compared to 17 per100,000 in middle-class white communities.The Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention report that one in 25 African-Amer-ican children die before the age of 18 fromhandgun violence.

In the District of Columbia, 11 acute-carehospitals spend more than $20 million ayear treating injuries from violent crime.Follow-up care, including rehabilitationafter crime victims leave the hospital, dou-bles the annual cost to $40 million.

This violence is closely related to dis-crimination and poverty. Poor people wholive in the midst of an affluent society butcannot regularly obtain the basic necessi-ties of life sometimes come to see violence,crime, and drugs as their only means ofsurviving.

Poverty in the United States is closelyassociated with family breakdown, out-of-

Causes of Hunger

wedlock births, declining interpersonalempathy, and a tendency to view others asmeans to one's own satisfaction. People areno longer viewed as fellow humans worthyof respect and dignity. According to Har-vard professor Comel West, a survey foundthat 42 percent of African-American youthreported having no best friend?' Thesecircumstances lead to various forms ofpathological behavior. The violence ofpoverty breeds more violence and despair,a sense that one must live for the moment,because things will not get better.

We describe wars of "low intensity con-flict" in such places as El Salvador, South-Africa, and the disputed South Asian terri-tory of Kashmir. What is happening inSouth Central Los Angeles, inner-city De-troit, and other urban caldrons of humansuffering across the United States can betermed "low-intensity riots."

Every night, children of the inner citiesof the world's only remaining superpowergo to bed to the sound of gunfire. Abouttwo in five sometimes go hungry.

It takes only a spark to escalate the vio-lence from low intensity to high intensity.When the explosion comes, it is in the formof a rebellion. The 1992 Los Angeles riotsbroke the long silence in both the mediaand the highest levels of national politicalleadership about the disintegration of lifeand society in many inner city "low-intensi-ty" areas. Everyday stories tell us that thecause of this active volcano is young menand women living without education, jobs,health, homes, security, respect, or hope.

Increased funding for federal food pro-grams such as the Special SupplementalFood Program for Women, Infants, andChildren (WIC) and school feeding wouldend widespread hunger within a year ortwo. Other steps are needed to break thecycle of poverty and violence:

Education that imparts basic skills andequips young people for employment;

Assurance of decent jobs, supplementedwhen necessary by the Earned IncomeTax Credit, to allow workers to meettheir families' basic needs; and

Support for families to remain intact andgive emotional support to each other,especially to their children.

Needed even more than these program-matic approaches is a fundamental revolu-tion in values, attitudes, and relationships.Individuals, communities, and nations mustfind ways to turn away from dominationand violence to relationships based ondignity, respect, and love.

Overcoming ViolenceViolence results from the desire of indi-

viduals and communities to dominate otherpeople and other communities, and a re-fusal to share wealth, land, and politicalpower. The struggle to dominate and con-trol resources has polarized rich and poor,industrial and developing countries, blackand white, men and women, landlords andlandless, skilled and unskilled laborers,indigenous and migrant communities, be-lievers and non-believers, church and state,industrialists and non-industrialists, andNorth and South. Unreconciled polarizationleads to conflicts and violence.

Preventing violence and resolving con-flicts, therefore, must be based on chang-ing individuals' attitudes and assuring equalaccess to resources. Securing food for all,regardless of political, religious, ethnic,racial, and national identities, will help endviolence. But ending violence requires spiri-tual as well as social and political approach-es. The values held by individuals and com-munities are gradually woven into theformal and informal institutions by whichwe live and relate tozfach other. In most

I never intend toadjust to the madnessof militarism.

Rev. Dr. MartinLuther King, Jr.

Hunger 1995 44

Nonviolence isnot the cover for

cowardice,but it is the

supremevirtue of

the brave.Mahatma Gandhi


cultures, the values to which people aspireare derived from religious heritage or expe-rience. Stable societies are based on wideacceptance of moral values and the devel-opment of morally grounded institutions.

Sometimes the values expressed in law,education, religion, family and work rela-tions, the media, and the economy beliethe values which we profess. We claimallegiance to the values of equality, butfrequently deny dignity by personal behav-ior and fail to provide equality of opportu-nity in education or livelihood for wholegroups of citizens, based on race, sex, age,or other qualities. We say we would like tomeet everyone's basic needs, but fail toenact or implement requisite programs. Wewould be peacemakers, but rely on armedforces as the first instinct and the ultimateresort for foreign policy.

In many ways, we rely on overt and insti-tutional violence to maintain dominance andprivilege.

Genuine respect for all other people asequals and peaceful reconciliation of differ-ences are the basic antidotes to violence.These moral truths can be learned fromexperience, but for many gain added poweras tenets of faith. They are found in theancient Chinese Taoist doctrine of wu-wei,or non-action. The ancient Indian principleof ahisma, or non-harming, is shared byBuddhists, traditional Hindus, and Jains.Ahisma was the basis for Gandhi's efforts tolead India to independence. Commitmentsto non-violent behavior are also found in

. Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions.Participants in virtually every war have

had the endorsement of religious leaders.Most commonly, each of the participantsclaim right or justice for their own position,to justify their resort to violence, warfare,or threats. Only rarely have national reli-gious bodies spoken out against the posi-tion of their own governments e.g., the

45 Causes of Hun

Serbian Orthodox Church regarding Ser-bian actions in Bosnia.

Within Christianity, the tradition of justwars stretches back to the fifth century.The criteria for a just war are quite rigor-ous. To be just, a war must have a justcause; be waged by a legitimate authority;be formally declared; be fought withpeaceful intention; be a last resort; hold outa reasonable hope of success; and bewaged with means proportionate to theends sought."

Some wars seem to have the weight ofjustice on one side. World War II is gener-ally regarded as having been necessary, inspite of the great human suffering whichresulted. Other wars are indefensible, par-ticularly those which appear to preserve orincrease dominance by one party overanother.

As the international community is con-fronted with more calls for intervention incivil conflicts, including the possibility ofarmed intervention, just war argumentsbecome more complex as they are inter-twined with issues of sovereignty, legiti-mate authority, and self-determination.

In addition to an emphasis on preven-tive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-keeping, a fresh look at nonviolence, bothas technique and as philosophy, is needed.

Nonviolent action has been used attimes as a political strategy. U.S. abolitionistWilliam Lloyd Garrison preached the use ofnonviolent methods in the fight againstslavery. Many of the suffragettes who strug-gled for women's rights in Britain andNorth America adopted nonviolent resis-tance. Russian Count Leo Tolstoy advocat-ed a pacifist rejection of war and the use ofcivil disobedience as an alternative to vio-lent revolutions in The Kingdom of God IsWithin You.

The horrors of World War I strengthenedpacifist sentiments in the West. Students at

Causes of Hunger

Oxford University as early as 1935 passed aresolution pledging not to fight "for kingand country." In the United States duringthe 1950s and 1960s, the Rev. Dr. MartinLuther King, Jr., led the nonviolent civilrights movement against racial segregationand for civil rights. In the 1960s and 1970s,the war in Indochina led to widespreadanti-militarism. These experiences havemade nonviolence a growing moral forceover the course of the century.

ConclusionThe world is not without hope. The end

of the Cold War, progress toward peacebetween Israelis and Palestinians, and theend of apartheid in South Africa are indica-tive of new possibilities for peace.

In the United States, the Job Corps hasproven that intensive training and educationcan reduce crime rates. A key to the successof the Job Corps and similar private pro-grams is providing youth with a whole newenvironment. A year in the Job Corps costs$22,000 per youth, cheaper than $33,000 perjuvenile for incarceration. Such programscould substantially reduce the cost of crimein the United States, which is now $425billion a year.

Huge global investments in armamentsduring the 20th century have brought misery,disease, and hunger in unprecedented pro-portions, along with whatever benefits theyhave provided to world order. Although theend of the Cold War has led to a decline inglobal military expenditure, the world has along way to go toward creating global peaceand alleviating poverty and hunger.

An essential element in ending violenceis to increase our own and others' aware-ness of the deeply-embedded, structural

.foundation of violence. A paradigm shift isrequired. We must be aware of the degreeto which we have embodied dehumanizingattitudes in our behavior and our institu-tions.

To accomplish this paradigm shift, wemust focus on our own values, attitudes,and behaviors. We have placed too muchemphasis on reforming the other person,the other nation. Violence is in our minds.Let each person base his or her conduct onprinciples firmly rooted in ethical traditions.Faith is essential to reduce violence, pover-ty, disease, and hunger in this world.

Daniel U.B.P. Chelliah is coordinator of refugee affairsat BFW Institute.

Let us take therisks of peace up-on our lives, notimpose the risksof war upon theworld.

Quaker proverb

111. Cha"'"

Warfare has always resulted in hunger and suffering forordinary citizens. Here, Eritreans tackle post-conflictreconstruction.

J.1BEST COPY AltAlard1995 46

Poverty in a Global Economy

Ph.,. IFAD

Pr' ,-4111111

A landless widow in Bangladesh receives a loan for a milk cow from the Grameen Bank. The Bank isa pioneer in efforts to

provide credit for poor people mainly women to start small businesses.

5 (--4..

by Don Reeves

is chapter explores poverty as acause of hunger. It shows why "sus-tainable development" is a more

adequate goal than economic growth. Itdiscusses the increasingly global economy,the role of markets, and the limits of trans-fers as a solution to hunger. It then outlinesnational and global economic policychanges to help lift people out of poverty.The most important area of policy is invest-ment in human resources the health andeducation of poor people themselves. An-other major challenge is to create 2 billionnew income-earning opportunities, princi-pally in the private sectors of the poorerdeveloping countries, by the year 2025.These tasks are awesome, but possible.

Hunger is a symptom of poverty. If wecan root out poverty, we root out thesystemic cause of hunger.

Professor Mohammed Yunus, founder ofGrameen Bank in Bangladesh

Poverty as aCause of Hunger

Hungry people are almost always poor,and very poor people are chronically hun-gry. Economic problems and policies thatcontribute to poverty are among the basiccauses of hunger.

Poverty, the lack of sufficient resourcesto provide or exchange for basic necessities

food, shelter, health care, clothing is

not an exact indicator of hunger. But itscorrelation with undemutrition is high.

Worldwide, more than 1.3 billion peoplelive on the equivalent of less than onedollar per day. The majority of these (700million) are desperately poor and chronically

Figure 3.1

The Number of

Poor and

Hungry People

1980 and 1990

hungry. The balance live so close to theedge that any emergency illness, worklayoff, drought pushes them over, fromjust getting by, into hunger.

No place on the globe is immune topoverty. The people so poor that they areseriously affected by hunger are dispropor-tionately located in Africa. The largest num-ber are in Asia. A significant number are inLatin American and Caribbean countries.Seventy percent to 80 percent of the peo-ple are poor in sub-Saharan Africa, andnearly one-third in all developing countriestogether. But the United States, some Euro-pean countries, and Australia also havelarge blocs of poor and hungry people.

With few exceptions, the incidence ofpoverty is higher in rural than urban areas.Nearly everywhere, women and girls suffermore from poverty than men and boys.Infants, young children, and elderly peopleare particularly vulnerable.

A variety of forces converge to createpatterns of poverty: weak economies; in-equitable access to land and otherresources; unequal power in markets; andpoor education and health care nearlyalways exacerbated by discriminationagainst racial, ethnic, and religious minori-ties; violence and warfare; and often, envi-ronmental degradation.

Growth and InequalityEconomic growth has often been held

up as the primary goal of economic policy,especially since the 1960s. At times, "devel-opment" has almost been equated witheconomic growth. Many economists andgovernments expected poverty and othersocial problems to be reduced aseconomies grew.

Many growing economies widen the gapbetween rich and poor people. That leadssome to accept growing inequality, hoping

5i

Poverty

Hunger

Sub-Saharan Africa

400

A300

A200

too

0

1- 400

300

t 200

100

0

1980 1990

Latin America

ETT'l1980 1990

Near East & N. Africa

400

300

200

I [00

= 0

3 400

300

1 200

4.a

100

2 0

400

300

E 200

100

0

1980 1990

South Asia

1980 1990

Southeast Asia

1980 1990

Source: ACC/SCN; Institute for

Development Studies.

Hunger 1995 48


Measuring InequalityThe search for a vision of development that is more nuanced

than economic growth has also led to increasing reliance on mea-sures of development other than GDP and GNP, the two mostoften used measures for comparing income:

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) the value of all goods andservices produced within an economy; and

Gross National Product (GNP) the GDP plus or minus trans-fers such as profit on foreign investments or remittances frompeople working abroad.

The World Bank counts 56 low-income economies with percapita GNP from $80 to $675 (1991). At the other end are 38 high-income economies with per capita GNP from $8,356 to $36,080. Inbetween are 112 middle-income economies with per capita in-comes between $676 and $8,355.

GNP provides a quick measure of the capacity of an economyoverall to meet people's needs. It also represents the pool fromwhich savings and public expenditures can be drawn. But GNP isseriously flawed as a measure of poverty or well-being because itgives no information about income distribution within the country.

GNP and GDP fall short even as measures of national well-being. First, they fail to distinguish among types of economic activ-ity. Manufacturing cigarettes, making bombs, and running prisonsare all scored as contributing to GNP/GDP the same as bakingbread, nursing, building homes, or conducting scientific research.Second, many goods and services generate costs which are notreflected in their prices polluted air or illness from overconsump-tion, for example. Third, many nurturing and creative activitiesparenting, homemaking, gardening, and food preparation are notincluded because they are not bought and sold.

GNP/GDP figures for various countries are usually comparedafter they are "translated" into another currency. After GNP hasbeen calculated in Bangladeshi taka, for example, the result istranslated into U.S. dollars at the current exchange rate 8,833taka equals US$220.

But 8,833 taka will buy more in Bangladesh than $220 will buyin the United States, primarily because wages are much lower.Thus the World Bank, the U.N. Development Program (UNDP),and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. have adopt-ed a new measure purchasing power parity (PPP) which esti-mates the number of dollars required to purchase comparablegoods in different countries. Bangladeshi PPP is estimated at

49 Causes of Hunger,;t

-:41P, "?' E 5,s

that growth will eventually lift greaternumbers of people out of poverty.

However, studies of eight East andSoutheast Asian countries show that it ispossible to have both economic growthand decreasing inequality if the right poli-cies are in place. In South Korea, for ex-ample, where per capita income hasgrown rapidly, the most affluent fifth ofthe population has about seven times asmuch income as the poorest fifth. Theratio has narrowed slightly over the pasttwo decades; poor people have shared inthe rapid growth. By contrast, Brazil'sGross National Product (GNP) was twiceKorea's in 1970. Its economy has grownabout half as fast; by 1990 Korea's GNPwas twice Brazil's. But the ratio betweenBrazil's poorest and richest fifth is morethan 30-fold. Poor Brazilians have scarcelybenefitted from growth, and remain miredin deep poverty.

The Asian countries reduced, or at leastdid not increase, economic inequality bygiving poor people the incentive and themeans to improve their own earning

Figure 3.2

GDP Growth and Reduction of Poverty'

9

8

S. 7-a 6

1

0

-1

-2

Costa Rica Malaysia

Indonesia.Taiwan

.sapore

Pakistan. ThailandSingapore

Sri LankaIndia Brazil

Mexico

Bangladesh

II Jamaica

1

AtSlowgrowth

2 3 4

Rapid

poverty

Slow poverty

reduction

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Rapid growth

Annual GDP growth rate (percent)

Source: Ismail Serageldin.

Causes of Hunger

power: land reform and support for smallfarmers in Korea and Taiwan; high schooleducation, especially for women, in Singa-pore; and manufacturing for export thatraised the demand for unskilled factoryworkers in Malaysia, plus a massive affir-mative action program for the poorer eth-nic groups.

Declining inequality and economicgrowth support each other in three ways:

As poor families' income increases, theyinvest more in "human capital" moreeducation and better health care for theirown children;

Improved health and better education,which usually accompany decreasedinequality, increase the productivity ofpoorer workers and their communitiesand nations; and

Greater equality contributes to politicalstability, which is essential for continuedeconomic progress.3

Globally, we have accepted gross in-come inequality. The wealthiest one-fifth ofthe world's people control about 85 per-cent of global income. The remaining 80percent of people share 15 percent of theworld's income. The poorest one-fifth,more than a billion people, receive onlyabout 1.4 percent. The ratio between theaverage incomes of the top fifth and thebottom fifth of humanity is 60 to one (seefigure 3.3).

Sustainable DevelopmentAn alternative concept "sustainable

development" has emerged as advocatesof international justice, environmental pro-tection, peace, sustainable populationgrowth, democracy, and human rights haveincreasingly come to see that their goalsare interlinked. Several examples:

$1,230, rather than $220.PPP estimates make country-to-country comparisons more accu-

rate and realistic, and somewhat narrow the apparent gap betweenwealthy and poor countries. Even so, vast disparities remain. PPPsof $19,000 to $21,000 per capita (United States, Switzerland, Cana-da, Luxembourg) are more than 50 times those of Ethiopia andZaire, at less than $400.

GNP, GDP, and PPP are all measured as country averages. Butpoverty is best understood at the household and individual level.

The most used measure of inequality compares the income ofthe richest one-fifth, or quintile, of each population with that of thepoorest quintile. In 1980, for example, the richest one-fifth of U.S.households received 39.9 percent of the total income, and thepoorest one-fifth had 5.3 percent a ratio of 7.5 to one. By 1992,the ratio had widened: the top one-fifth had 41.9 percent of allincome ($48,436 per capita); the bottom one-fifth, 4.7 percent($4,433 per capita), and the ratio was 8.9 to one.

Among industrial nations, the ratio between the rich and poorquintiles' income ranges from 4.3 in Japan up to 9.6 for Australiaand the United Kingdom. Among the low-income countries withdata available, the ratios range from 4.1 for Bangladesh and 5.1 forIndia up to 32.1 for Brazil.'

Differences in income distribution make a big difference topoor people. Thailand's per capita GDP is only slightly larger thanBrazil's, but the poorest 20 percent of the population in Thailandhas more than three times as much purchasing power. In Indone-sia, with less than 60 percent of Brazil's per capita GDP, poorpeople have more than twice the purchasing power. Even inBangladesh, with per capita GDP less than one-fourth that ofBrazil, poor people are estimated to have as much purchasingpower as in Brazil.

Table 3.1: Poverty Impact of Income DistributionSelected Countries (1990)

Real GDP

PPP$

Income

Lowest

Income

Highest

Ratio

High 20%/

Country (1990) 20% 20% Low 20%

Thailand $5,890 $1,796 $14,931 8.3

Brazil 5,250 551 17,719 32.1

Indonesia 2,970 1,292 6,282 4.9

Bangladesh 1,230 584 2,374 4.1

Source: World Bank.

5 Hunger 1995 50BEST COPY AVAILAtiLi


Direct Measures of Well-BeingSustainable development, focused on poor people, requires indi-

cators which measure well-being even more directly than povertyrates: infant or under-five mortality, life expectancy, educationalachievement, and caloric intake.

The UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) gives equal weightto three factors: life expectancy at birth; educational attainment(based on the adult literacy rate and mean years of schooling); andper capita purchasing power.

People's lives can be improved if even limited resources are fo-cused on nutritional programs, public health, and basic education.But sustaining such improvements requires steady or improvingeconomic performance. Both China and Sri Lanka have investedrelatively heavily in education and health care since independence.They rank with industrial countries in life expectancy and educa-tional attainment.

Three other clusters of countries rank higher on the HDI scalethan other nations with comparable incomes:

China, Cuba, Vietnam, several of the formerly communist EasternEuropean nations, and several of the newly independent states ofthe Former Soviet Union rank significantly higher on the HDIscale by virtue of educational attainment, longevity, or both;

Several other nations rank high on the educational attainmentscale by having built on educational systems established duringthe colonial era: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Madagascar(French); Guyana, Tanzania, Uganda, and Burma (Myanmar)(British); and the Philippines (Spanish and United States);

Figure 3.3

Distribution of Global Income, 1991

Source: UNDP.

Richest fifth 84.7% of world GNP

Middle three fifths 13.9%

Poorest fifth 1.4%


Saving the rainforests of Brazil will re-quire dealing with the land hunger ofpoor Brazilians;

Reducing rapid population growth indeveloping countries will requireimproving living standards, especiallyfor girls;

Durable solutions to poverty andhunger in the United States will re-quire social peace, broader democrat-ic participation, and a shift to eco-nomic patterns that will beenvironmentally sustainable.

Sustainable development is defineddifferently by different people. Bread forthe World Institute has come to define itin terms of four interconnected objec-tives: economic opportunity for poorpeople, meeting basic human needs,environmental protection, and democrat-ic participation. An essential element isthe reduction of hunger and poverty inenvironmentally sound ways.

Sustainable development is gainingpublic and political support as the primegoal for economic policy. Economicefficiency and growth often contributesubstantially to sustainable development.Increases in productivity and income forAfrican peasant farmers are certainlyneeded. Further improvements in thewell-being of already well-off people canalso be part of sustainable development,if they are not environmentally harmful.

Economic growth is one means, butnot the only way, to more fundamentalhuman ends. This is an obvious point,but the implications are far-reaching.

Four conclusions may be drawn fromthe discussion thus far:

Wide disparities in income exist bothbetween and within nations;

Causes of Hunger

Poverty and hunger at the household levelis a consequence both of national incomeand the way it is distributed;

Poor nations, to reduce poverty-relatedhunger, need both economic growth andsteps to reduce inequality; and

Many countries have improved poor peo-ple's well-being by focused social pro-grams, but some of these programs arethreatened by poor economicperformance.

A Global, Knowledge-Based,Market Economy

We live in a time of profound and rapideconomic change. The well-being of billionsof poor and hungry people now and in thefuture depends on the evolving nature of theworld economy.

Three revolutions during the past twodecades have transformed national marketsinto a truly global economy:

The evolution of a single worldwide sys-tem of producing and exchanging money,goods, and services;

The shift from a resource-based economyto a knowledge-based economy; and

The acceptance of market-basedeconomics as conventional wisdom bymost political leaders throughout theworld.

First, all nations are increasingly tied to-gether into a single worldwide productionand exchange system. Instantaneous elec-tronic transfer of information and capitalfunds, controlled by transnational entities,permits "on-time-delivery" of components forassembly wherever labor costs are lowest ormarkets nearby.

The shift of manufacturing, assembly, andsome service tasks to low-wage areas offersthe possibility of more jobs and higher wages

A handful of Latin American countries rate relatively high on theHDI scale, primarily because of educational attainment: Chile,Costa Rica, Colombia, and Uruguay. Cuba and Nicaragua mightbe added to this list by virtue of combined educational attain-ment and longevity.

Many of these nations have suffered recent economic downturns,or are in the midst of drastic political and economic change. In theshort term, at least, they are hard pressed to maintain their educa-tion and health programs. Nonetheless, they provide evidence thatdirect attention to human services and relatively equitable distribu-tion of income can improve the quality of life for most citizens.

Two groups of nations rank much lower on the HDI than on aper capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) scale. The Middle Easternoil-rich nations rank low in both longevity and educational attain-ment, particularly because of the status of women in their societies.Several African nations have extremely low educational attainmentand longevity indicators, for varied reasons. Angola and Namibiahave been engulfed in long independence struggles and civil war.Botswana and Gabon, although relatively rich in natural resourceincome, have not devoted proportional resources to education andhealth care services.

in countries or regions with abundant labor.But this same shift makes it more difficult tomaintain jobs and wage levels in high-wagecountries, such as the United States, wherereal wages have declined for most workers inrecent years.

Second is the shift from a resource-basedeconomy to a knowledge-based economy. Inthis new economic world, wealth and em-ployment result less from the processing ofraw materials, and more from the ability toprocess information, or "manipulate sym-bols." The new billionaires are named Gates(Microsoft) or Milken (corporate mergers);the new companies, Calgene (biogenetics) orBoston Chicken, as compared to Rockefeller(Standard Oil) or Krupp (armaments).

As assembly jobs move to low-wage areasor are robotized, semi-skilled workers mustlearn and re-learn new skills every few years,or face low-wage jobs in competition withpoorly educated or poorly trained workers.The keys to economic stability are sound

JI

Poor nations,to reduce pover-ty-relatedhunger, needboth economicgrowth and stepsto reduceinequality.

Hunger 1995 52

Nearly every pro-posal for sustain-able development

relies on a corecommitment to

encouraging thegrowth of small

business.


basic education, ever-rising skill levels, andthe ability to adapt.

The shift to knowledge-based economiesleads to enormous gains in productivityaccomplishing more with fewer resources.These gains, if equitably shared, can greatlyimprove the well-being of humankind,bring relief from some menial chores, andrelieve some environmental pressures. Butif the gains are not shared, the new knowl-edge systems could be as socially destruc-tive as monopolies and trusts were in anearlier industrial era.

The third shift in the global economy isthe acceptance of market-based economicsas conventional wisdom by political leadersalmost everywhere. Market orientationletting markets set most prices and guidemost investments is, or is becoming, thepolicy of most governments.

Countries shift to market economiesbecause the nations that have well-devel-oped market economies have the greatestwealth; because centrally plannedeconomies have not been successful mostplaces they have been tried; and becausegovernments are persuaded by the rapidgrowth and dramatic reductions in povertysince the 1950s in the four "Asian Tigers"Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, andSingapore and current similar gains inIndonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Someobservers are ready to add China to this listbecause of its almost unprecedentedgrowth since 1978, coinciding with theintroduction and acceptance of marketpractices.

Hopes and Fears AboutRelying on Markets

Markets do many tasks well. Marketsencourage innovations (such as smaller,faster computers) that usually benefit con-sumers. Markets ration goods such as cloth-ing better than central planners, and may

53 Causes of Hunger

do as well as bureaucracies in some emer-gencies. Markets are sometimes fairer topoor people than governments, which areoften manipulated by privileged groups.One of the major goals of ORAP in Zim-babwe (see p. 33) has been freedom fromstate control so that villages can sell grainto each other.

Nearly every proposal for sustainabledevelopment relies on a core commitmentto encouraging the growth of small busi-ness. Most informal economic activity re-sults from the efforts of small entrepreneurswho cannot find a place in the formaleconomy. If they have access to goodroads, markets, and credit, small farmersand small business people can create theirown new income-earning opportunities inmarket economies.

Large, sophisticated corporations alsoperform valuable market services: assem-bling shiploads of grain for emergencyfood aid, for example, or maintaining in-ventories of repair parts for 20-year oldtractors.

But markets, by themselves, will nevereliminate hunger. Poor people and theirallies are often skeptical of grand claims forthe "magic of the marketplace." The persis-tence of massive hunger in a country aswealthy as the United States demonstratesthat markets must be complemented bypublic interventions to reduce hunger andpoverty.

Markets are also subject to abuse.Wealthy landowners, private and corporatebusinesses, and transnational corporationssometimes fail to treat their workers, sup-pliers, or customers fairly. Landowners andcorporations may achieve gains in collusionwith one another or with their own andforeign governments. Sometimes they relyon military support for protection.

The principal defense against marketfailures and abuses of markets lies in

5 E

Causes of Hunger

widespread and well-informed participationin public policy decision-making. Corpora-tions and wealthy individuals rely on lawsand regulations for their businesses pro-tection of title and enforcement of contracts,for example. When society grants such pro-tection, it should also insist that the benefi-ciaries behave responsibly. The importanceof international, as well as national, rule-making is obvious in a global economy. Asnoted in the Cause 1 essay (p. 31), interna-tional associations of workers andnongovernmental organizations can play acrucial role in bringing the perspectives andinterests of citizens to the process.

Businesses and other private actors inmarkets share an interest with anti-povertyadvocates in healthy, well-educated work-ers, stable and crime-free communities,strong public infrastructure, and raisingpoor people out of poverty. The terms forsharing costs and responsibilities for thesegoals are decided in public policy debate.

Markets alone do not have the capacityto fairly allocate some goods and serviceselementary education, health care, publicsafety, or passage on public streets. In actu-ality, everyone lives in a mixed economy.In recent years, 42 percent to 45 percent ofU.S. gross domestic product has been ap-portioned directly by governments feder-al, state, and local. This fraction ranges upto more than two-thirds in Scandinavia andbelow one-quarter in Japan, among indus-trial nations. The range is lower in develop-ing countries: well below 20 percent inMexico and Thailand; up to 30 percent inIndia and one third in Botswana.'

Thus, shaping a global economy that liftspeople out of poverty and eradicateshunger requires a commitment to the re-sponsible exercise of two functions:

Collection and allocation of public re-sources, especially for investment inhuman resources; and

Needed. Two Billion Income-Earning Opportunities

As the world's population grows at least 40 percent, from 5.7billion to 8.5 billion or more, by the year 2025, the global laborforce will grow even faster, by at least 60 percent. This means anincrease from 2.5 billion to more than 4 billion workers. Addtoday's several hundred million presently unemployed or under-employed workers, and the pressing need is to create 2 billionnew economic opportunities during the next 30 years. Half thesenew workers have already been born, and the number of unem-ployed is growing annually.

Most of the new jobs will be needed in developing countries,where 95 percent of the increase in population and labor force istaking place.

Virtually all the added jobs will need to be non-farm. Govern-ments in developing countries may increase incentives for foodproduction, which would add some farm employment. But farm-ers are likely to adopt technologies which increase their produc-tivity and reduce farm employment. While new lands have comeunder cultivation over the last generation, nearly all the world'scultivable land is now being farmed. Thus, farm job losses willexceed job gains over the next generation. More and more farm-ers, or their children, will seek non-farm employment. Whethersuch non-farm employment is urban or rural will depend on poli-cy choices.

Improvements in education, health care, and public infrastruc-ture can provide some public service jobs. But most new income-earning opportunities, if they come to pass, will be in the privatesector.

Every new opportunity, whether public or private, requiressavings and investment in human resources and in creating eachjob or business opportunity. The rate of savings and the allocationof their investment are crucial factors in determining whetherenough decent income-earning opportunities can be created. Therate of savings and the directions of investment are determined inlarge measure by public policies.

Creating appropriate, effective guidelinesfor markets.

The reality, of course, is much more diffi-cult than the assertion. Powerful politicalactors, as well as powerful market actors,often sway policies to their own self-interest,

5 Hunger 1995 54

On a global scale,the single most

important strategyfor alleviating

poverty andhunger is creating

opportunitiesto earn.


whether at the local, national, or internation-al level. Those political forces that strugglewith and on behalf of poor people are oftenunclear or divided on issues of national andinternational economic policy.

But as the global, knowledge-based,market economy extends its influence intothe far corners of our planet, people ofgood will have only one option: to helpdraft and implement policies which willdirect a sizeable portion of this economytoward creating income-earning opportuni-ties for poor people.

Policy Changesto Create Income-EarningOpportunities

On a global scale, the single most impor-tant strategy for alleviating poverty andhunger is creating opportunity to earnenough through jobs, farms, or businesses

to meet basic needs and permit humanfulfillment.

Each of the following policies and policyshifts could be taken within or at the mar-gins of the market-oriented politicaleconomies which prevail in all industrialand many other countries. Each has beenpart of a successful development package inone or more countries, and is an announcedgoal of most other countries. The key to thesuccess of all of these policies is widespreadparticipation in decision-making, especiallyby poor people and their allies.

These policies fall into the followingcategories:

Investing in people;

Agriculture and food production;

Creating a framework for sustainabledevelopment; and

Focusing international financing.

55 Causes of Huttgetn

INVESTING IN PEOPLE

Health Care and Nutrition. Investmentsin basic health care and improved nutritionyield huge dividends. Healthier childrenlearn better. Healthy adults work better.

Improved health care begins with greaterattention to basic public health measures:nutrition education, clean water and ade-quate sanitation, vaccination against infec-tious diseases, prevention of AIDS, distribu-tion of iodine and Vitamin A capsules, andsimple techniques of home health care.Delivery of these services can be relativelyinexpensive, especially in developing coun-tries, employing village women with mini-mal training. These basic services shouldhave priority over urban hospitals and spe-cialized medical training.

In some instances, public health trainingcan be delivered in conjunction with sup-plemental feeding programs such as theSpecial Supplemental Food Program forWomen, Infants, and Children (WIC) in theUnited States, or the Integrated Child Devel-opment Services in India.

Education. Investments in basic educa-tion complement those in health care andimproved nutrition, and yield huge payoffsin both developing and industrial nations.Better education for youth, especially girls,leads to improved health awareness andpractice for their families on a life-longbasis. Cognitive and other skills improveproductivity, enable better management ofresources, and permit access to new tech-nologies. They also enhance participation indemocracy.'

A study of 98 countries for the periodfrom 1960 to 1985 showed GDP gains up to20 percent from increases in elementaryschool enrollment, and up to 40 percent forincreases in secondary enrollment. In allo-cating educational resources, the highestpayoff is for elementary education, because

Causes of Hunger

it reaches the most children.In the United States, dramatic improve-

ment has followed from investments inHead Start, which provides preschool edu-cation and meals for low-income children,and Job Corps, which provides remedialand vocational training for disadvantagedyouth.

AGRICULTURE AND FOOD PRODUCTION

Access to Land. Widespread land owner-ship by small farmers usually contributesdirectly to food security and improved envi-ronmental practices. The more successfulland reform programs, as in Korea and Tai-wan, have provided at least minimum com-pensation to existing landlords.

Equitable Prices for Farm Produce. Inmany developing countries, state-run mar-keting boards have taxed agriculture bysetting farm prices very low and retainingfor the government a large share of thevalue from farm exports. Such disincentivesto farmers may have been the greatest singlebarrier to successful development in manypoor countries where agriculture is a largeshare of the national economy. As farmers'incomes rise, they expand their purchases ofconsumer goods, providing an importantsource of non-farm employment. In manypoor nations, much of domestic savingsmust be accumulated within agriculture,since it is such a large share of the econo-my. Such savings are important for increas-ing agricultural productivity and to helpfinance rural non-farm businesses.

Eliminating Agricultural Export Subsi-dies. The United States and the EuropeanUnion support their own farmers in waysthat generate surplus crops. They also subsi-dize exports of these crops, driving downprices around the world. Developing coun-try farmers, who usually are not subsidized,cannot match the low prices, even in theirown country. Local agriculture falters, andwith it, the whole process of development.

These agriculturalexport subsidiesshould be phasedout as quickly aspossible.

CREATING A FRAMEWORK

FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Access to Credit. Equitable access tocredit for small farmers and small businessesis probably the highest priority for allocationof domestic savings or outside investment.Training in resource and business manage-ment is often part of successful credit pro-grams.

Adequate Physical Infrastructure.Creating and maintaining an adequate phys-ical infrastructure is essential to a viable,expanding economy. Important elementsinclude: for rural areas, farm-to-market roadsand storage oriented to domestic productionand, if appropriate, exports. For all areas,safe water, sanitation, electricity, and com-munications networks are needed.

Stable Legal and Institutional Frame-work. Sustainable development requires astable legal framework. This includes as-sured property titles; enforceable contracts;equitable access to courts and administrativebodies; accessible information networks.

Stable Currency and Fiscal Policies.Neither domestic nor internationalinvestors, including small farmers andmicroentrepreneurs, are likely to invest incountries in which the political or econom-ic environment is unsettled. High inflationor continuing trade deficits, which often gotogether, discourage needed investmentsand may even drive out domestic savings.

Twenty-nine African countries undertookstructural adjustment programs during the1980s. Often, these reforms fall heavily onpoor people, as social service programs arefrozen or cut back to help balance nationalgovernment budgets. Other possible mea-sures to reduce budg?t, trade deficits

0of

Figure 3.4

Increased

Productivity Reduced

; Birthrates

Increased

Education

Virtuous

Circle

Fewer

Child en Higher

Incomes

Source: Based on Birdsall and Sabot.

Widespread landownership bysmall farmersusuallycontributesdirectly to foodsecurity and im-proved environ-mental practices.

BEST COPY AvAtketel 199556

For the first timein United States

history, youngadults face lower

economic expecta-tions than their

parents.


more progressive taxes, cuts in militaryspending, or curtailing luxury importshave not always been pursued with equalvigor. Economic reform programs, some ofwhich will continue to be necessary, shouldbe revamped to reduce the costs and in-crease benefits for poor people.

Effective, Progressive Tax Systems.Effective progressive tax structures are keyto sustainable financing for investments inhuman resources and infrastructure. Taxesbased on ability to pay are also key to stabi-lizing or reducing wide disparities in incomedistribution in both rich and poor countries.Such tax systems are difficult to enact wherewealth and political power are controlled bya small minority.

Incentives for Jobs-Creating Invest-ments. The Asian countries which havegrown so rapidly have all placed emphasison labor-intensive exports, some in jointventures with overseas partners, some withinvestments solicited from abroad, but manywith strong subsidies from within their owneconomies. This is a distinct departure fromtheir more general commitment to followingmarket signals.

A primary target for jobs-intensive invest-ments will be processing operations forprimary products whether for domesticconsumption or for crops or minerals nowbeing exported.

FOCUSING INTERNATIONAL FINANCING

Direct Foreign Investment. Some de-veloping countries are attempting to createan economy stable enough to attract directforeign investment. They usually negotiatefor investments which will create decentjobs for newly educated workers.

Loans from International FinancialInstitutions. For the poorest countries, amajor source of outside finance will contin-ue to be the international financial institu-tions the World Bank, regional develop-ment banks, and the International Monetary

57 Causes of Hunger

Fund. The conditions which accompanytheir loans are a major influence on thenational policies of borrowing countries. Inaddition, these institutions often influenceprivate banks and foreign and domesticinvestors. These multilateral lenders, as wellas government-to-government aid, could bea model by focusing most of their resourceson human development and generatingincome-earning opportunities for the poor-est people in poorer nations (see "Power,Hunger, and the World Bank," pp. 25-26).

Forgiveness of Unmanageable Debt.Many of the poor countries have large debtsleft over from the 1970s. Large payments ofinterest and repayment of principal severelycurtail poor nations' capacity to save andinvest, or even to meet current basic needs.Unpayable debts should be forgiven or dra-matically rescheduled. Creditors are morelikely to get part of their money back ifcountries that are making serious efforts toachieve economic recovery are given somedebt relief.

The American Dream:Diminishing Expectations

For the first time in United States history,young adults face lower economic expecta-tions than their parents. Real wages averagethe same as during the early 1970s. Totalcompensation per worker has climbed slow-ly with the increasing value of work-relatedbenefits retirement plans and especiallyhealth care. But higher-paid workers havegarnered a larger share of this increase. Realincome for the bottom 60 percent of U.S.residents has declined.

The prospects for younger and futureworkers are further clouded by the project-ed costs of future benefits for elderly peopleand ballooning public debt. As the averageage increases, relatively fewer workers willpay for benefits for a much larger numberof retirees. Promised Medicare and Social

62

Causes of Hunger

Security benefits, plus interest on the publicdebt, by themselves, would require peopleborn after 1990 to pay three-quarters ofevery dollar earned in federal and statetaxes. This is clearly impossible, economical-ly or politically!'

The high expectations of U.S. citizensare based on a century of growth in work-er productivity. Output per worker grew atan average rate of nearly 2 percent peryear from the 1860s until the early 1970sunprecedented in all human history. Work-ers shared these productivity gains, espe-cially during the period of strong laborunions and supportive federal legislation,from 1936 until 1971.

From this perspective, the post-World WarII period was an almost golden age nearlya quarter century of increasing real wages,based on increasing productivity. Not onlydid the economy provide opportunity for allwho wanted to work, but the country'swealth permitted the Great Society programsof the 1960s. The U.S. poverty rate dipped toan all-time low of 11 percent in 1973.

By the early 1970s, several long-develop-ing changes matured. Since then, several newfactors have developed. Among them:

A cartel among oil-producing countriesraised oil prices and maintained them athigh levels throughout the 1970s;

Europe and Japan, nurtured in part withU.S. assistance, increased their productivityand became economic competitors, evenin highly sophisticated products such aselectronics and automobiles;

Four Asian economies (South Korea, Tai-wan, Singapore, and Hong Kong), with acombined population of about 75 millionpeople, and other Asian countries withmuch larger populations also becamemore competitive with the industrial coun-tries, notably in less sophisticated manu-facturing;

Worldwide systems of pro-duction emerged, shiftingsome labor-intensive manu-facturing and assembly jobsto low-wage regions; and

An explosion in the ability tomanipulate knowledgeplaced a premium on newskills and ability to adapt.

In this new setting the UnitedStates has failed to keep pace inseveral key respects:

120

s 100

80

Workers performing routine = 60manufacturing and assemblytasks, some highly skilled,lost their jobs to automationor to lower-wage workers,mostly overseas; many havebeen forced to take lower-wage jobs;

Gains in output per workerhave declined sharply, aver-aging only 0.7 percent since1970, in contrast with produc-tivity gains of 3.3 percent inJapan and similar increaseselsewhere during the sameperiod;

People in the United States have failed toscale back consumption to match income

household, business, and governmentdebt all increased rapidly during the1980s. Response to the recession of theearly 1990s has reduced the growth ofprivate debt, but government debt con-tinues to grow;

The educational system has not keptpace with changes achievement scoreshave declined and drop-outs and func-tional illiteracy have risen;

40

1950 '60

Figure 3.5

Yearly Compensation for

U.S. Workers: 1950 to

19916Compensation

t Wages

'70

'73

'80

'55 '65 '75 '85

Year

'91

Note: "Wages" means take home pay.

"Compensation" includes all fringe

benefits, such as health insurance.

Source: Peterson.

During the 1980s, high debt and high

6 Hunger 1995 58


Transfers of Food or MoneyTransfers of food and money are important to reducing hunger

domestically and globally, but jobs and other income-earning op-portunities are much more important.

The United States and other industrial countries could easily as-sure adequate food and other necessities for all their own citizens.For some groups of people elderly and disabled people, manysingle mothers with young children continuing food grants and/orequivalent cash are the only way to assure daily food. Such pro-grams must be funded at adequate levels. An expansion of thefederal food programs of less than $10 billion (one percent of thefederal budget) would quickly eliminate widespread hunger in theUnited States.

Industrial nations could finance adequate transfers of food ormoney to meet global chronic hunger into the foreseeable future.The cost would be only a fraction of present arms expenditures. Butthere is no evidence of the political will to fund programs of thisscale, even for a short period.

In low income countries, the political will to support transfers toneedy people is often similarly weak. Moreover, many developingcountries simply could not afford to maintain transfer programs ofsufficient scale.

More fundamentally, in both industrial and developing countries,poor people themselves want and need the opportunity to meettheir own needs. Jobs and opportunities to develop businesses arethe primary means to overcome poverty and hunger.

Wealthy nations can and should give more. The U.N. establisheda goal of each industrial nation giving 0.7 percent of its GNP fordevelopment assistance. Only Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and theNetherlands have exceeded this goal. Some nations contributemuch less, most notably the United States, which gives less than 0.2percent of GNP. In addition, much of such assistance is not well-targeted.

Development assistance should be expanded, but even moreimportant, it should be redirected toward sustainable development.Wealthy nations should help develop human resources througheducation and health care initiatives. They should support efforts toexpand economic opportunity in ways which are environmentallysustainable, and which poor people have helped plan and imple-ment. Transfers to meet emergencies or the needs of especiallyvulnerable groups the needs of elderly and disabled people orrefugees and victims of warfare and natural catastrophe should becarried out in ways that contribute to, or do not undercut, sustain-able development efforts.

59 Causes of Munger 64

whether in the United States or abroad.Policy changes reduced the relativeshare of taxes paid by wealthy individ-uals and businesses, and the cost ofpublic spending for the middle classwas not curtailed; and

The United States rapidly expandedmilitary spending in the 1980s whileefforts to reduce deficit spendingblocked needed investments in humanresources.

The cumulative impact of these changesemerges most dramatically in the data onincome and poverty; income disparity hasincreased. In 1992, the last year for whichinformation is available, 15 percent of U.S.residents 38 million people livedbelow the poverty line. This is the highestproportion since 1966, and the highestnumber since 1962, before the Great Soci-ety programs and the peak of U.S. pro-ductivity gains.'

The economic changes have not allbeen negative. Some innovators, owners,and workers skilled in the new informa-tion-based technologies have gained fromthe shifts to a more knowledge-basedeconomy. Some industries, such as steel,have been restructured to improve pro-ductivity.

Policy DilemmasThe United States is still the wealthiest

country on earth. But the burgeoningcosts of debt, health care, and Social Secu-rity must be brought under control. Envi-ronmental constraints will force changesin the use of irreplaceable resources andthe amount of wastes generated. The na-tion faces wrenching policy choices.

Politically popular visions of the futurecenter on regaining the economic growthmomentum of the 1950s and 1960s.Programs of education and training would

Causes of Hunger

be coupled with incentives for saving andinvestment in knowledge-based, globallycompetitive businesses. These new ven-tures would generate enough income-earning opportunities for all people in theUnited States willing and able to work.Increasing productivity and an expandingeconomy would also finance environmen-tal protection and progress against socialproblems.

Alternative visions give higher priorityto environmental sustainability. Publicpolicies at local, national, and internation-al levels would support individuals andcommunities as they reclaim influence andresources from giant corporations andcentral governments. Most such visionspresume reduced economic activity over-all and increased sharing of wealth.

Regardless of which of these two vi-sions of the future we pursue, it makessense to:

Invest more in people, assuring ade-quate nutrition, education, health care,and opportunity for retraining as jobneeds change; and

Encourage employment, including pub-lic sector jobs, to provide quality childcare and expand low-income housing.

Sources of Hopeand Optimism

In the face of persistent or increasingpoverty and hunger in both the developingand industrial worlds, and the stubborn per-sistence of entrenched power and privilege, itwould be easy to abandon hope or resign tocynicism.

But it is possible, although immenselydifficult, to create economic opportunity for 2billion workers in ways that also enrich fami-ly and community life and protect and en-hance the environment. If we pause to lookback at where we have been and at the di-rections we seem to be headed, we can seereasons for hope:

After nearly a half century of attempts toimprove economies and communitiesincluding mistakes and disasters govern-ments and citizens, in poor and rich na-tions, understand better now what worksto relieve poverty and hunger, and whatdoes not;

Due to the growth of the environmentalmovement across the globe as exempli-fied at the 1992 U.N. Conference on theEnvironment and Development in Rio deJaneiro commitment to sustainable de-velopment is growing rapidly; and

Underlying, and most important of all, isthe faith and persistence of poor peo-ple themselves.

Don Reeves is economic policy analyst at BFW Institute.

6E

In 1992, the lastyear for whichinformation isavailable, 15percent of U.S.residents 38million peoplelived below thepoverty line.

BEST COPY AVAWer1995 60

Population, Consumption,And Environment

Phom:

-

IL

Industrial pollution in the wealthy countries may be causing the permanent warming of the earth the

greenhouse effect." B c

BE: T 1 PY AVAILABLE

by Nancy Wright, A. Cecilia Snyder,and Don Reeves

Rtapid population growth contributes

o poverty and environmentaltrain in many poor countries.

Overconsumption by affluent people di-verts resources that could meet basichuman needs and adds to the strain onthe global environment. Even optimisticscenarios require a doubling of food pro-duction within the next generation. Weneed improvements in social welfare (es-pecially education for girls) and voluntaryprograms of family planning to reducepopulation growth; policies to reduce theconsumption of nonrenewable resourcesby affluent people; and programs of sus-tainable agricultural development.

The world produces enough food foreveryone to have 2,500 calories a day 150

more than the basic minimum if it weredistributed equally. Over three-quarters of abillion people are chronically undernourishednot because food is unavailable, but becausethey cannot grow or afford to buy it.

Rapid population growth among somelow-income populations puts pressure on thecapacity of countries to absorb the increaseinto their economies and on fragile ecosys-tems. But overconsumption of nonrenewableresources among relatively well-off peopleputs even more strain on the global environ-ment than rapid population growth amongpoor people. The industrial countries includeonly 20 percent of the world's population,but consume 80 percent of its resources.

Food systems and the soil, water, and airon which they depend already show signs ofstress or deterioration. Many observers doubtwhether food production can match popula-tion growth on a sustainable basis, especiallyif poor people raise their standard of living.

Yet slowed population growth is consistentlytied to improved well-being, implying at leastsome increases in consumption among poorpeople.

Sustainable development is gaining cre-dence as an approach to resolve these dilem-mas (see Cause 3, pp. 50-52). These strate-gies hold the potential for overcominghunger and poverty, improving human wel-fare generally, and preserving the integrity ofthe earth.

PopulationAlthough many countries appear to be in

the early stages of declining fertility rates, thenumber of people in the world continues togrow at an alarming rate. Earth's population,now 5.7 billion and increasing 90 millioneach year, is likely to reach 8.5 billion by2025, and exceed 10 billion by the middle ofthe 21st century. Virtually all the additionalpeople will be in poorer countries. For exam-ple, sub-Saharan Africa, already troubled byperiodic famine, chronic malnutrition, andcivil conflict, is expected to double its popu-lation by 2020.'

Explosive population growth can con-tribute to hunger and poverty. In many areasof the world, high birth rates lower livingstandards for many people. There are oftentoo few jobs and too little land for growingnumbers of young workers.

For many poor people, large families are ameans of survival, providing some insurancefor care and protection in old age. So highinfant mortality rates lead to even greaternumbers of births. It is not unusual for sever-al children in an impoverished family to diebefore their first birthday. In the developingworld, 13 million children under the age offive die each year due to malnutrition andrelated preventable diseases.'

High fertility rates are also an indicatorof women's low status. Lack of female

61

The worldproduces enoughfood for everyoneto have 2,500calories a day150 more thanthe basicminimum.

Hunger 1.995 62

Population, Consumption, and Environment

Five Steps to SlowPopulation Growth

1. Greatly expanded efforts to enable poor people to work theirway out of hunger and poverty, especially by fostering grass-roots and self-sustaining development.

2. Health programs aimed at reducing infant mortality and increas-ing health security.

3. Policies which would improve women's low social, educational,economic, and political status.

4. Voluntary family planning methods which respect individualconsciences and religious beliefs.

5.Efforts to modify the consumption of affluent people, includingreforms in international trade and financial arrangements thatwould reduce the use of nonrenewable resources by well-offpeople in industrialized countries and increase incomes for poorpeople around the world.

Bread for the World Institute Board of Directors, March 1, 1994

63 Causes of Hunger

education, health care, and employment,as well as patriarchal cultural and religioustraditions, all contribute to high birthrates.

Some people justify not helping hungrypeople by arguing that feeding people willonly allow them to have more babies. Butin fact, reducing hunger and poverty iscrucial to reduced birth rates. Economic andsocial improvement is highly correlated withreduced fertility.

Education, especially of girls, is alsostrongly correlated with lower birthrates:

In Bangladesh, a midday meal programdesigned to increase the enrollment ofgirls in school resulted in a 25 percentdecline in birthrates over six years, inaddition to significant nutritionalbenefits.'

6u

A study of 38 countries found thatwomen with seven or more years ofeducation have 1.6 to 2.9 fewer birthsduring their childbearing years thanwomen with no schooling.'

An extra year of schooling reducesfertility rates by up to 10 percent.'

Effective family planning does notoccur in isolation. Lower birthrates areusually the result of several factors. Educa-tion, better health care, and increasedincome-earning opportunities are all es-sential. These all contribute to a sense ofimproved family security and well-being,and tend to translate into an interest inspacing and limiting births.

Contraception is the easiest and mosteffective way to reduce birthrates, butsome religious communities oppose con-traception, especially if it is imposed onpeople. Breastfeeding and strengtheningthe role of fathers in parenting are othermeans of family planning.

The practice of breastfeeding helps tospace children by delaying the return ofovulation. Studies have shown that:

An exclusively breastfeeding motherwho has not yet resumed menstruationis 98 percent protected against preg-nancy for the first six months followingchildbirth.6

Breastfeeding reduces total potentialfertility in Africa by 43 percent, in Asiaby 30 percent, and by 16 percent in theAmericas.'

Breastfeeding also has multiple healthbenefits for both the mother and child,and is environment-friendly.

Emphasizing the male parent's account-ability will encourage men to becomemore effective fathers and husbands, andalso reinforce their role in family planning.A father's presence or absence has a

Causes of Hunger

tremendous impact on the well-being ofthe family, especially the children. In Bar-bados, for example, the 22 percent of chil-dren who had a father living at home per-formed significantly better at school. InChile, children living with both parentstended to have higher nutrition levels andbetter diets.

Education and counseling of men canresult in significant changes in attitude andbehavior. PRO-PATER, a health organizationin Brazil, has expanded men's notions oftheir responsibilities in caring and planningfor families. PRO-PATER's television adver-tisements and counseling, which dissemi-nate information and assistance, have in-creased male involvement in family matters.

In 1989, the National Family PlanningCouncil of Zimbabwe ran a series of 80radio shows, which reached about 40 per-cent of the country's male population. Sixtypercent of the men who heard these pro-grams reported a change in attitudes to-ward their families, and 40 percent agreedthat family planning decisions should bemade jointly by husband and wife."

ConsumptionWealthy people, mostly in industrial

nations, make up about one-fifth theworld's population. Yet they control 85percent of its income and consume 70percent of its energy, 75 percent of its met-als, and 85 percent of its wood. They pro-duce two-thirds of all greenhouse gasesand 90 percent of ozone-depleting chlo-rofluorocarbons (CFCs):°

People in the United States, for example,spend more than $7 billion per year onlawn care, even though the chemicalsused contribute directly to water pollu-tion, solid-waste disposal problems, andair pollution.'°

High and growing worldwideuse of fossil fuels may lead to agreenhouse effect creation of alayer of carbon dioxide andother gases which trap heat inthe atmosphere and permanentlywarm the earth. Each person inthe United States uses an aver-age of 24 barrels of oil per year,compared to 12 in Europe, andjust one in Africa."

CFCs, used as refrigerants and inpressurized cans, have seriouslyreduced the high atmosphericozone layer, permitting harmfulradiation to reach the earth'ssurface.

Figure 4.1

Population and Pollution

Population CFC Emissions

1111 Industrial Countries

Developing World

CFCs damage the earth's ozone layer and

contribute to global warming.

Source: World Resources Intim.

Pollution from autos and coal, plus otherindustrial emissions, have produced acidrains which have already damaged aquarter of Europe's forests and killedfish in parts of Europe and the northeastUnited States. Industrial and militarywastes contain toxins, including radioac-tivity, which are for all practical purpos-es permanent.

If everyone now in the world lived asthe richest 20 percent do, humanity woulduse 10 times as much fossil fuel and 200times as many minerals clearly impossi-ble, even without population growth.'2

Poorer parts of the world have been,and are still being, stripped of irreplaceableresources to support unsustainablelifestyles of a wealthy minority.

Environmental degradation does notincrease in lock-step with income. Forexample, air pollution increases with initialincreases in income, as people use moreenergy and transportation. The most severeair pollution from soot and suspendedchemicals is in the large cities of poorcountries Mexico City, Beijing, Calcutta,and Tehran. Dust and soot in city air cause

B Hunger 1995 64


Mrs. Kizza's CowIn the Rakai district of Uganda, the Young Women's Christian

Association gave Mr. and Mrs. Kizza a dairy cow, as part of the"Passing on the Gift" program supported by CODEL and HeiferProject International. In this program the first heifer offspring isgiven to another farmer. With the milk sold, a complete farmingsystem becomes possible.

Using the waste from both the cow and the family, Mr. andMrs. Kizza constructed a biogas system to provide power both forcooking and lighting. Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Kizza and theirthree children developed several compost piles and an organicgarden, which grows radishes the size of footballs. Mushrooms,lettuce, and root crops also thrive. Banana plants benefit fromcontour planting. Layers and roasters inhabit a new brick, two-storied chicken coop. In addition, Mrs. Kizza makes passion fruit,banana, pineapple, and mango wines worthy of being sold incafes in downtown Masaka.

Under a shade veranda on what is now called St. Judy's farm,after the beneficial cow, Mrs. Kizza trains local women in herfarming approach. She has spoken at international developmentmeetings and received an award for her expertise in develop-ment. "Why would anyone want to live in the city," she asks,"when life on the farm is so good?"

65 Causes'.6f Minger

between 300,000 and 700,000 prematuredeaths each year."

But wherever incomes continue to rise,clean air becomes both more importantand more affordable. Cities in wealthiercountries do a better job of cleaning theirair, by requiring cleaner fuels and installingsmokestack scrubbers, for example.

Consumption by poor people also con-tributes to environmental degradation.Indoor air pollution from burning wood,charcoal, and dung endangers the health of400 million to 700 million people.

But affluent people can make the greatestdifference by changing their lifestyles. Theycan actually enhance the quality of theirfamily and community lives by choosing

7C

simpler, less resource-consumptive lifestyles.Wealthy nations can also encourage andassist poor nations which choose to adoptless damaging paths of development.

Can the World ProduceEnough Food?

Dramatic increases in food suppliessufficient to provide for a world populationnearly quadrupled within this centuryhave come in part through expanded useof nature's four major biological systems.Oceans have been fished and rangelandgrazed more intensively; forests are rapidlydisappearing; and cropland has expanded

mostly at the expense of forests andrangeland. Such expansions and over-harvesting are near an end; in some in-stances they must be scaled back.

The remainder of food gains in this cen-tury have occurred through more intensiveuse of resources and increased productivi-ty. Irrigated acreage grew at more than 2percent each year through the 1960s and1970s. Fertilizer use grew nine-fold be-tween 1950 and 1984, an increase of sevenpercent per year. Dramatic improvementsin wheat and rice yields resulted from newcrop varieties, which responded to bothirrigation and higher fertility, introducedand adopted during the 1960s and 1970sthe Green Revolution."

Sharp differences in opinion mark thedebate over the severity of ecological dam-age to date, and whether food productioncan continue to increase on a sustainablebasis. Without question, increased use offertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation haveresulted in environmental damage someof it through carelessness, but probablysome unavoidable. Expansion of crop pro-duction onto marginal lands has also result-ed in damage also partly due to careless-ness and partly unavoidable.

But even the most optimistic scenarios

Causes of Hunger

regarding population growth will require anear doubling of food production beforethe middle of the next century. Sub-Saha-ran Africa will need nearly to triple its foodsupply. The continent, however, cannotindefinitely expand its cultivated area. Thishas been its principal strategy to date. Byone estimate, if population in the regioncontinues to grow at 3 percent per year,without significant gains from more inten-sive agriculture, the area being cultivatedwould have to double from its current 375million acres to 720 million acres by 2030.Expansion by even a fraction of thisamount would come at great cost to theregion's forests, wildlife, and bio-diversity."

Pessimists doubt that the increases of thelast 30 to 40 years can continue. Potentialnew areas for sustainable farming are limit-ed. Some lands now being cultivatedshould be returned to permanent covers ofgrass or forest. New irrigation projects willbe more expensive, and must competewith increasing industrial, commercial, andhousehold demands for water. Disputes,even wars, over water seem likely. Sideeffects from irrigation, most notably theaccumulation of salts in soils salinization

affect a number of projects. In manyregions, irrigation that depends on ground-water has been over-developed, and can-not be sustained.

The practical limits to the benefits fromfertilizer of current crop varieties may havebeen reached in many areas. Concern fordamaging side-effects from fertilizers isgrowing. The new crop varieties of theGreen Revolution have been widely plant-ed over most of the area for which they aresuited. Possible dramatic new gains frombiogenetic research are years away, at best,and may carry unanticipated side effects.

Optimists, on the other hand, point outthat global food production overall, andper capita, has grown steadily since 1950,

Other Environmental GainsOptimists regarding sustainable food production also cite other

recent environmental gains, including:

Technical advances such as solar cells and wind generation ofelectricity which have become cost-competitive for some ap-plications;

Cleaner air most cities in industrial nations have less air pollu-tion than twenty years ago; and

Reduced energy use by millions of citizens in their homes, atwork, and for transportation.

In addition to these, the United Nations Conference on Envi-ronment and Development firmly fixed environmental issues onthe international agenda. More concretely, it resulted in interna-tional conventions on climate change and biological diversity, aswell as adoption of a Declaration of Principles and Agenda 21, aplan for environmental action endorsed by over one hundredgovernments.

Whether these agendas are implemented will depend in largepart on the ability of the citizens of the world to convince govern-ments and international organizations to provide the necessaryresources.

while inflation-adjusted food prices havedeclined in all but a few areas. Some ex-pect that the threat of food shortfalls, espe-cially if accompanied by modest increasesin food prices, would result in substantialincreases in food production. They alsolook for continuing productivity gains fromagricultural research."

Optimists also point to environmentalgains directly related to food productionover the past decade. Conservation mea-sures adopted in the 1985 and 1990 U.S.farm bills, when fully implemented, willhave reduced soil erosion on U.S. farms bynearly two-thirds. Fertilizer and pesticideuse has leveled off. Most farmers are usingthem more carefully. A small, but growing,

BEST COPY AVAluta6E- 1995 66


Lack of landforces small

farmers to culti-vate marginal

soil, whichquickly erodes

and becomes lessfertile, destroying

another im-portant part ofthe ecosystem.

number of farmers have switched to organic,or chemical-free, farming. Alternative agricul-ture and integrated pest management aregaining favor, and are the basis of majorresearch programs at U.S., European, andJapanese universities. Sustainability is theprincipal goal of these approaches, and theyoften combine traditional, organic, andlabor-intensive practices."

Unjust Land DistributionMany environmental threats have their

roots in unjust social arrangements.Inequitable land distribution, most notably inLatin America, contributes to both hungerand environmental deterioration.

Colonial land appropriations, plus 19thand early 20th century land acquisitions byforeign corporations, led to ranching, min-ing, and export crops such as sugar, beef,coffee, and pineapple. In Venezuela, 1 per-cent of landowners own 67 percent of arableland. In the Dominican Republic, 92 percentof agricultural families are landless or near-landless.

Such patterns create profound humansuffering for millions of the world's people,and the numbers are growing:

Estimated in 1981 at 167 millionhouseholds . . . the landless and near-landless are expected to increase tonearly 220 million households by theturn of the century.'"

Without land, people have difficulty meet-ing their basic needs and are vulnerable tomalnutrition and ill health. Lack of landforces small farmers to cultivate marginalsoil, which quickly erodes and becomes lessfertile, destroying another important part ofthe ecosystem. Anthropologist SheldonAnnis describes the differences betweenpoor farmers who own land and those whodo not:


In the Guatemalan village where Ilived in the late 1970s, 1 used to marvelat the elegance with which poor farm-ers could optimize every availablescrap of resources every ridge of land,every surplus hour of time, every chan-nel of water, every angle of sunlight.Though the Indians where I lived aresurely poor, they do own their ownplots of land. They depend upon andcare for what is theirs. When Igo backto the village, I always find that my

friends' fields look just as I rememberedthem.

Ten years ago, I also worked inGuatemala's northern Quiche province,which, for many reasons, is much poor-er than the town where I lived. There, Irecall watching in horrified fascinationas an Indian farmer and his son plant-ed their plot of corn on a forested slope.The land was so steep that the son hadto be held in place with a rope loopedaround his waist. As he hopped fromfurrow to furrow, his father let out theslack from around a tree stump.

When I returned to that spot recently, Iwas not surprised to find that the

farmer and his son were no longerthere. And neither was the hillside.What remained was a reddish, erodednub which looked just like the nextand the next and the next former hill-side.°

In short, owning land motivates farmers tocare for it.

Land DegradationPoverty has forced farmers in many places

to engage in unsustainable practices. In theSahel region of West and Central Africa,people traditionally left land fallow for long

Causes of Hunger

periods. With forests nearby to providewood for fuel, they applied manure tofertilize soil. After World War II, the humanand livestock population expanded. In-creasingly, farmers brought land into pro-duction before its productivity had beenrestored. They cleared the forests for farm-ing and resorted to burning manure forfuel. This deprived the soil of nutrients,leaving crops more vulnerable to recurringdroughts. A crisis situation, repeated manytimes around the world, was created.

Agenda 21, from the 1992 U.N. Confer-ence on the Environment and Develop-ment, states, "Land degradation is the mostimportant environmental problem affectingextensive areas of land in both developedand developing countries." Land degrada-tion is caused by erosion, desertification,salinization, deforestation, and over-use, aswell as changes in weather patterns. TheUnited Nations estimates that one-third ofthe agricultural soil available in 1975 maybe lost by the end of the century.

Land degradation in dryland areas de-prives the world of $42 billion worth ofcrop and livestock production each year,with 75 percent of the losses in Africa andAsia. The creation of an inch of topsoil bynatural means can take anywhere from 100to 2,500 years, depending on the soil type.

Toward SustainableFood Production

At least five clusters of activity or policydecisions can contribute to the immensetask of doubling food production to matchpopulation growth on a sustainable basis.No one approach by itself will suffice.Three of these clusters are agriculturalpractices which, appropriately combined,can contribute to enhancing the food sup-ply and the environment; the other twoaddress the problem of creating the physi-cal and political infrastructure necessary to

Destruction of Biodiversity. Many of the world's poor people live in tropical areas. There,

rain forests and coral reefs, ecosystems that are home to thegreatest number and variety of species on earth, are at risk. Forsurvival, poor people often have no choice but to over-fish, to cutinto forests for fuel, and to clear land and plant in areas that can-not sustain agriculture. The area of the world covered by tropicalforests will have declined by 50 percent from 1950 to 2000.

Too often, hungry people do not have the time or resources topreserve the soil and forests by rotating crops and implementingfallow periods. Thus, poverty and population pressure reducebiological diversity. Yet biological diversity, the world's livinggene bank, is the foundation for new, varied food crops resistantto old pests.

The Philippines serves as a case in point. This country wasonce a tropical paradise covered with virgin forests and abundantfruit, grains, and wildlife. On the southern island of Mindanao,the destruction of the forests to provide agricultural land began inthe early 1950s with an influx of settlers from the northernislands. Then farmers could harvest 20 to 30 sacks of corn peracre. Now the yield is only three to five sacks. The once dark,rich soils have eroded, leaving barren hillsides, silted rivers, andoft-flooded lowlands.

achieve gains on a scale broad enough toaffect large numbers of the world's hungrypeople. The most appropriate combinationfor each region and circumstance must beworked out by widespread participation ofpeople at the national, regional, local, andhousehold level.

These are the recommended agriculturalpractices:

Traditional agricultural practices, thebasis of stable food production for manygenerations. These include growingcrops in rotation, with appropriate fal-low periods, and interplanting severalcomplementary crops, including trees, toprovide continuous cover for fragilesoils.

Hunger 1995 68


Water and SanitationAt least a billion people live without safe water, and nearly

twice that many lack adequate sanitation. Together, these linkedcauses contribute to 900 million cases of diarrheal disease andrelated deaths of 3 million children each year. They alsocontribute to widespread illness from infectious and parasiticdiseases cholera, typhoid, and paratyphoid; roundworm andhookworm.2°

A range of technologies is available for each of the three phas-es of preventing water-borne diseases: a dependable supply ofsafe water, removal of wastes, and treatment or handling ofwastes to prevent recontamination. Each phase requires an initialinvestment which poor families, communities, and nations oftenfeel they cannot afford. But failure to make such investmentsraises economic, and especially health and social costs.

Residents in urban communities without dependable pipedwater pay several times as much to water vendors as a communi-ty system would cost. A 20-year demonstration in northeast Thai-land and parallel research in other developing countries showsthat even very poor families are willing to pay at least part of thecost of having a dependable supply of safe water (especially ifthey can pay for their share of the cost over several years).

In the slums of Karachi, Pakistan, the Orangi Pilot Project hasprovided a system of in-house sanitary latrines and simple under-ground sewers. Six hundred thousand people have installed asewage removal system at a cost of less than $50 per household(not counting the trunk sewer lines). The communities were en-gaged in planning and contributed labor during construction, andare organized to operate and maintain the systems.2'

Organic and chemical-free agriculturalpractices that build on and enhancenatural processes by maximizing use ofcrop and other plant residues, and man-aging insect and disease problemsthrough natural processes; and

High-tech agriculture, including bio-genetic advances and chemical fertilizers

69 Causes of Hunger

and pesticides. Carefully used, these canboost yields dramatically and improveinsect and disease resistance throughplant breeding and genetic advances.The environmental risks can be mini-mized through combinations with tradi-tional and organic practices, as in inte-grated pest management.

Supporting these agricultural practices ona significant scale also requires:

Institutional policies and reforms thatsupport sustainable small-farm agricultureby ensuring secure tenancy (ownershipwherever appropriate) and enhancingboth basic education and extension-likeeducation about appropriate technologiesfor small farmers, particularly womenfarmers. Markets and prices should notdiscriminate against local food crops ascompared to export crops; and

Both national and international policiesthat generate income earning opportuni-ties for rural poor people as a majorelement of sustainable development.These should involve poor people inplanning and execution. Policies shouldalso provide for forgiving burdensomedebts that lead to environmentally dam-aging production (see Cause 3, p. 57).

ConclusionSustainable development requires

change in both public policies and person-al attitudes and behavior.

It requires policy makers on all levels toshape integrated policies and programs thatreflect the connections among improvedlives for poor people and reduced popula-tion growth, reduced consumption of non-renewable resources, especially by affluentpeople, and the need to protect and en-hance the environment.

Causes of Hunger

To make progress toward sustainabledevelopment requires conscious, commit-ted action on several levels:

Citizens in all countries must press theirown governments and internationalorganizations to institute policies andprograms that lead to sustainable devel-opment: economic opportunity for poorpeople; widespread education, especial-ly for girls; adoption of minimum stan-dards for air and water pollution; sup-port for safe water and sanitationsystems; and taxes or other disincentivesfor overconsumption.

Industrial country governments can takethe lead in: discouraging consumption,particularly of nonrenewable resources,and other environment-enhancing mea-sures; supporting sustainable approach-es to food security and job creation inpoor countries; and forgiving the bur-densome debts of developing countries,which may lead to exports of nonre-newable resources or ecologically un-sound practices.

On the community and personal level,in all countries, citizens can make choic-es that contribute to sustainable devel-opment. In poor countries, for example,more efficient stoves can reduce indoorsmoke. In rich countries, most peoplecan improve both their health and thephysical environment if they adoptlifestyles that are simpler and dependless on non-renewable resources.

There is a biblical vision that can helpinspire and support humanity's struggletoward sustainable approaches to the fu-ture of ourselves and the planet. The Bookof Job makes clear the need to view cre-ation in an holistic manner: "Do you knowwhen the mountain goats give birth?/Doyou observe the calving of the deer?" To

begin to think and act more like Godmeans knowing and loving our landscape.

The farmer and writer Wendell Berrysuggests:

Our present "leaders" the people ofwealth and power do not know whatit means to take a place seriously: tothink it worthy, for its own sake, of lifeand study and careful work. . . . The

right scale of work gives power to affec-tion. . . . An adequate local culture,among other things, keeps work withinthe scope of love.22

By living sustainably in ways that areinformed, wise, and good we, as oneIndian development worker said, have thejoy of recreating the Garden of Eden.

Rev. Nancy Wright is environment/communicationsdirector at CODEL, Inc. (Coordination in Develop-ment), and coauthor of Ecological Healing: A Chris-tian Vision (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis/CODEL, 1993). A.Cecilia Snyder is research associate and Don Reeveseconomic policy analyst at BFW Institute.

Phole. The InterAwrican FeunabOon OAF)

Sustainabledevelopmentrequires changein both publicpolicies andpersonalattitudes andbehavior.

At least a bil-lion people livewithout safewater, and nearlytwice that manylack adequatesanitation. Here,open sewersflow in a barrionear the city ofSanto Domingo.

l'41

( L. Hunger 1995 70

Racism and Ethnocentrism

Plx.o, I 'NI ICIA

A

i.

I

;,-

Ai&

Fleeing ethnic violence, an estimated 250,000 Rwandans swept into Tanzania over a 24-hour period inthe largest and fastest refugee exodus UNHCR has ever witnessed.

3

Part One: Internationalby Sarita Ward law Henry

Racism and ethnocentrism underliemany situations of unequal access toesources around the world. Hunger

is a frequent result. Often ethnically-basedcompetition for resources leads to violentconflict. Yet countries such as Zimbabwe,Jamaica, and the new South Africa offer a

vision of multiracial democracy and food

security.

It is then the strife of all honorable menof the 20th century to see that in thefuture competition of races the survivalof the fittest shall mean the triumph ofthe good, the beautiful, and the true;that we may be able to preserve for

future civilization all that is really fineand noble and strong, and not contin-ue to put a premium on greed andimpudence and cruelty. To bring thishope to fruition, we are compelled dailyto turn more and more to a conscien-tious study of the phenomena of racecontact to study frank and fair, andnot falsified and colored by our wishesand our fears.

W.E.B. DuBois

Racism and ethnocentricism contributesignificantly to the hunger and poverty ofmillions of people in the world today.Famine, war, ethnic conflict, communalviolence, tribalism, and colonialism all havedeep roots in racism and ethnocentrism. Thecase studies below demonstrate that racismand ethnocentrism cause hunger.

Historical BackgroundRacism and ethnocentrism have been with

us since the beginning of our time on earth.Oral traditions, depicted on rock and parch-ment, and in stone and terra cotta, earlywritten documents and sacred texts are cleartestimony to the longstanding persistence ofethnic prejudice. It has its origin in people'sfirst awareness of physical, cultural, religious,or economic differences between groups.Racist and ethnocentric explanations of thesedifferences point to durable and hereditarygroup characteristics.

Contacts with other people people wholook different, especially in tenns of skincolor, or whose daily lives are conducted ina different way have engendered reactionsranging from curiosity and wonder to con-tempt and violence. A Spanish chronicletranslated into English in 1555 was filledwith wonder in this diversity:

One of the great marvylous thynges thatGod useth in the composition of man, iscoloure: whiche doubtlesse cannot beconsydered without great admirationin beholding one to be white and another blacke, being coloures utterlyecontrary. Sum lykewise to be yelowewhiche is between blacke and white;and other of other colours as it were ofdyvers

Sophisticated and "scientific" theoriesabout race developed in conjunction withEuropean expansion and the slave tradebeginning in the 16th century. Prejudice wasa factor in the British American colonieswhen the rulers decreed in the 1660s that all"Negroes" (but no whites) who were import-ed should be slaves rather than indenturedservants.

. BEST COPY AVAILABLEHunger 1995 72

In an ethnicallydivided society,

government oftenintervenes in

ethnic struggleby the way it

distributes services.

73 Causes of Hunger


Race, Ethnicity,and Development

Ethnic identity has both objective andsubjective qualities. The objective factorsare language, religion, territory, social orga-nization, culture, race, common origin, andshared history. But ethnic identity can bemanipulated for political purposes andthereby transformed.

Both racism and ethnocentrism are asso-ciated with power. They are readily appar-ent when one group enslaves another, butthey are less apparent in other forms ofdomination. Many governments deny anyintentionality to marginalize any groupwithin their borders. Often only the resultconfirms the intention: marked disparities inincome, opportunity, and rights.

Some of the most severe results of racismand ethnocentrism are primarily economic,and economic problems have great influ-ence on ethnic relations: struggle for scarceresources, regional imbalances, infrastruc-tural investments that disrupt indigenouseconomic systems, labor market conflicts,and distributional conflicts. Under the guiseof development, many ethnic groups areimpoverished.

Competition for scarce resources seemsinherent in modern development. Some-times this leads to the extinction of an eth-nic group, the exodus of marginalized peo-ples (such as indigenous peoples, tribalgroups, or nomads), or the destruction oflocal ecosystems upon which these groupsdepend. A dominant group may "develop"the area for its purposes, making it unin-habitable for the local population.

Access to the state is the way for a groupto achieve economic development. In anethnically divided society, governmentoften intervenes in ethnic struggle by theway it distributes services.

7 6

RwandaThere are two main ethnic groups in

Rwanda: the Hutus (85 percent of thepopulation) and the Tutsis. Their conflictis longstanding. It was exacerbated byGerman and Belgian colonial rule, whichfavored the Tutsis, a cattle-rearing groupwho had developed a position of feudalsuperiority over the Hutu peasants. TheTutsis were given advantages in educationand employment. They were consideredsuperior to the Hutus in other ways, no-tably because of their height and some-what lighter skin. At independence in1962, violence took the lives of between100,000 and 200,000 people. Hutus gainedcontrol of the government and army; Tut-sis fled en masse into exile in neighboringcountries.

A Tutsi group undertook an armed inva-sion in 1990. The ensuing civil war createdfarm input shortages and drove farmersfrom their land. Fighting displaced about900,000 people, more than 10 percent ofthe population. Food production and mar-keting were hampered.

A year-long truce began in 1993. But aplane crash in April 1994 killed the Hutupresidents of Rwanda and Burundi, and thistouched off a systematic campaign of politicalkillings in Rwanda which left an estimated 1million Tutsi civilians and sympathetic Hutusdead. Tutsi-led rebel forces fought back andhad won control of virtually the entire coun-try by August 1994. Frightened of retaliationdespite the Tutsis' conciliatory words, Hutusby the hundreds of thousands abandonedtheir villages and farms. More than 1 millionpeople crossed into Zaire in less than a weekin July 1994. Hundreds died by the side ofthe road and in squalid encampments fromexhaustion, dehydration, and disease (seealso Cause 2).

Causes of Hunger

Agricultural production and developmenthave been deeply disrupted. Farmers havebeen killed or fled, farms abandoned, andfamilies left hungry.

Not too long ago, a particular kind ofbean was successfully introduced to Rwan-dan farmers. The vine provided an edibleleaf, and the local population accepted thisnew food. But the agricultural station thatprovided this bean was completelydestroyed in the violence just one moreexample of how ethnic hatred has spawnedhunger in Rwanda.

Sudan

The conflict in Sudan is both racial andethnic; the predominantly Arab Muslim northcontrols the government and has sought toimpose its will and law on the black south,where most people are Christian or practicetraditional religions. The south has fertileland and oil. Members of several of the eth-nic groups from the south have launched arebel movement. Civilians in the south findthemselves the victims of the racism, neglect,and violent repression of the northern gov-ernment. They have also suffered at thehands of the rebels, especially because offighting between rebel factions. Both sideshave used food as a weapon, frequentlyblocking relief shipments. In 1994, the Unit-ed Nations estimated that 2.5 million Su-danese required food aid.

Thousands of southern refugees have fledto Khartoum, the northern capital. Theyhave faced malnutrition, disease, and forcedrelocation to squatter camps which ring thecity. Because of racial prejudice, the funda-mentalist Islamic government has deniedthese black migrants the charity prescribedby the Koran. The government has forciblyrelocated tens of thousands of residentsfrom the Nuba mountains in central Sudan.Fertile agricultural land vacated by the Nubapopulation in 1992 and 1993 was reportedly

confiscated by government supporters. Thegovernment has consistently barred reliefagencies from entering the area. HumanRights Watch/Africa has characterized this asa case of "ethnic cleansing."

For 28 of its 38 years of independence,Sudan has been locked in civil war. This is alegacy of the British colonial favoritism to-ward the Arab north and neglect of the blacksouth. The present civil war between thefundamentalist Islamic government and therebels has been going on since 1983. Thefighting has displaced nearly three millionpeople, and 1.3 million people have dieddue to war-related famine and disease.

Malnutrition rates are the highest everdocumented in the world. Among the effectsof the war:

In the so-called starvation triangle, under-nutrition rates are above 80 percent andmortality rates are above 250 per 1,000people. In parts of southern Sudan,deaths exceed births, leading to a 1.9percent decline in population in 1993.

Sixty-four percent of southern householdssurveyed in 1993 reported labor shortagesor land cultivation reduced due to hunger.Forty-four percent reported seed short-ages, 43 percent tool shortages. About 20percent said their planting had been dis-rupted by the fighting.

Between 1980 and 1991, per capita foodproduction declined by 29 percent in thesouth.

Agricultural lands are heavily mined.

The civil war has diverted funds fromagriculture to the military, disrupted market-ing activities, resulted in extensive livestocklosses, and destroyed infrastructure. Inade-quate rainfall has added to these disastrousdevelopments in agriculture.

Sudan's 1993-1994 grain output is

C

Ethnic hatredhas spawnedhunger inRwanda.

Hunger 1995 74

The humandevelopment

disparity betweenblacks and

whites in SouthAfrica is four

times thatbetween blacks

and whites in theUnited States.


expected to fall 17 percent. Starvation re-sults from the disruption of grain ship-ments to deficit regions and the extremepoverty that keeps many people frombuying the food which is available.

South AfricaThe apartheid regime imposed white

minority rule and racial separation; it didnot want anyone to have data on dispari-ties between blacks and whites in SouthAfrica. But even the available data give astriking picture of inequality. According tothe U.N. Development Program, if whiteSouth Africa were a separate country, itwould rank 24th in the world in humandevelopment, just after Spain (see Cause 3on the Human Development Index). BlackSouth Africa would rank 123rd, just aboveCongo. These are not just two differentpeoples, but almost two different worlds.The major challenge for policymakers inthe new era of multiracial democracy willbe to promote social integration withoutprovoking racial violence.

In addition to creating separate andunequal black "homelands," the minoritygovernment forcibly moved thousands ofblack farmers from land they had cultivat-ed for hundreds of years and gave it towhite farmers. They moved black familiesto towns and cities with no resources otherthan what they could carry on their backsor pack atop crowded buses. Deprived oftheir land and livelihoods, they becameimpoverished. They lacked access to em-ployment, healthcare, housing, water andsanitation, and adequate food.

Racial violence remains a threat in theUnited States. But the human developmentdisparity between blacks and whites in SouthAfrica is four times that between blacks andwhites in the United States. Yet Zimbabwehad similar racial disparities at the time of itsindependence, and Zimbabwe has achieved

75 Causes of Hunger

BO

a considerable degree of social integrationwithout substantial racial trouble.

Latin AmericaThe Amerindian peoples of Latin Ameri-

ca number 30 million, which is 9 percentof the population. In five countries Bo-livia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, andPeru they are an important proportion ofthe total rural population. Everywhere theyare among the poorest, most disadvan-taged sections of society, often sufferingextreme forms of deprivation.

Following the colonial conquest of theregion, the original inhabitants lost controlof land and natural resources to white andmixed race colonialists. An estimated 12 to15 million Indians died during the Spanishquest for gold in the Americas.

Export agriculture has dominated sincecolonial days a system that puts coffee,bananas, cotton, sugar, and beef produc-tion for export ahead of the food needs oflocal people. Hunger and poverty resultfrom land use and ownership patterns de-signed to serve interests of a small nationalelite and the global economic system.

Belize is a country that imports nearly25 percent of what it eats. The small cornfarmers mostly Indian and mixed racepeople have not been given a favoredplace in agricultural programs. The inci-dence of malnutrition is 8 percent for chil-dren under a year old, and 19 percent forchildren one to four years old. Undernutri-tion and severe micronutrient deficienciesare common, especially in rural areas.

In Guatemala, Indians are the majority.Eighty-seven percent of the population isin poverty. There are enormous disparitiesbetween Indian and non-Indian health, asreflected in life expectancies:

Causes of Hunger

Non-Indian men live to age 65

Non-Indian women 64Indian men 48Indian women 47

Even during the counterinsurgency cam-paigns of the early 1980s, more Guatemalanswere dying of malnutrition and preventablediseases than from political violence. Indiansare relegated to the economic margins, serv-ing mainly as a pool of cheap labor. There isno longer enough land to support the Indianpopulation (which continues to grow despitethe persecution), and the' lack of land forcesrelocation to urban slums.

Military-dominated governments havesought to wipe out armed resistance, threat-ening the cultural survival of Indian commu-nities in the process. Only racism can explaina war which has eliminated more than 400Indian villages.

BrazilChildren do not die in Brazil from wars

or famine-induced hunger the way they doin Sudan or Bosnia. Instead they die in themidst of peace and plenty. Brazil is theworld's third largest exporter of agriculturalproducts. Yet 60 million Brazilians live inextreme poverty. Thirty-two million (equalto the population of Argentina) go hungryevery day. They include 2.7 million chil-dren under two years old and 5 millionunder five.

Hunger is linked to the impact of racismon Brazilians of African descent. In terms ofnutrition, there are two countries within thesame borders. Brazil experienced rapid eco-nomic growth in the 1960s and 1970s, butonly a few Brazilians benefitted. The militarygovernments of the time allied themselveswith foreign companies, state-owned busi-nesses, Brazilian industrialists, and privatebanks. Public policies helped enrich thesesectors by deliberately keeping workers'

earnings low. The military ceded power onlyafter the international debt crisis had emptiedtheir coffers and thoroughly discreditedthem.

In 1993, the government launched a newfood subsidy program, Proalimentos, whichcovers 4.5 million families. So far, it hasfailed to reach the neediest people. For thosemost in need, reducing the cost of beans to90 percent or even 70 percent of the regularprice does not help much. They still havelittle purchasing power and go hungry.

Poverty, hunger, and malnutrition are partof the endemic deprivation which character-izes the northeast section of the country,which is predominately Afro-Brazilian. Thereare 7.2 million people (70 percent of thetotal) living in extreme poverty in the north-east. More than 60 percent of rural Brazilianswhose income does not permit them topurchase enough food live in the northeast.Although food consumption is higher than inthe cities (because food can be obtainedoutside the market-place), poor health andsanitation services lead to a higher incidenceof malnutrition.

Between 1985 and 1992, Brazil producedmore than enough food to meet the caloricand protein needs of its people. But foodspoils in the most developed regions of thecountry, while people starve in the mostdistant corners of the poorest, more heavilyAfro-Brazilian regions. This has deepenedthe process of exclusion and social segrega-tion. It has provoked massive migration, withswelling numbers of underemployed work-ers in the cities.

Almost 90 percent of the food is producedoutside the north and northeast. If the southof Brazil were a separate country, its humandevelopment would rank 42nd in the world(equal to Portugal), while the northeastwould rank 111th (on a par with El salvadorand Bolivia). Seventy percent of the familiesof the northeast have per capita incomes less

81

Only racism canexplain a warwhich has elimi-nated more than400 Indianvillages.

Hunger 1995 76


than the cost of the basic food ration. Theregion has the worst calorie deficiencies andthe poorest nutritional status in Brazil.

Seventy-eight percent of black workersand 71 percent of mixed race workers earnless than twice the minimum wage. Amongwhite workers, the figure is 52 percent.

Slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888.But more than a century later, Afro-Brazilianscontinue to experience political, social, andeconomic marginalization, prejudice, discrim-ination, and racism. Many claim that Brazilhas no racial prejudice. For example, histori-an Gilberto Freyre says:

With respect to race relations, theBrazilian situation is probably therarest approach to paradise to be foundanywhere in the world.

Yet the impoverished status of most Afro-Brazilians shows that paradise to be a fiction.A country-wide movement to fight hunger,poverty, and racism is gaining momentum.

IraqIn 1988, the Iraqi government attacked the

Muslim Kurds in the north of the country.Although both groups are Muslim, Kurdishculture is different. The Kurds have a longtradition of resistance and a movement forindependence.

In village after village in 1988, men andboys as young as fifteen were massacred.Women, children, and elderly people weretaken from their homes and relocated, some-times several times in the course of a fewmonths. They were repeatedly told by theIraqi military that "the Kurds have beenbrought here to die." In the camps, manyreceived no food or water for the first fewdays. When they did, it was unclean andinsufficient. They had nothing with which tohold the water, and the food was only smallchunks of bread every other day. Stress,declining nutrition, and dehydration made

s;sv'

77 Causes of 1-1414e1;

many pregnant women miscarry. Childrenweakened, and infants suffered as mothers'milk dried up.

After the 1991 Kurdish uprising, severalgraves were exhumed in order to corrobo-rate the accounts of victims and other wit-nesses of this intentional genocide. A boy ledpathologists to his sister's grave. He said thatshe was about one year old when she died.Her body was seven months old accordingto dental evidence, but only one to threemonths according to bone development. Thedifference was due to malnutrition: the teethof malnourished children develop normally,while skeletal growth is severely retarded.

Sri LankaAbout 74 percent of Sri Lanka's 17.5 mil-

lion people are Sinhalese, who are predomi-nately Buddhist. Eighteen percent are Tamils,who are mainly Hindu. Seven percent areTamil-speaking Muslims. Since 1983, fightingbetween the Sinhalese controlled govern-ment and Tamil rebels has displaced almost800,000 people. In their efforts to push theTamil guerrillas out of the jungle in the east-ern part of the country, the military engen-dered violent conflict between Hindu Tamilsand the Muslims. Tensions already existedbecause of economics. The Muslims aretraders and landowners, and are generallyprosperous; they have relied on the Tamilsfor cheap labor.

Tamils migrated from southern India, butthey have lived in Sri Lanka for hundreds ofyears. They are still discriminated against andsegregated socially and economically. Pover-ty and discrimination have spawned ethnicviolence.

Nearly all the laborers on the tea estates inthe mountains of the interior are Tamils. Theestate labor population suffers unusuallyhigh infant mortality and is more prone toillness than Sinhalese Sri Lankans. Prominentcauses of death among estate workers and

0

Causes of Hunger

their families include intestinal infections,infectious and parasitic diseases, and anemiaand other nutritional deficiencies. Amongestate children, chronic malnutrition iswidespread. In one estate, 60 percent of thechildren aged three to 36 months suffer fromsevere chronic malnutrition, and 53 percenthave a very low weight for age (comparedto 26 and 39 percent for all rural Sri Lankanchildren).

Estate workers and their families are de-nied citizenship. They are entitled to certainbenefits from the government such as healthcare, but access is limited. Health care work-ers who are Sinhalese do not want to workon the estates. Distances to hospitals orphysicians are often several miles, and trans-portation is costly, as is taking time off fromwork. Fueled by centuries of racist fears ofan invasion by darker-skinned people, theSinhalese have continued to keep the Tamilsin marginal and subservient positions. Evenprosperous Tamils face cultural oppressionby the Sinhalese majority.

East TimorOne third of the population of tiny East

Timor has died or suffered enormous depri-vation and famine in the last twenty years ofresistance to colonization by Indonesia. Ninedays after its declaration of independence inDecember 1975, overwhelmingly MuslimIndonesia violently annexed the former Por-tuguese colony, which is made up ofCatholics and practitioners of other tradition-al religions. The Indonesian army, with U.S.arms, attempted to starve the territory's inde-pendence movement; in the process, theystarved most of the population of East Timor.

When the famine reached internationalattention in 1979, the Indonesian govern-ment blamed it on civil strife which ensued

after Portugal abandoned the territory. Butindependent journalists and relief workerssupport other evidence that starvation was amilitary strategy to crush the resistance. Hun-dreds of thousands of people fled to themountains when Indonesia invaded. Indone-sian planes sprayed defoliants, destroyingthe crops of the population that had alwayslived in the mountains. By 1978, peoplewere forced down from the mountains. Theyhad no buffaloes, no tools, no money to payfor labor, and their irrigation canals hadfallen into disrepair. Of 75,000 refugees gath-ered in 13 Indonesian government camps,60,000 were facing starvation. Twenty thou-sand could not be saved.

ConclusionRomanian-born radio commentator Andrei

Codrescu has said, "All you decent, peaceful,overfed citizens [are] in the throes of defini-tional anxiety." Definitional anxiety fostersethnocentrism and racism. People shy awayfrom these terms, and name these realitieswith words which disguise their brutality. Yetmillions of people all over the world sufferterrible violence, deprivation, and daily in-dignities because ethnocentrism and racismpersist.

There are also societies, such as Zimbab-we and Jamaica, where members of differentethnic groups live in harmony and worktogether on the tasks of achieving sustain-able development and food security.Prophetic, moral reasoning and intentionalefforts to build cultural democracies, as pre-scribed by those such as Harvard scholarCornel West, are necessary to overcome theevils of ethnocentrism and racism.

Sarita Ward law Henry is hunger educator at BFWInstitute.

P C

There are alsosocieties, such asZimbabwe andJamaica, wheremembers of differ-ent ethnic groupslive in harmonyand work togetheron the tasks ofachieving sustain-able developmentand food security.

BEST COPY AVAILAnfmger 1995 78

O

I am talking ofmillions ofmen who havebeen skilfullyinjected withfear, inferioritycomplexes,trepidation,servility,despair,abasement.- Mine Cesaire,

Discours sur leColonialisme


Part 2: The United Statesby Billy J. Tidwell

The evils of hunger and racism areinterconnected. African Americans,Hispanics, Native Americans, and

other racial and ethnic minorities controlproportionately fewer resources and aremore likely to need food assistance thanthe majority white population. Many com-munities and nonprofit organizations pro-vide food assistance to those who need it.But the problem of hunger will not befully resolved until our society makes acommitment to eradicate racism anddiscrimination.

79 Causes of Hunger

IntroductionHunger in the United States occurs dis-

proportionately among African Americans,Hispanics, Native Americans, and otherracial and ethnic minorities. The preva-lence and persistence of the U.S. hungerproblem is interrelated with racism anddiscrimination.

By virtually all definitions and mea-sures, African Americans, Hispanics, andNative Americans are substantially worseoff than the majority white population.The magnitude and persistence of theseinequalities suggests that racismcontributes to the hunger problem. Theempirical data are compelling.

The late Michael Harrington broughtvisibility to "the other America" poor,uneducated, dispirited, and voiceless

BEST COPY AVALAIKE

Causes of Hunger

people.' Most tellingly, this was a veryhungry America the empty bellies andhungry faces, experiencing nutritionaldeprivations out of public view in thepreeminent land of plenty.

Hunger was then and is now the mostbasic, universal indicator of economicdistress; a societal disease brought on andsustained by social neglect. Hunger rav-ages body and mind, while contradictingthe precepts of civilization generally andthe ideals that inform the U.S. identity inparticular.

According to the Food Research andAction Center (FRAC), non-whites aredisproportionately vulnerable to hunger.Whites make up the single largest racialgroup among both poor people in theUnited States and food stamp users. But aFRAC survey found that 76 percent ofhungry households were non-white.'

The Racial Economicsof Hunger

The State of Black America, publishedby the National Urban League, documentsdeep and pervasive racial inequalities ineconomic well-being.' According to thetwo most recent volumes:

The poverty rate for African Americansin 1992 was 33.3 percent, nearly triplethe rate for whites. About 47 percent ofAfrican-American children were poor,compared to 17 percent of white chil-dren.

African-American workers earn lessthan 80 percent of the earnings of theirwhite counterparts.

The income of African-American fami-lies is less than 60 percent of whitefamily income.

The incidence of female-headed African-American families is almost 3.5 timeshigher than that of white families. Fe-male-headed families suffer acute disad-vantages in all areas of economic life.

The U.S. Census Bureau found that in1992, African Americans made up just 12.6percent of the country's population, butaccounted for 28.8 percent of all poorpeople. In contrast, whites accounted for75 percent of the population and about 50percent of poor people. Only 10 percentof all whites lived in poverty.'

Hispanics also are more vulnerable tohunger than whites. In State of HispanicAmerica, the National Council of La Razareports that during the 1980s, Hispanicswere the only racial/ethnic group to experi-ence an absolute decline in income. De-spite high levels of work effort, they aremore likely than either whites or AfricanAmericans to lack health insurance.'

More than one in four Hispanics (28.7percent) and two in five Hispanic chil-dren (40.4 percent) are poor.

Almost half (46.1 percent) of all poorHispanic families were headed bywomen in 1990.

Hispanic children comprised only 11percent of all children in 1990, butrepresented 21 percent of all childrenliving in poverty.

According to the Census Bureau, Hispan-ics were less than .9 percent of the totalpopulation in 1992, but accounted for 18percent of the people living in poverty.

Hispanics hoping to live the Americandream have often been sorely disappoint-ed. Male Hispanics have higher rates oflabor force participation than non-Hispan-ic men, but their families are more thantwice as likely as white or African-Ameri-can families to live in poverty. These

Racial minoritiesare more likelythan whites toneed foodassistance.

Hunger 1995 80

The persistenceof racial and

economicinjustice must

be attackeddirectly by

people of allraces working

in concert.


Table 5.1Percent in Poverty by FamilyCharacteristics, 1989

Native American,

Eskimo, and Aleut

Total

PopulationMarried-Couple 17.0 5.5

Families

Male housiholder,

no wife present

33.4 13.8

Female householder,

no husband present

50.4 31.1

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census.

Table 5.2Race/Ethnicity of Heads ofParticipating Food Stamp Households,Summer 1992

Race of head

Total

White, Non-Hispanic

Number Households

(thousands) Percent

10,238 100.0

4,665 44.6

35.4

12.3

2.2

1.1

4.4

African-American, 3,621

Non-Hispanic

Hispanic 1,261

Asian 222

Native American 113

Other 456

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture.

81 Causes of Hunger'8E

working poor people have been unableto depend on their jobs for economicstability or security. Hispanics are over-represented in lower-skilled jobs andunderrepresented in higher skilled, higherwage occupations. Hispanics must beable to acquire more education and skillsto be qualified for jobs in the twenty-firstcentury.

Native Americans likewise have a high-er poverty rate and are more likely tobe hungry than the general population(see "Native Americans"). As Table 5.1shows, 50 percent of female-headedNative American families lived in povertyin 1989, compared to 31 percent for thegeneral population.

Racial minorities are more likely thanwhites to need food assistance. Table 5.2shows a disproportionate share ofAfrican-American households receivingfood stamps, although non-Hispanicwhites account for the largest proportionof those receiving benefits. African Ameri-cans made up more than 35 percent ofparticipating food stamp households.Hispanics account for 12 percent of recip-ient families, again out of proportion totheir share of the general population.Similar racial differences in participationrates are observable in other food aidprograms, both public and private.6 Morethan 27 percent of participants in the Spe-cial Supplemental Food Program forWomen, Infants, and Children (WIC) areAfrican-American, and almost 24 percentare Hispanic.'

Effects ofUnequal Outcomes

Racial differences in economic well-being go a long way toward explainingthe prevalence of hunger in the UnitedStates, and hunger further undermines the

Causes of Hunger

physical and emotional well-being of mi-nority groups.

Hunger contributes to poor health.Table 5.3 shows significantly higher ratesof anemia among non-white pregnantwomen compared to white women. Table5.4 indicates that African-American womenaged 15 to 40 are roughly twice as likelyto have low birthweight babies as whitewomen (because of a higher malnutritionrate among the mothers). The infant mor-tality rate among African Americans ismore than double the rate among whites(Table 5.5). In addition, African Americanslag well behind whites in life expectancy.

Hunger is very much a matter of eco-nomic justice and overcoming the heritageof racism in the United States. SociologistWilliam Julius Wilson has succinctly sum-marized the African-American experienceof racism:

Blacks were denied access to valuedand scarce resources through variousingenious schemes of racial exploita-tion, discrimination, and segrega-tion, schemes that were reinforced byelaborate ideologies of [explicit]racism. Racial oppression ranged

from slavery to segregation, from theendeavors of [the] white economicelite to exploit black labor to the ac-tions of the white masses to eliminateor neutralize black competition."

Hispanics suffer rigid job and residentialsegregation and bear much of the brunt ofa rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment.Even Asian immigrants, who as a wholeenjoy higher income and educational lev-els than other minority groups, have suf-fered prejudice, violent attacks, anddiscrimination.

Table 5.3Anemia Among Low-Income WomenDuring Pregnancy, 1990

Race and Ethnicity Second

Trimester

(Percent)

Third

Trimester

(Percent)

Non-Hispanic white

Non-Hispanic African-American

Hispanic

Native American

Asian or Pacific Islander

9.3

21.4

11.4

11.9

11.8

24.6

45.8

31.9

32.8

26.8

Source: Interagency Board for Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research, Nutrition Monitoring in the United

States, Chartbook I: Selected Findings from the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Program

(Hyattsville, Maryland: Public Heahh Service,1993), Figure 18, p. 98.

Table 5.4Low Birth Weight as a Percent of Total Live Births, by Age ofMother and Race of Infant, 1986-1988

Age of mother African

American

White Afr. Am/White

ratio

Less than 15 years 16.2 10.4 1.6

15-19 years 13.1 7.7 1.7

20-24 years 12.3 5.8 2.1

25-29 years 12.5 5.1 2.4

30-34 years 13.0 5.2 2.5

35-39 years 13.4 6.0 2.2

40 years and over 12.9 7.1 1.8

Source: Nutrition Monitoring in the United States, Figure 22, p. 99.

Table 5.5Infant Mortality Rates, by Race and Sex: 1989(per 1,000 live births)

African

American

White Afr. Am/White

ratio

Both sexes 18.6 8.1 2.3

Male 19.8 9.0 2.2

Female 17.2 7.1 2.4

Source: National Center for Heahh Statistics.

BEST COPY AVAILAWnger 1995 82


Native Americansby Lawrence J. Goodwin

Hunger and poverty in the Native American community stemfrom a long history of conquest, racism, and cultural discrimina-tion. The federal government and white society have colluded inthis process over many generations.

Poverty is widespread on most Indian reservations, with a ma-jority of adults unemployed. It forms part of a larger picture ofcommunity distress. Poor nutrition and health problems are exten-sive. Family breakdown and alcoholism run rampant. Residentshave been forced by historical circumstances and governmentpolicy to depend heavily on food stamps and U.S. Department ofAgriculture commodities. These problems contribute to, and forsome justify, the discrimination Native Americans continue to en-dure.

The hard fact is that Native Americans are poorer and there-fore more vulnerable to hunger than any other U.S. population.In 1989, 31 percent of Native Americans lived below the povertylevel, compared to 13 percent of the total population. In Arizona,49 percent of Native Americans live in poverty. Although theyaccount for just 7 percent of the state population, they make up17.5 percent of poor Arizonans.' In South Dakota, the Sioux Nationconfronts an unemployment rate close to 90 percent.

The situation American Indians face today is rooted in a chroni-cle of injustice. With the arrival of Europeans 500 years ago, NativeAmericans suffered massacres, land theft, forced marches and relo-cations, enslavement, betrayal of treaty rights, destruction of foodsources, and cultural oppression. Many tribes were removed fromtheir traditional homelands so that those lands could be settled bynon-indians. When tribal lands were confiscated, areas reserved forthe occupancy and use of a particular tribe ("reservations") werecreated without regard to existing indigenous food and habitationsystems or territorial claims. All means were taken, including theuse of lethal force, to keep them confined.

As outsiders demanded more land and wealth, Native Americanslost control of their resources. Inevitably, they were squeezed ontosmaller and smaller stretches of ever poorer farm land. In this re-gard, parallels with the homeland policies of the former whiteregimes of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia are conspicuous.

Control of food and water sources by government agents and

83 Causes of Hunger8"

Responding to the Need:Programs, Policies,and Priorities

Discovery of the other America prompt-ed serious efforts to alleviate the hungerproblem. Indeed, a veritable social move-ment around the issue emerged, markedby intense advocacy for institutionalchange and numerous private initiatives toprovide direct relief to those in need.

The list of food assistance activitiescurrently conducted by nonprofit organi-zations in economically disadvantagedminority communities around the countryis impressive. Churches and religious orga-nizations have been particularly active:

Insofar as black churches are contin-uously struggling against racism theyare implicitly addressing one of theroot causes of hunger alongside theirdirect charitable and political anti-hunger activities.9

Paralleling the private efforts, a range offederal government food and nutritionprograms have been implemented over theyears, including the Food Stamp Program,WIC, the National School Lunch Program,and the School Breakfast Program.

Public and private food assistance initia-tives have been critical to the well-beingof poor people in general and minoritypoor people in particular. However, it isequally clear that these provisions cannotby themselves solve the problem over thelong-term. They will not rectify the in-equitable distribution of economicresources that undergirds and sustainsracial inequalities. Thus, the persistence ofracial and economic injustice must beattacked directly by people of all racesworking in concert.

Improving the relative economicposition of African Americans, Hispanics,

Causes of Hunger

Native Americans, and other minoritiesrequires investment. The National UrbanLeague's Marshall Plan for America is de-signed to advance the economic interestsof the nation as a whole by targeting im-provements in human resource and physi-cal infrastructure development to the mostneedy groups and communities. The plancalls for $500 billion in new investment ineducation, job training, and physical in-.frastructure over a ten year period, basedon collaboration among government, theprivate sector, and nonprofit organiza-tions.' This is ambitious, but would it betoo high a price to pay to overcome thedivisive and debilitating legacy of racerelations in the United States?

What is lacking is the societal commit-ment to complete the unfinished businessof racial justice the determination finallyto eradicate racism and discriminationfrom American life. Those who are con-cerned about hunger are challenged asperhaps never before to recognize anddeal with this dimension of the problem.

Dr. Billy J. Tidwell is director of research and evalua-tion for the National Urban League.

the military weakened resistance and created dependency. Thedeliberate mass killing of buffalo, denial of access to hunting areas,and the imposition of food rationing schemes all conspired to un-dermine Indian independence.'

Government policy and missionary activity within the reserva-tion system also sought to cripple Indian cultural identity. Thesuppression of Indian languages in government and missionschools, which only began to change in the past decade, is justone example of how native culture was under attack from state,federal, and religious sources. In addition, native people wereoften forced into a European agricultural life-style; and many Indi-an children were compelled to leave home at a very early age tobe raised in a white cultural environment. This concerted policy ofcultural and religious suppression sapped the strength of the com-munity and contributed significantly to hunger and poverty.

In the face of 500 years of repression, however, Native Ameri-cans have clung tenaciously to their identity. A cultural renaissancein language, art, religion, and renewed ties with the earth is ongo-ing. Indian universities and colleges have mushroomed over thepast 25 years. Economic initiatives like the Circle Bank project inSouth Dakota, which provides credit to Indian microenterprises,empower people at the local level. A heightened political activismin Congress and at state levels is evidence of a growing move forself-determination. Efforts to gain legal protection for the use ofpeyote in traditional rituals have engaged the support of a broadrange of religious groups.

Yet racial and cultural discrimination against Native Americanspersist unabated in much of society. The struggle to regain controlof sacred sites such as the Black Hills, and to have traditional reli-gion accepted on an equal footing with other faiths, is still unre-solved. Justice can only come from an unflinching look at howracism, territorial conquest, cultural domination, and economicexploitation have created mass poverty and hunger for generationsof Native Americans. Such an honest examination can also teachus a great deal about how exploitation is a cause of hunger andpoverty elsewhere.

Dr. Lawrence J. Goodwin is a BFW regional organizer.

S

Hunger 1995 84

Gender Discrimination

Ann

Women are more likely than men to suffer from hunger.

by A. Cecilia Snyder

Gender discrimination is one of theroot causes of hunger. Mostwomen around the world work

hard, long hours in the home as well asoutside it. But because their labor is notvalued, women often lack the resources tosupport themselves and their familiesadequately. Development specialists havebegun to focus more on programs thatprovide education for women and enablethem to receive compensation for theirwork. Sustainable development will re-quire a new perspective on hunger andpoverty issues that consistently takes gen-der into account.

IntroductionOn our planet, most women have prima-

ry responsibility to grow and gather, pre-pare, and distribute food. Because they bearand nourish children, they have special,additional needs for nourishment that arenot shared by men. Yet women of everyage have high rates of malnutrition, andwomen are more likely than men to sufferfrom hunger.

One of the root causes of hunger is gen-der discrimination. Because of their gender,females in almost every society, includingindustrial countries, do not have the sameopportunities for growth and in somecases, even for survival as males. Societal,cultural, and governmental practices oftenprevent female children from reaching theirfull potential and their mothers from gainingaccess to the jobs and education that couldalleviate the cycles of hunger and poverty.

According to the United Nations, 400million women of childbearing age (about45 percent of the total) weigh -less than 100

Figure 6.1Anemia Among Pregnant and

Non-Pregnant Women by Region, 1980s

pounds. These women arelikely to be malnourished andvulnerable to obstetric compli-cations. Nearly half the world'swomen suffer from iron defi-ciency anemia. In South Asia,for example, 64 percent ofpregnant women are anemic(Figure 6.1). This increasestheir risk of illness, pregnancycomplications, and maternaldeath, in addition to decreasingtheir productivity as workers.

Until recently, hunger andpoverty data were based onthe assumption that all peoplein a family or community were affectedequally, without considering differing nutri-tional needs of females. In reality, pregnantand lactating women experience greaterstress and demands on their bodies andmust satisfy increased nutritional require-ments. Micronutrient deficiencies, such aslack of vitamin A and iron, can have seriousconsequences for women and their babies.Death in childbirth, a leading killer ofwomen of reproductive age in most devel-oping countries, frequently results frommalnutrition. Newer studies separate datafor women and men on crucial measure-ments.

Women are society's mothers and care-givers, with primary responsibility for thewell-being of families and communities.They are also frequently family providers,working on farms and in factories and man-aging natural resources. Yet women areoverrepresented among poor, illiterate, anddisplaced people, and underrepresented inplaces of power. Because mothers are usu-ally the caregivers, discrimination againstthem also affects their children. In 1990,there were four hungry children for everywoman living in poverty.

South Asia

Southeast Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Near East / North Africa

Middle America

China

South America

I

are

64%

56.4%

49.6%

I1%44.4%

34.4%

33.5%

30.5%

E

:; g

63.8%

111-1%1

46.8%

40.3%

30.8%

26.9%

26.3%

20.9%

Source: WYO.

Hunger 1995 86


Women as WorkersIn 1990, Rohini was a fourteen-year-old

living in India. When a developmentworker asked her what she did, shereplied automatically, "I don't work." Theworker persisted:

`Don't you do anything all day?"Looking shocked, Rohini quicklyanswers, "Of course I do. First, I getwood for fuel. Then I carry water inheavy buckets from a tap far fromhome. I clean the house, wash theclothes, milk the cows, and cookwhile lain looking after my littlebrother and sister. Then I take lunchto my mother in the fields. SometimesI put my brother and sister to sleep inthe afternoon and work in the fieldswith my mother." '

Table 6.1:Household Work During One Week,'Landless Indian Households

Task Female % Male %Kolam* 38.5

Serving Spouse 40.4 17.6

Child Care 42.3 15.7

Shopping in City 44.2 47.1

Whitewashing 48.1 62.7

Collecting Firewood 65.4 47.0

Local Shopping 69.2 43.1

Wetting the Yard 78.8 5.9

Washing Clothes 82.7 25.5

Cutting/Peeling 88.5 11.8

Fetching Water 88.5 23.5

Cooking 90.1 11.8

Cleaning House 94.2 15.7

Washing Vessels 96.2 5.9

*A rice flour or chalk drawing made daily in frontof the home.Source: Mathiot.

87 Causes of Hunger

The work thatgirls and womenperform is real andcontributes to thefamily and society.However, women'swork has consistent-ly been undervaluedand rarely recordedin official laborstatistics. Despitetheir backbreakinglabor, females areregarded in mostsocieties as a bur-den, not an asset.

A recent study ofIndian landless la-borer householdsfound that 86 per-cent of females overage 14 worked inagriculture, as op-posed to 73 percent

00

of males. In addition, more females (65percent) tended animals and did unpaidlabor than males (57 percent). The samestudy found that although everyone overage 14 participated in some householdwork, girls and women did much more,with 84 percent of females performingnine to 20 different tasks. Seventy-eightpercent of males performed, at most, eighttasks (see Table 6.1).

Females work more hours at everychore except whitewashing and city shop-ping. Yet since housework is unpaid,women in India and many other countriesare not seen as contributing economically.Indeed, since money is often the measureof a person, they are not seen as measur-ing up.

Valuing Women's WorkRohini's story is far from unique. Al-

though women are increasingly enteringthe formal labor force globally, most con-tinue to do unpaid and unrecognizedwork at home. They care for young, sick,and elderly people; do domestic chores;and provide and prepare meals. In devel-oping countries, environmental degrada-tion has increased the amount of timemany women spend hunting for food,fuel, and water.

Women around the world are workingmore than men: five hours per week morein Latin America, and 13 to 15 hours morein Asia and Africa. Many women in devel-oping countries work 60 to 90 hours aweek just to survive.

Women globally still have not attainedpay equity with men. They receive onaverage 30 percent to 40 percent less forcomparable work. In the United States, onthe average, women earn about 70 per-cent of what men earn for comparablework (see Table 6.2).3

Causes of Hunger

Women account for 41 percent of theworld's officially counted "economicallyactive" population. Because of inadequatemeasurement, at least 10 percent to 20percent of the world's women are notcounted in the official statistics.

Women asHeads of Household

The disparity in income has even moreserious consequences if a woman is a sin-gle mother. Male migration from rural tourban areas, as well as divorce and separa-tion, have led to an increase in female-headed households. Violent conflict alsocontributes. In Africa, about half thewomen heads of household are widowed.The estimated 76 million households head-ed by women in 114 developing countriesare responsible for securing food for 377million people.

The global trend toward female-headedhouseholds contributes to increased pover-ty and malnutrition. Women-headed house-holds usually have only one provider andmust also support children, elderly, andsick family members, so they are far morelikely to be poor and hungry than dual- ormale-headed families.

Many women work double and tripleshifts, combining child care, domestic du-ties, and paid labor into one exhaustingschedule. The result is a fatigued motherwho lacks the strength and resources toprovide adequate care even for herself, letalone her family.

Women aged 16 to 49 in the east Africannations of Kenya and Tanzania lose twiceas many work days as men because ofpoor health. Female-headed households inrural Namibia in southern Africa facechronic income and food shortages due tothe absence of financially supportive malesand lack of access to agricultural services.

Wilkista Ajuoga, a Kenyan, married atseventeen and bore eight children. Sheworked a daily schedule that started at 5:00a.m. and included such chores as cleaning,tending the farm, fetching water and fire-wood, and selling fish at the local market.Her husband worked for several years inNairobi as a truck driver and was frequent-ly absent from home, leaving her to raisetheir children. "It is true, women work a lotharder," muses Ajuoga:

They feed their children. They cook.They fetch water and firewood. Theyfarm. They were born, and it goeslike that.4

Barriers such as rigid schedules, lack ofchildcare, and lack of transportation pre-vent entry into the formal labor market. Tobreak the cycle of hunger and poverty, wemust develop long-term strategies that en-able women to enter the formallabor market at decent wagerates. In addition, support to theinformal sector can allow womenworkers and their dependents tobe fully productive and receiveneeded benefits.

Women RefugeesJahan Ara was an Afghan

refugee living in India with herhusband and three children, agestwo to six. One night in 1986, herhusband did not come home. Hewas never heard from again.

Jahan was left to care for her-self and her family. Finding workoutside the home proved to benearly impossible because she hadno previous work experience andcould not leave her young chil-dren unattended. Six months afterthe disappearance of her husband,

9 :3

Table 6.2Relative Wages inManufacturing,Women/Men, 1990

Women's

relative wage

Country (men's = 100)

Costa Rica 74

Hong Kong 69

Singapore 57

South Korea 50

Sweden 98

Denmark 85

United Kingdom 68

United States* 61

Japan 41

*Data for United States are from 1989.Source: International Labor Organization, U.S.

Bureau of the Census.

Hunger 1995 88

Eighty percent ofthe world's 16

million refugeesare women andtheir dependent

children.

89 Causes of Hungoi


the local office of the United Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) re-duced its level of financial assistance, basedon the presumption that there was now oneless mouth to feed.

Jahan was placed in a desperate situa-tion. Unable to provide for her family, shetried to reach out to other Afghan refugeesfor help. Unfortunately, she did not knowany other women, and she could not freelyaccept support from males due to culturaltaboos restricting her contact with men.Jahan had no relatives in India.

About a year after her husband disap-peared, Jahan was admitted to the hospitalwith third degree burns, possibly self-in-flicted. Her last wish was for her childrento be sent to live with her father in a rela-tively peaceful part of Afghanistan.

Eighty percent of the world's 16 millionrefugees are women and their dependentchildren. Violence against female refugeesis rampant, and food is often ransomed forsex. Camps frequently do not provide sani-tary napkins and diapers. Women areforced to tear the lining from tents, render-ing them useless for keeping out the cold.

The men in charge of food distributionin refugee camps often make womenchoose between rape and starvation. Mostwomen are responsible for feeding chil-dren or elders in addition to meeting theirown food needs. Uprooted women in aforeign country may have problems withunfamiliar food, and may not know thenutritional value of such food or how toprepare it sufficiently for their families.

Pregnant and nursing mothers with extranutritional needs suffer even more, and theirbabies share in this suffering. Lack of prenatalcare and malnutrition increase the chances oflow birthweight babies. Women who givebirth in refugee camps face problems ofsanitation and lack of medical attention, thusincreasing the risk of infection and death.

In 1991, UNHCR issued new guidelineson the protection of women refugees.These emphasize the need to includewomen in planning and running camps,and recommend greater attention to thefood and health needs of women.

Mother and Child Health (MCH) pro-grams are one example of how UNHCRhas focused on the health of pregnant andlactating women and their children. Whilethis approach has been successful in im-proving the health of women, many ex-perts now recognize that women must besupported in various roles. A seniorUNHCR health official commented:

The trouble with MCH programs isthat they restrict women to the role ofmother. . . . This is very reductive.What about young girls who may ormay not one day become mothers?What about women who are pastchildbearing age, who in many soci-eties have enormous influence overyounger women? Ignore them andyou risk diluting the effectiveness ofhealth care and health educationprograms.5

The Feminization ofDevelopment

In the 1970s, the predominant strategyfor improving the condition of women indeveloping countries was to integrate theminto ongoing economic and social struc-tures. The U.N. Conference on Women, inMexico City in 1975, pointed out thatwomen's basic needs had been ignoredand marginalized. Pledges to include fe-males in policy planning and implementa-tion abounded.

In the 1980s, development theory em-phasized general economic growth fordeveloping countries, so integratingwomen into the global economy was sup-

Causes of Hunger

posed to resolve their poverty and hunger.Local people both women and menoften had little say in the processes whichso dramatically affected their lives.

By the end of the U.N.'s First Women'sDecade in 1985, a global recession hadworsened women's condition. Women indeveloping countries began to conceivealternate strategies for progress. They shiftedfrom seeing women as marginalized pawnsin men's world to recognizing women askey, albeit barely visible, players in everysocial and economic sphere. Funding wasprovided for income generation projects andfarming groups. Groups like DevelopmentAlternatives with Women for a New Era(DAWN) were founded by women, mostlyfrom the South, concerned with new waysof viewing old problems. Western develop-ment theorists shifted too, with an increas-ing emphasis on economic empowermentof poor women through means such ascredit to start small businesses.

In 1985, the third U.N. Conference onWomen in Nairobi established Forward-Looking Strategies to advance the status ofwomen in government, employment, andeducation. Re-evaluated goals are to guidethe Platform of Action at the fourth Confer-ence on Women in Beijing in 1995. Eightcritical areas of concern are:

Poverty,

Access to education,

Power-sharing,

Commitment to women's rights,

Health and employment,

Effects of armed conflict,

Economic participation, and

Violence against women.

Recent interest in microenterprise, com-munity building, and empowerment hasled many development workers to recog-nize women as the backbone of familiesand communities and as central to sustain-able development efforts.

Approaches to Gender andDevelopmentImproving Farms in Kenya

Women in rural Africa produce, process,and store up to 80 percent of the food forconsumption. Yet development officialshave repeatedly failed to include women inthe planning and implementation of pro-jects intended to alleviate hunger and im-prove health. For example, new technolo-gy in the form of tractors and improvedanimal-powered equipment were targetedat male farmers as "primary providers."While these technological advances light-ened the workload for men and allowedthem to acquire more land, women's workactually increased because they wereforced to work more land using the sametime-intensive hand labor techniques as inthe past.

Patriarchal structures often preventwomen from having control overresources. In Africa and many other partsof the world, a woman's access to land isdetermined by her marital status and thenumber of sons she has. Likewise, accessto credit often requires permission fromeither a husband or adult son.

Kenya has a population of about 24million, with a growth rate of 3.9 percent ayear, one of the highest in the world.Eighty percent of Kenyans depend on theirsmall farms to feed themselves and theirfamily. Over the past 10 years the govern-ment has encouraged replacing sorghumand millet with corn, which can be eatenby the farm family or exported for income.

9

Women in ruralAfrica produce,process, and storeup to 80 percent ofthe food forconsumption.

BEST COPY AVAILABLIFinger 1995 90

Gender DiscriminationFigure 6.2Breaking Out of the Cycle of Despair

Community involvement,healthier and bettereducated children

More options in social,economic, cultural life

Well-nourished mother& child, more income fohousing, food, school

Lock of options in sodal,economic, cultural life

\_/ \

Lack of energy, poorperformance

deficiencies

Family well-being,better economic status,healthy babies

Education and literacy,better job opportunities,health, and nutrition

NO

>-1Poor education, lowearnings, health &nutrition deficiencies

Stunted growtvh,anemia, lowbirthweight babies

High maternal/child II/ \--7mortality,undernourished childrenl

Corn is less nutritious than either millet orsorghum, and more dependent on regularrainfall. Droughts, such as the one that oc-curred during 1983-1984, can cause seriousdeclines in production, increasing malnutrition.Women are often the most seriously affectedwhen there is a shortfall.

A program in Kenya trains women farmersto make the most of their crops. The NationalExtension Project of the International Fund forAgricultural Development (IFAD) has an out-reach system to advise hundreds of farmersabout new technologies and resources. TheNandi District has more than one hundredextension workers, each responsible for sever-al hundred farmers, including women.

As a result of such training, many womenfarmers in Kenya and other parts of Africahave learned to grow such crops as fingermillet, cabbages, and bananas in addition tocorn. This produces a surplus often sold at themarket for extra income or traded for various

91 Causes of HungerSE

other foods for the family.Programs such as the National Extension

Project use existing village work groups tospread knowledge. Since Kenyan womenfrequently form such teams for agricultural andother enterprises, the groups are a valuablevehicle for information sharing.

It pays to focus on women. The WorldBank reports that crop yields in Kenya were2.8 times higher for female than male farmersin the same program.

Empowering Women in BoliviaBolivia is a landlocked country in South

America with a population of about 7 millionpeople. Over 70 percent (4.7 million) of thepopulation is made up of Indians, the Aymaraand Quechua groups being the largest. Morethan 40 percent of the total population lacksaccess to ninning water, health care, andproper nutrition.

About 850,000 Bolivians receive donatedfood, mainly from the government, but provid-ed through U.S. nongovernmental organiza-tions (NGOs) and financed by the U.S. govern-ment. Ironically, these donations may havecontributed to increased malnutrition. Whitebread and noodles have replaced more nutri-tious whole grain counterparts as staples forpoor populations. Wheat, once a native crop,has now reached an annual deficit of 170,000metric tons as a result of food donations thatdate back to 1954.

Saddled with the sole responsibility for pro-viding food for the family, Bolivian wives andmothers join food clubs or do heavy manuallabor in exchange for food. But many of thesefood aid programs have fostered dependency,promoted corruption, and undermined com-munity development efforts. Many husbandswill not allow their wives to join literacy andhealth programs unless they bring home food.

In 1989, more than four thousand Bolivianwomen traveled to the capital of La Paz toprotest food aid programs that fostered

Causes of Hunger

dependency and corruption. Their demandto change government and food distributionagencies' policies resulted in new approacheslike Pro Mujer, a private nonprofit agency.Pro Mujer addresses the needs of Bolivia'spoorest women by focusing on education,maternal and child health, income genera-tion, and empowerment. Each month, 1,300women participate in Pro Mujer's five monthtraining cycles.

Education of Females in PakistanOf 850 million adult illiterates worldwide,

more than 60 percent are women. Educationis an important and effective method forincreasing women's status and helping themlift themselves out of poverty and hunger.Studies have shown that increases in femalebasic education can improve primary healthcare, decrease infant mortality rates, andimprove crop yields.

The Primary Education Program (PEP) inBaluchistan Province, Pakistan, is a goodexample of an organization that offers re-sources to women. Surveys in 1990 and 1991showed a desire and need for more girls'schools and female teachers in rural commu-nities. With support from UNICEF, PEP estab-lished a mobile unit to train new womenteachers. In each village, community educa-tion promoters identified prospective femaleteachers and formed a village educationcommittee of parents of school-age girls. Thecommittees agreed to take responsibility forseeing that the teachers were trained andpaid, for donated land and a school building,and for monitoring the students' progress. ByNovember 1993, 122 girls' primary schoolshad been established, more than 4,000 girlswere studying in them, and 200 femaleteachers were working. In addition, a newlycreated local NGO had assumed responsibili-ty for the program. More important, govern-ment policymakers were now committed tocommunity-based girls' education.6

ConclusionGender discrimination affects poor and

hungry women in various and far-reachingways. Likewise, a new perspective on hungerand poverty issues that takes gender intoaccount can have a variety of positive long-term and sustainable results. The recognitionthat women have always been and will con-tinue to be key players at every level of soci-ety is crucial. Their work is vital to humansurvival.

Women worldwide need access to educa-tion and other resources. The best way tolearn the specific needs of poor and hungrywomen is to ask them. They generally re-spond that their priorities relate to improvedincome earning capacity and developingeffective organizations. African women areparticularly interested in credit and land titles,as well as agricultural training and develop-ment of improved tools, which could savehours of a woman's work day. Latin Ameri-ca's top priorities, as cited by the region'swomen, are empowerment of women'sgrassroots organizations, employment cre-ation, and access to credit. The main priori-ties for the women of Asia include employ-ment creation and support of communityorganizations. The three critical needs forwomen in industrialized countries are: com-pletion of at least a secondary education,opportunities for upwardly mobile employ-ment, and affordable child care.

The injustice of gender discriminationaffects every woman, man, and child onearth. By ignoring women's roles, decision-makers seriously handicap their work andundermine progress. In order to rectify age-old social problems, such as hunger, poverty,ignorance, war, and resource mismanage-ment, women and men must work togetheras equals toward solutions.

A. Cecilia Snyder is research associate at BFW Institute.

9 (

In order to rectifyage-old socialproblems . . .

women and menmust worktogether as equalstoward solutions.

Hunger 1995 92

Vulnerability and Age

ii.., --

..,t1

k-n. ..

Ann

t\\, t :1-,

Children and elderly people are disproportionately vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition in both

industrial and developing countries. 9 f-

Part One: Childrenby Urban Jonsson

Malnutrition causes permanent

mental and physical damage toyoung children, limiting their

potential as adults. This chapter outlines theconditions necessary for adequate nutrition,confirming that the barriers to eradicatingchild malnutrition are political, rather thanscientific. Citizens need to urge their politi-cal leaders to commit resources to achievingthe goals of the 1990 World Summit forChildren.

Introduction'Child malnutrition strikes silently and

unnoticed not seen on television. Yet it isthe world's most profound nutritional emer-gency, stunting the mental and physicalgrowth of one in three children in the devel-oping world. Low-income children in theindustrial world are also vulnerable tohunger (see "Hungry Children in the UnitedStates," pp. 95-96).

Only one or two percent of the world'schildren exhibit visible signs of malnutrition.But tens of millions of children under agefive are chronically malnourished, prone toillness and poor development. In the devel-oping world, many poor households runshort of food between harvests, or amiddrought and war.

Most malnourished children live in homeswith adequate food. Specific problems suchas low birthweight (which usually resultsfrom poor nutrition during pregnancy) andpractices such as bottle-feeding in the ab-sence of clean water or the income to affordenough formula contribute heavily to mal-nutrition. The main cause, however, is

illness especially diarrhea that thrives inpoor communities lacking clean water andsanitation. Chronic poor health saps childrenof nutrients.

When nourishment runs low, the bodymakes compromises. Virtually the only out-ward sign is sluggishness, as the body strug-gles to conserve energy. Undernourishedchildren stand rather than run and play, sitrather than stand, lie instead of sit. To com-pensate for fewer nutrients, metabolic ratesdrop. Blood pressure sinks. If fat is low, thebody borrows from reserves, depleting mus-cle and slowing or deforming bone growth.

Malnutrition invisibly amplifies the worstconsequences of illness. Mildly malnour-ished children are twice as likely to die ofdisease, and moderately malnourished chil-dren are three times as likely. Malnutrition isa factor in one third of the 13 million annualdeaths of children under five. Good nutri-tion, on the other hand, is excellent armoragainst disease.

Malnutrition strikes hardest in the lasttrimester of pregnancy and during the firstyear of life. Poorly nourished mothers tendto bear underweight babies malnourishedin the womb and likely to remain so incrucial early years. During infancy, tinystomachs require constant feeding, braindevelopment is nearing completion, andfledgling immune systems are weakest.

A child suffering malnutrition before heror his first birthday is likely to suffer below-normal growth even if nutrition improvesthereafter. This affects physical and mentaldevelopment, and means that children willnever achieve their full potential to con-tribute to the life of their communities andnations.

Prevalence and TrendsThe proportion of malnourished children

under five in the developing world declined

95

A child sufferingmalnutrition be-fore her or hisfirst birthday islikely to sufferbelow-normalgrowth even ifnutritionimprovesthereafter.

Hunger 1995 94


Hungry Childrenin the United Statesby Marc J. Cohen

The United States could eliminate child hunger if the federal gov-ernment fully funded social programs that are already in place andhave demonstrated their effectiveness. Ironically, there is less infor-mation available about hunger among U.S. children than there isabout child malnutrition in many developing countries. Bread for theWorld has advocated a U.S. national nutrition monitoring system, butthis system is only now being designed and established.

Despite the limited data, researchers at Tufts University estimatedin 1993 that 12 million U.S. children under 18 are hungry. Almost 4million poor children suffer from iron deficiency anemia.

Over 37 million people, including 8 million children, lack healthinsurance, which contributes directly to nutrition problems by mak-ing children more susceptible to diseases such as measles. Also, low-income uninsured children are vulnerable to hunger because theirfamilies often must choose among food, medical care, shelter, cloth-ing, utilities, or education. And, hungry children are two to threetimes more likely to experience health problems. The United States isthe world's wealthiest nation, but 27 countries have a lower inci-dence of low birthweight babies and 20 have lower infant mortalityrates.

Nearly 22 percent of U.S. children under 18 (14.6 million children)lived in poverty in 1992, at risk of hunger. This is double the childpoverty rate of any other industrial country. Children are 40 percentof all poor people. Families with children make up 31 percent of thehomeless population, extremely vulnerable to hunger, compared to21 percent in the early 1980s.

Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom also have high childpoverty rates (about 10 percent). In the United Kingdom, the propor-tion of families living in poverty doubled between 1979 and 1986.France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden have child povertyrates of 5 percent or less because of tax and child benefit policies.

The problem of full funding of U.S. government nutrition andchild assistance programs is well illustrated by the Special Supple-mental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Itprovides nutritious food, health screening, and nutrition education tolow-income, nutritionally vulnerable pregnant and nursing mothers

95 Causes of HungerC

from 42 percent in 1975 to 34 percent in1990. This is remarkable progress, but thenumber of malnourished children rosefrom 168 million to 184 million during thesame period due to population growth.'For many of these children, the immediatecause is insufficient protein and calories.

Vitamin and mineral deficiencies alsohave a severe impact. Each year, the IQs of1.2 million children of iodine deficientmothers are reduced by 10 points. At least30,000 babies are stillborn, and over120,000 are cretins mentally retarded,physically stunted, deaf-mute, vision im-paired, or paralyzed. The United NationsChildren's Fund (UNICEF) reports:

Even when born normal, young chil-dren whose diets are low in iodine areheld back by reduced intelligence,and live out their lives trapped inmental dullness and apathy. In thisway the lack of iodine locks entirecommunities into poverty and under-development, less able to learn in theirchildhood, less able to earn in theiradulthood.]

Inadequate vitamin A causes progressiveeye damage, eventually leading to blind-ness. In 1991, 14 million pre-school chil-dren suffered such damage. Every year,250,000 to 500,000 preschool children goblind as a result; two-thirds die within afew months. Even mild vitamin A deficien-cy increases the risk of death from infec-tions by 20 percent. About 190 millionpreschool children are at risk of vitamin Adeficiency.

Iron deficiency anemia is the most com-mon form of malnutrition in developingcountries. It reduces school children'slearning capabilities and increases suscepti-bility to infections and lead poisoning.

Causes of Hunger

Overcoming ChildMalnutrition

Complex biological and social processesdetermine nutritional status. Inadequate orunbalanced diets and disease are the im-mediate causes of malnutrition. Poor dietsincrease vulnerability to infection and itsseverity. At the same time, many diseasesespecially childhood diseases such asmeasles cause loss of appetite and abilityto absorb nutrients.

Four conditions are necessary for ade-quate nutrition, that is, for sufficient dietaryintake and the absence of disease:

Access to an adequate quantity andquality of food to fulfill all nutritionalrequirements for all household mem-bers throughout the year (householdfood security);

Adequate care of children and mothers;

Access to basic health services; and

A healthy environment.

Each is necessary, but by itself not suffi-cient. If all are fulfilled, children are likelyto have satisfactory diets and health. Eachcondition depends on resource availability,control, and use. Communication (advoca-cy, information, education, and training)strongly influences resource use.

The importance of adequate maternaland child care for nutrition has only re-cently been fully recognized. Care involvesbreastfeeding and related feeding prac-tices, food and personal hygiene, diagnos-ing illness, stimulating language and othercognitive capabilities, and providing emo-tional support. Family or community sup-port also plays a vital role.

Needed health services include pre- andpost-natal care, immunization, oral rehy-dration therapy (providing a mixture ofwater, sugar, and salt to prevent life-threat-

and children from birth to age five. According to Katrina Smith, a27-year-old mother with two children enrolled in the program:

WIC helped me understand how to shop wisely. We learnedhow to select the cheapest and most nutritious foods. WICtaught me that buying in bulk allows my dollars to stretch, aswell as clipping coupons to cut my overall food costs.

WIC spending is highly cost-effective because it reduces futurefederal health care expenditures. Yet 40 percent of those eligible toparticipate cannot for lack of government funding. Bread for theWorld made full funding of WIC its chief 1994 legislative priority.

Similarly, Head Start, which provides early childhood educationand food to low-income children, and Job Corps, which trains low-income youth for employment, do not receive enough funds toenroll everyone eligible. Many schools choose not to participate inthe School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, even though these playa critical role in meeting nutritional needs of many low-incomechildren and facilitate learning.

A permanent solution to hunger in the United States will alsorequire enhanced job training programs and a national commit-ment to full employment at wages that lift people out of poverty.

Until the appropriate policies are implemented, citizens mustpress to assure that the U.S. government keeps its promise to givechildren "first call."

Dr. Marc J. Cohen is senior research associate at BFW Institute and editor of Causesof Hunger.

ening dehydration due to diarrhea), vita-min and mineral supplements, de-worm-ing, family planning, and health education.

Finally, the most important features of ahealthy environment are access to cleanwater and safe sewage systems, whichallow control of diarrhea and other dis-eases.

Successful recent efforts to reduce childmalnutrition have reflected an emergingnew approach to development which rec-ognizes poor people as key actors inpoverty reduction, rather than passive aidrecipients. This approach sees development

c. 01Hunger 1995 96


The proportionof malnourished

children underfive in the de-

veloping worlddeclined from 42

percent in 1975 to34 percent in

1990 . . . but thenumber of

malnourishedchildren rose from168 million to 184million during thesame period due

to populationgrowth.

S a

Ph,t Ur

achieved through learning rather thanblueprints, and encourages participation,decentralization, and effective communica-tion. Four sets of strategies are associatedwith success and should be encouragedelsewhere:

Build consensus at all levels on thecauses of malnutrition. Internationally,the United Nations Subcommittee onNutrition is facilitating this process. Na-tional nutrition policies should includesalt iodization, regulation of the market-ing of breastmilk substitutes, and univer-sal access to health and education. Con-sensus building must seek increasedawareness of malnutrition and its causes,and should make good nutrition goodpolitics for leaders.

The "Triple A" strategy is essential:strengthen the capacity of communitiesand their leaders to assess and analyzenutrition problems and design and im-plement affordable actions. People donot live at the national level, but in com-munities. Top-down nutrition policiesshould foster capacity building and corn-

97 Causes 0fArtgrer

munity empowerment to create bottom-up demand for support from higherlevels. Emphasis should be given toimproving often neglected caring prac-tices. These include breastfeeding andother feeding practices, hygiene prac-tices, and cognitive stimulation. The roleof women is critical, and actions shouldbe environmentally sustainable.

Promote service delivery andcapacity building for empowerment.For example, distribution of vitamin Asupplements through the health systemshould encompass training on how togrow and use vitamin A-rich foods. Thisshould be done in combination withefforts to ensure access to land.

A nutrition information strategy isnecessary to make the other strategieswork. Education and advocacy can en-courage decision-makers at all levels towant and demand good information.When mothers understand the connec-tion between nutrition and child devel-opment, they get involved in monitoringtheir children's growth. When decision-makers demand nutrition information, itbecomes worthwhile to establish a nutri-tion surveillance system.

One example of these strategies in ac-tion is the UNICEF-financed health centerin Yemessoa, Cameroon, Central Africa.Open 24 hours, it provides children withvaccinations daily, and has adequate sup-plies of affordable medicines for commonailments such as malaria and acute respira-tory infections. Thanks to the prenatal careoffered, the village virtually eliminatedwomen's deaths from pregnancy and birth-related complications. More important, thecommunity runs the facility. CommentsCelestin Ngba, a Yemessoa resident, "Be-fore our community took over the manage-ment of the center, the place was almost

Causes of Hunger

abandoned and there were never enoughmedicines." This sense of ownership iscritical to sustaining the well-being of chil-dren and communities.

Keeping the PromiseThe United Nations sponsored the World

Summit for Children in 1990, an unprece-dented gathering of leaders from develop-ing and industrialized countries. Its declara-tion, signed by 157 heads of state andgovernment, and the Convention on theRights of the Child, ratified by 156 govern-ments, form "social contracts" between theworld's political leaders and its children.The goals, to be achieved by the year 2000,include:

Halving of severe and moderate malnu-trition among children under five;

Reduction of low birthweight to lessthan 10 percent;

A one-third reduction in iron deficiencyanemia among women;

Virtual elimination of vitamin A andiodine deficiency disorders;

Making all families aware of the impor-tance of supporting women in the taskof exclusive breastfeeding for the firstfour to six months of a child's life (withbreastfeeding continued well into thesecond year with appropriate comple-mentary diet) and of meeting the specialfeeding needs of a young child throughthe vulnerable years;

Institutionalization of growth monitor-ing; and

Education on household food security.

The Summit goals represent a moralconsensus supported by most religions anddiffering political ideologies. Political lead-ers and governments need to keep the

promises of the Summit. This requires "afirst call on resources for children." Coun-tries are used to being compared for theireconomic development. Now the time hascome to compare how they take care oftheir children.

Progress on Meetingthe Summit's Goals

South Asia's rate of child malnutritionremains the world's highest, almost doublethat of sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia ishome to over half the developing world'sundernourished children. But in Africa,unlike any other region, child malnutritiontrends remained static or deteriorated duringthe 1980s. The picture is brighter in much ofSoutheast Asia, where child nutrition is im-proving rapidly because of effective publicpolicies and considerable economic devel-opment.

Countries can be grouped according totheir level of commitment to deal with childmalnutrition. Fewer than 10 percent of thechildren are malnourished in such countriesas Chile, Egypt, Swaziland, and Malaysia.Another group, including Thailand, Tanza-nia, and Zimbabwe, is on target to meet theWorld Summit for Children goal of reducingmalnutrition due to inadequate protein andcalories 50 percent by the year 2000. Somepopulous countries, such as Bangladesh,India, and China, have effective nutritionstrategies, but lack resources for implemen-tation. The fourth category is countrieswhich have no clear strategy due to lack ofnational consensus on the causes of theproblem, such as Ethiopia, Nigeria, andNepal. Finally, some countries are unlikelyto meet the goal because of war or civilstrife, e.g., Angola, Haiti, Rwanda, andSudan.

Large scale programs in both India andAfrica have shown that the Summit's ambi-tious goal of halving child malnutrition is

BEST COPY AVAILABLfger 1995 98

Figure 7.1The Causes of Child

MalnutritionA Conceptual

Framework


eminently feasible. Even in the midst of aneconomic crisis, Tanzania's community-based Iringa nutrition program has morethan halved the rate of severe malnutritionin three years. The initial cost was $16 achild in 1984. Now it is $2.50 per child asthe program goes nationwide.

Some progress has been made on vitaminand mineral deficiency goals. Many nationshave begun to use child immunization sys-tems to distribute vitamin A capsules, includ-ing Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Malawi, andthe Philippines. The Indonesian government

Malnutrition

Inadequate

Dietary Intake"'

Inadequate

Access to

Food

InadequateCare for Mothers

and Children

Disease

InsufficientHealth Services &

Unhealthy Environment

Inadequate Education

Resources & Control

Human, Economic, &

Organizational

Political & Ideological Superstructure

Economic Structure

Potential

Resources

99 Causes of Hunger

Immediate

Causes

Underlying

Causes

Basic

Causes

recently reported that the Social Marketing ofVitamin A (SOMAVITA) project has increasednationwide consumption of capsules from 16percent to 50 percent.'

At the urging of UNICEF and the WorldHealth Organization, nearly 80 developingcountries have banned the free or subsi-dized distribution of infant formula to newmothers in hospitals and maternity clinics.Exclusive breastfeeding of infants reducesillness and death and saves money.

Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) preventsmore than a million children from dying of

dehydration due lo diarrheal disease eachyear; but more than three million childrenunder age five still die annually from thiscondition.'

The Need forPublic Involvement

Citizens must monitor progress andurge the commitment of resources toachieve the Summit goals. In countriessuch as the United States, which have notyet ratified the Convention on the Rightsof the Child, citizen action is especiallycrucial. Gradually the information fromthese efforts will contribute to increasingglobal embarrassment for countries thathave resources but avoid necessary politi-cal choices to achieve the goals. This willhelp make it good politics to ensure therights of all children and bad politics todeny children their rights.

If the public in both developing andindustrial countries insists that govern-ments keep their promises, progress willcontinue. The future of humanity dependsupon it.

Dr. Urban Jonsson is director of UNICEF's South AsiaRegional Office in Kathmandu, Nepal.

10 4 BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Causes of Hunger

Part Two: Elderly Peopleby Jashinta D'Costa

Fj,

lderly people are disproportionatelyvulnerable to hunger and malnutri-tion in both industrial and develop-

ing countries. Two types of aging, "biologi-cal" and "sociogenic" (based on the rolethat society imposes on people as theyage), interact to create the problems forelderly people. To end hunger amongelderly people we must establish publicpolicies that ensure their overall well-being.As we work for these policies, we mustalso remember that there is no substitutefor family care.

Clotario Blest died a broken, forgottenold man. For years he had lived alonein a miserable boarding house. Justbefore his death, Franciscan priestsfound him and took him from thesqualor of his room to the pristinequiet of their monastery. They tried torestore some weight to his 90-pound

frame, but he had been neglected toolong.'

Millions of the world's elderly people(those over 60 years old) live alone, over-looked by society. People live longer onaverage than in the past, but many elderlypeople are in poor physical or mentalhealth and lack access to recreational andwelfare facilities. They are disproportion-ately vulnerable to hunger and malnutritionin both industrial and developing countries.

In developing countries, numerous olderpeople consume fewer calories thanrequired for good health. Lack of socialsecurity programs contributes to their vul-nerability.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

In Bangladesh, 85 percent of older workersconsume less than 2,000 calories per day;

In Latin America and the Caribbean,elderly people are less healthy thanyounger people and are at higher risk ofillness, poverty, unemployment, andsocial isolation. Elderly men generallyhave better diets than women. Onestudy documented mineral deficienciesand nutritional imbalances; anotherfound prematurely aged people in Chiledue to low income, deficient nutrition,poor environmental and sanitary condi-tions, and inadequate health care;2 and

1 0

This elderlywoman in thewar-tornformer Sovietterritory ofNagorno-Karabakhwas left with-out familyand is caredfor at an oldpeople'shome.

Hunger 1995 100

1

In developingcountries,

numerous olderpeople consume

fewer caloriesthan required for

good health.


A study of elderly people in AugustTown, Jamaica, found that 51 percent ofthe females and 13 percent of the maleswere undernourished.'

Despite many sources of income in oldage and the political influence of seniorcitizen organizations, hunger also persistsamong elderly people in the United States.Many low-income elderly people cannotafford an adequate diet or do not haveaccess to stores with inexpensive and nutri-tious food. Many lack awareness of govern-ment assistance programs. Food insecurityis greatest among elderly minority people.

Estimates of the proportion of elderlypeople in the United States with inade-quate diets range from 8 percent to 16percent (2.5 million to 4.9 million peo-ple);

In a study of 10 industrial countries, theUnited States had the third highest elder-ly poverty rate following the UnitedKingdom and Israel;4

Thirteen percent of aged people in theUnited States live below the povertylevel of $6,729. The figure is 33 percentamong older African Americans, com-pared to 11 percent for the elderlywhites. Many elderly people who arenot officially poor suffer from malnutri-tion;

Elderly Hispanics have the highest rateof food insecurity, followed by AfricanAmericans; and

One study suggests that 30 percent to 40percent of elderly people in hospitals andnursing homes suffer from malnutrition.

The aging of the world's population isone of the most significant contemporarydemographic changes. Worldwide, there are513 million people aged 60 or over,

101 Causes of Hungerr,

1 V C

accounting for 9 percent of global popula-tion, and the proportion is rising. Providingthe care and support they need includingadequate food and opportunities to contin-ue contributing to society poses a growingchallenge to individuals, families, and gov-ernments in rich and poor countries alike.

Global PerspectiveThe health and well-being of any age

group depend in part on health, social, andeducational policies. The nutritional status ofelderly people also depends on culturalbeliefs and practices, age, degree of socialintegration, extent of physical mobility, eco-nomic situation, and health. Both govern-ment and the family play important roles.The state can provide health care and socialsecurity, and the family offers crucial emo-tional support. Medical advances have in-creased longevity. But modernization hasbrought increases in average income andgreater emphasis on productivity, whichoften leaves older people out of the main-stream:

In an industrialized society where self-sufficiency means survival, the oldergeneration hopes to be independentand not to be a burden to their chil-dren. Other cultures that are close tothe earth cycles regard aging as a nat-ural process. Older is better. Maturitycomes with age. The cycle of life movesfrom childhood, adolescence, adult-hood, and finally to the maturity andwisdom of old age.5

Economic development has also led toother social and cultural changes that createproblems for elderly people. As a result ofurbanization:

The traditional extended family declines.This has often led to the abandonment ofelderly people.

Causes of Hunger

Lifestyles change among both young andolder people, as younger people move tocities and travel to work or school.

Occupational mobility increases, some-times placing parents and children indifferent social and cultural classes andcreating a "generation gap."

Industrial employment increases. Thisleads to a decline in agricultural employ-ment and often entails a mandatoryretirement age.

The decay of relationships, due mainly togeographical distance between family mem-bers, affects the mental health of elderlypeople who remain behind in the country-side. Urban elderly people likewise faceincreasing isolation:

Large cities throughout the world arebecoming catchalls for many agedpeople who are homeless and unable tocare for their own nutritional andhealth needs.6

For example, when Aboriginal Australiansreceived citizenship rights in the late 1960s,this accelerated their urbanization, depen-dence on welfare, westernized diets, loss ofhunter-gatherer skills, and increasinglysedentary lifestyles. They experienced in-creased incidence of diabetes and heartdisease, and Aboriginal life expectancy de-creased to 20 years less than that of whites.Elderly Aborigines receive weekly pensionpayments on Fridays. They consume mostof their food during the weekend, and thisbinge eating causes nutritional imbalances.'

Inadequate policies and institutions alsocause hunger. In the industrialized world,publicly-funded economic support systemsare the main source of income for manyelderly citizens. In most developed nations,there are also private pensions.

In the developing world, however, suchsystems are often rudimentary. Several

2

Figure 7.2Change in Real Median Incomeof U.S. Elderly andNon-Elderly Households, 1989-1992

elderly (65 and over)

non-elderly (under 65)

1.4

-2.5

-1.3

-3.4

-0.8

-1.9

1989-90 1990-91

Year

1991-92

countries have some form of social security,but it is available to only a very small frac-tion of the population, and benefit levels arevery low. In Africa, coverage is almostnonexistent, limited to wage-earners, whoform a small portion of the labor force. MostAsian and Middle Eastern countries do nothave coverage for agricultural workers, butIndia, Malaysia, and Turkey are exceptions.

Austerity programs in severely indebteddeveloping countries have adversely affect-ed elderly people. In Ghana, tighter govern-ment budgets still allow tax exemptions forchild care but not for elder care.

War causes critical problems for elderlypeople, who often flee to refugee and dis-placed persons' camps or remain in theirvillages without the comfort of family oradequate food. Their less aggressive attitudeand generally weaker physical conditionrestrain them from competing for food.Because of their marginal economic role,

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 10 7 Hunger 1995 102


elderly people are sometimes left to fendfor themselves when other family membersare killed. This happened in Mozambique,where an elderly man reported, "Therebels did not take me because I'm tooold. "" Elderly people are sometimes leftbehind to starve slowly. Yet, it is elderlypeople who preserve traditional culture intimes of war and social upheaval. They arethe "national soul."9

Isolation often contributes to hungeramong elderly people. They eat alone andcannot visit others easily. They may receivefew, if any, visitors. In the United States,inadequate food intake is not always associ-ated with insufficient money. Lack of moti-vation and cooking skills, as well as mentalhealth problems, lead to malnutrition amongelderly men, especially those who live andeat alone.

Public PoliciesThe solution to persistent hunger among

elderly people lies in appropriate publicpolicies to ensure their well-being. Twotypes of aging, "biological" and"sociogenic," acting together in varyingdegrees, depending on the circumstances,are responsible for the problemsconfronting aged people.'° Policies cannotreverse biological aging, i.e., decreasedvisual, hearing, and physical capabilities.But policies can address sociogenic aging,the role that society imposes on people asthey age. Prejudices contribute to socio-genic aging.

Policies cannot simply be replicatedacross countries. Effective policies mustaddress cultural diversity, level of economicdevelopment, and resource availability. Thesuccess of any plan requires cooperativeefforts of individuals, private institutions,and governments. Policies can secure andkeep up the individual's spirit, transforming

103 Causes of Hunger

elderly people's despair into dignity.On the basis of cultural heritage and

economic conditions, governments of de-veloping countries need to provide supportto strengthen the family tie. Malaysia's gov-ernment welfare program provides monthlycash assistance to families caring for older,needy relatives. To discourage the erosionof family values, the government ceasedbuilding old age institutions.

But as the number of childless elderlypeople increases, developing country gov-ernments need to establish institutionalcare. Such care is expensive, but will benecessary, given demographic trends.

Constructive policies can reverse thenegative consequences of modernization:Taiwan has high rates of economic activityand prosperity among elderly people whowork in agriculture and light industry.

Industrial countries have a large propor-tion of older people and a relatively smallnumber of youth. This leads to greatercosts for institutional care. Experts are sug-gesting more family care in these countriesas well.

Social Security and Medicare have dra-matically reduced poverty and hungeramong the U.S. elderly population. Foodstamps and the elderly feeding programalso help reduce hunger. But this safety netneeds to be strengthened. Social Security isthreatened by the desire of some policymakers to reduce cost-of-living adjustmentsto shrink the federal budget deficit; if thereis cost-cutting, low-income recipientsshould be protected. Funding for SeniorNutrition Programs has decreased. Inaccu-rate assumptions about poverty makemany low-income seniors ineligible forgovernment food programs. Small busi-nesses, which employ nearly half of U.S.workers, provide pensions to only 20 per-cent of their employees.

ConclusionFactors such as urbanization, mod-

ernization, and war all play key rolesin the vulnerability of elderly people.Public policies can reduce their vul-nerability.

And there is no substitute for familycare to provide familiar surroundings,love and emotional ties, and a senseof belonging and feeling wanted. De-spite the difficulties of keeping our"loving, caring relationships whenlone has] the emotions of hunger,anger, and desperation," it is still pos-sible to make a difference regardingour respect, love, and care for theelderly."

On All Souls day, while I was light-ing candles at my father's grave inBangladesh, a feeble voice surprisedme by asking, "Could you please giveme a candle?" I turned to see a boywho was about 10 years old. Follow-ing his eyes, I saw a grave, lying darkin the middle of hundreds of illuminat-ed graves. What has that little penni-less boy taught us? Is it not love?

Dr. Souheil Odeh, after 11 years,finished his undergraduate and gradu-ate studies and went back home, leav-ing his $4,000 per month U.S. engi-neering job behind to accept $700 amonth in Jordan. The sense of respon-sibility for taking care of older parentswho are in their late 70s, who tookcare of him throughout his life, movedhis heart to join them in their time ofgreatest need. This unspoken ruleneeds to be pronounced in everyheart and underlie public policies onaging.

Jashinta D'Costa is a BFW Institute volunteer.

Causes of Hunger

There is no substitute for family care.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 10 S

Photo: Catholic Char.,.

Hunger 1995 104

AppendixTable 1: Global Demographic Indicators

Population

(millions)

1994

Developing CountriesAfrica (sub-Saharan)

Population

(millions)

2010

Population

annual

growth rate

1990-92

(%)

Total

Fertility rate

1992

Percent

Age <15

1994

Percent

Age 65+

1994

Percent of

population

urbanized

1994

life

expectancy

at birth

(years)

Infant

mortality

rate (under 1)

per 1,000 live

births 1994

Under 5

mortality rate

per 1,000

live births

1960

Under 5

mortality rate

per 1,000

live births

1992

Maternal

mortality rate

per 100,000

live births

1980-91

Total 570.0 901.0 6.5 46 3 27 52

Angola 11.2 17.6 2.9 7.2 45 3 28 46 170 345 292

Benin 5.3 8.4 2.9 7.1 47 3 38 46 88 310 147 160

Botswana 1.4 2.1 3.1 5.2 48 3 26 62 45 170 58 250

Burkina Faso 10.1 15.5 2.6 6.5 48 4 21 48 101 318 150 810

Burundi 6.0 9.1 2.9 6.8 46 4 6 48 108 255 179

Cameroon 13.1 21.2 2.9 5.8 45 3 41 56 74 264 117 430

Cape Verde 0.4 0.6 .. 4.4 44 5 44 68 40 164 61 ..

Central African Republic 3.1 3.9 2.6 6.2 43 3 47 44 105 294 179 600

Chad 6.5 9.8 2.2 5.9 41 3 32 48 123 325 209 960

Comoros 0.5 0.9 .. 7.1 48 3 28 56 .. ..

Congo 2.4 3.2 2.9 6.3 44 3 41 49 82 220 110 900

Cote d'Ivoire 13.9 23.7 3.8 7.4 47 2 39 52 91 300 124

Djibouti 0.6 0.9 6.6 41 2 77 49

Equatorial Guinea 0.4 0.6 5.9 43 4 37 51 .. ..

Eritrea 3.5 5.4 .. .. .. 123 294 208 ..

Ethiopia 55.2 89.0 2.6 7.0 49 3 15 52 123 294 208 560x

Gabon 1.1 1.4 3.6 5.2 33 6 46 54 95 287 158 190

Gambia 1.1 1.5 .. 6.2 45 2 26 45 95 .. 158 190

Ghana 16.9 26.6 3.3 6.1 45 3 34 56 103 215 170 1,000

Guinea 6.4 9.3 2.6 7.0 44 3 26 43 135 337 230 800

Guinea-Bissau 1.1 1.5 2.0 5.8 43 3 20 44 141 336 239 700x

Kenya 27.0 44.4 3.5 6.4 49 2 25 59 51 202 74 170x

Lesotho 1.9 2.8 2.6 4.8 41 4 19 61 108 204 156

Liberia 2.9 4.8 3.2 6.8 45 4 43 55 146 288 217

Madagascar 13.7 22.4 3.2 6.6 45 3 22 56 110 364 168 570

Malawi 9.5 14.7 4.3 7.6 48 3 17 44 143 365 226 400

Mali 9.1 15.0 3.0 7.1 46 4 22 45 122 400 220 2,000

Mauritania 2.3 3.5 2.7 6.5 44 4 39 48 118 321 206 ..

Mauritius 1.1 1.3 1.1 2.0 30 5 39 69 20 84 24 99

Mozambique 15.8 25.4 1.7 6.5 44 3 27 47 167 331 287 300

Namibia 1.6 2.6 3.0 6.0 45 3 33 59 62 206 79 370x

Niger 8.8 14.3 3.3 7.1 49 3 15 47 191 320 320 700

Nigeria 98.1 162.0 3.2 6.6 45 3 16 54 114 204 191 800

105 Causes offraiiksek'

cigc COPY NaLABLE

Table 1, continued: Global Demographic IndicatorsPopulation

(millions)

1994

Population

(millions)

2010

Population

annual

growth rate

199092

( %)

Total

Fertility rate

1992

-

Percent

Age <15

1994

Percent

Age 65+

1994

Percent of

population

urbanized

1994

Life

expectancy

at birth

(years)

Infant

mortality

rate (under I I

per 1,000 live

births 1994

Under 5

mortality rate

per 1,000

live births

1960

Under 5

mortality rate

per 1,000

live births

1992

Maternal

mortality rate

per 100,000

live births

1980-91

Rwanda 7.7 10.4 3.1 8.5 48 3 5 46 131 191 222 210

Senegal 8.2 12.4 2.8 6.2 47 3 39 49 90 303 145 600

Sierra Leone 4.6 6.9 2.5 6.5 45 3 32 43 144 385 249 450

Somalia 9.8 15.9 2.6 7.0 47 3 24 47 125 294 211 1,100

South Africa 41.2 58.4 2.5 4.2 39 4 57 65 53 126 70 84x

Sudan 28.2 43.0 3.0 6.2 46 2 23 53 100 292 166 550

Swaziland 0.8 1.3 5.0 47 3 23 56

Tanzania 29.8 48.4 3.4 6.8 47 3 21 51 111 249 176 340x

Togo 4.3 7.4 3.0 6.6 49 2 29 56 86 264 137 420

Uganda 19.8 30.7 2.9 7.3 47 3 11 42 111 218 185 300

Zaire 42.5 68.6 3.3 6.7 45 3 40 52 121 286 188 800

Zambia 9.1 13.9 3.4 6.5 48 2 49 44 113 220 202 150

Zimbabwe 11.2 16.8 3.3 5.5 48 3 27 56 60 181 86

South Asia

Afghanistan 17.8 34.7 1.4 6.9 46 4 18 42 165 360 257 640

Bangladesh 116.6 164.8 2.5 4.8 44 3 14 53 97 247 127 600

Bhutan 0.8 1.1 2.2 5.9 39 4 13 49 131 324 201 1,310

India 911.6 1,163.3 2.0 4.0 36 4 26 57 83 236 124 460

Nepal 22.1 32.3 2.7 5.6 44 3 8 51 90 279 128 830

Pakistan 126.4 191.1 3.2 6.3 44 3 28 60 95 221 137 500

Sri Lanka 17.9 21.0 1.5 2.5 35 4 22 73 15 130 19 80

East Asia and the Pacific

Burma (Myanmar) 45.4 59.2 2.1 4.3 36 4 25 59 83 237 113 460

Cambodia 10.3 15.7 2.5 4.5 44 3 13 49 117 217 184 500

China 1,192.0 1,376.1 1.5 2.3 28 6 28 70 35 209 43 95

Fiji 0.8 0.9 .. 3.0 38 3 39 64 ..

Hong Kong 5.8 6.3 1.2 1.4 21 9 78 6 52 7 6

Indonesia 199.7 250.3 2.0 3.2 37 4 31 60 71 216 111 450

Korea, N. 23.1 28.5 1.8 2.4 29 4 60 69 25 120 33 41

Korea, S. 44.5 49.7 1.2 1.7 24 5 74 71 8 124 9 26

Laos 4.7 7.2 2.8 6.7 45 4 19 51 98 233 145 300

Malaysia 19.5 26.6 2.6 3.7 36 4 51 71 14 105 19 59

Mongolia 2.4 3.5 2.7 4.7 44 4 57 65 61 185 80 140

Papua New Guinea 4.0 5.7 2.3 5.0 40 4 13 55 54 248 77 900

Philippines 68.7 89.3 2.4 4.0 39 4 44 64 46 102 60 100

Singapore 2.9 3.3 1.1 1.7 23 6 100 74 6 40 7 10

Solomon Islands 0.4 0.6 .. 5.5 47 3 13 61

Thailand 59.4 68.8 1.5 2.3 29 5 19 69 27 146 33 50

Vietnam 73.1 91.7 2.2 4.0 39 5 21 65 37 219 49 120

Latin America and the Caribbean

Total 470.0 584.0 .. .. 36 5 71 68 .. ..

Argentina 33.9 39.9 1.3 2.8 30 9 86 71 22 68 24 140

Bolivia 8.2 11.4 2.5 4.7 42 4 58 61 80 252 118 600

Brazil 155.3 179.7 2.0 2.9 35 5 76 67 54 181 65 200

111BEST COPY AVAILWgeri995 106

Table 1, continued: Global Demographic IndicatorsPopulation

(millions)

1994

Population

(millions)

2010

Population

annual

growth rate

1990-92

(%I

Total

Fertility rate

1992

Percent

Age <15

1994

Percent

Age 65+

1994

Percent of

population

urbanized

1994

Life

expectancy

at birth

(years)

Infant

mortality

rate (under 1)

per 1,000 live

births 1994

Under 5

mortality rate

per 1,000

Two births

1960

Under 5

mortality rate

per 1,000

live births

1992

Maternal

mortality rate

per 100,000

live births

1980-91

Chile 14.0 17.4 1.7 2.7 31 6 85 72 15 138 18 67

Colombia 35.6 44.5 1.9 2.7 34 4 68 71 17 132 20 200

Costa Rica 3.2 4.4 2.8 3.2 36 5 44 76 14 112 16 36

Cuba 11.1 12.3 0.9 1.9 23 9 73 77 10 50 11 39

Dominican Republic 7.8 9.9 2.3 3.5 38 3 60 68 42 152 50

.Ecuador 10.6 14.0 2.6 3.8 39 4 57 69 47 180 59 170

El Salvador 5.2 7.3 1.5 4.2 44 4 45 66 47 210 63

Guatemala 10.3 15.8 2.9 5.5 45 3 38 65 55 205 76 200

Guyana 0.8 1.0 1.1* 2.6 33 4 33 65 48 126 69

Haiti 7.0 9.8 1.9 4.9 40 4 31 46 87 270 133 340

Honduras 5.3 7.6 3.3 5.1 47 4 44 66 45 203 58 220

Jamaica 2.5 3.0 1.2 2.5 33 8 52 74 12 76 14 120

Mexico 91.8 118.5 2.3 3.3 38 4 71 70 28 141 33 110

Nicaragua 4.3 6.7 2.9 5.2 46 3 62 63 54 209 76 ..

Panama 2.5 3.3 2.1 3.0 35 5 49 72 18 104 20 60

Paraguay 4.8 7.1 3.0 4.4 40 4 51 67 28 90 34 300

Peru 22.9 29.5 2.2 3.7 38 4 71 65 46 236 65 300

Suriname 0.4 0.5 .. 2.8 41 4 70 69 .. .. .. ..

Trinidad & Tobago 1.3 1.5 1.3 2.8 32 6 69 71 19 73 22 110

Uruguay 3.2 3.6 0.6 2.4 26 12 89 73 20 47 22 36

Venezuela 21.3 28.4 2.5 3.2 38 4 84 70 20 70 24

Middle East and North Africa

Algeria 27.9 38.2 2.8 5.0 44 4 50 67 60 243 72 140x

Bahrain 0.6 0.8 3.8 32 2 81 71

Cyprus 0.7 0.8 .. 2.3 26 10 62 76 .. .. .. ..

Egypt 58.9 80.7 2.5 4.2 40 4 45 62 43 258 55 270

Iran 61.2 100.4 3.8 6.1 47 4 57 65 44 233 58 120

Iraq 19.9 34.5 3.3 5.8 48 3 70 64 64 171 80 120

Jordan 4.2 6.6 3.2 5.8 41 3 70 67 25 149 30 48x

Kuwait 1.3 2.3 3.0 3.8 43 2 76 14 128 17 6

Lebanon 3.6 5.0 0.5 3.2 33 5 86 75 35 91 44

Libya 5.1 8.9 3.9 6.5 47 3 76 63 70 269 104 70x

Morocco 28.6 38.1 2.6 4.5 40 4 47 67 50 215 61 300x

Oman 1.9 3.4 4.2 6.8 36 3 12 71 24 300 31

Qatar 0.5 0.6 4.5 23 1 91 73 26

Saudi Arabia 18.0 30.5 4.4 6.5 43 2 79 70 35 292 40 41

Syria 14.0 24.2 3.5 6.3 48 3 51 66 34 201 40 140

Tunisia 8.7 11.3 2.3 3.6 37 5 59 68 32 244 38 70

Turkey 61.8 81.3 2.3 3.6 35 4 61 67 70 217 87 150

United Arab Emirates 1.7 2.9 4.2 4.6 32 1 83 72 18 240 22

Yemen 12.9 22.1 3.5 7.3 51 4 31 54 107 378 177

Industrial CountriesAlbania 3.4 4.0 1.8 2.8 33 5 36 72 28 151 34

Australia 17.8 20.9 1.5 1.9 22 12 85 77 7 24 9 3

Austria 8.0 8.2 0.3 1.5 18 15 54 76 7 43 9 8


Table 1, continued: Global Demographic IndicatorsPopulation Population Population

(millions) (millions) annual

1994 2010 growth rate

1990-92

(%)

Belgium 10.0 10.1 0.1

Bulgaria 8.4 8.4 0.1

Canada 29.1 33.4 1.1

Czech Republic 10.3 10.9

Denmark 5.2 5.3 0.1

Finland 5.1 5.2 0.4

Former Soviet Union

Armenia 3.7 4.0

Azerbaijan 7.4 8.6

Belarus 10.3 10.7

Estonia 1.5 1.6 0.6

Georgia 5.5 6.1

Kazakhstan 17.1 18.6

Kyrgyzstan 4.5 5.6

Latvia 2.5 2.8 0.5

Lithuania 3.7 4.2 0.8

Moldova 4.4 4.6

Russian Federation 147.8 145.2

Tajikistan 5.9 8.7

Turkmenistan 4.1 5.3

Ukraine 51.5 49.7

Uzbekistan 22.1 29.9

France 58.0 58.8 0.5

Germany 81.2 78.2 0.2

Greece 10.4 10.9 0.5

Hungary 10.3 9.9 -0.2

Ireland 3.6 3.9 0.2

Israel 5.4 6.9 2.3

Italy 57.2 58.1 0.2

Japan 125.0 130.4 0.5

Netherlands 15.4 16.7 0.6

New Zealand 3.5 4.1 0.9

Norway 4.3 4.5 0.4

Poland 38.6 41.3 0.6

Portugal 9.9 10.3 0.1

Romania 22.7 23.0 0.4

Slovakia 5.3 5.9

Spain 39.2 40.7 0.3

Sweden 8.8 9.2 0.3

Switzerland 7.0 7.5 0.6

USA 260.8 300.4 1.0

United Kingdom 58.4 61.0 0.2

Yugoslavia (former) 10.5 11.6 0.6

World 5,607 7,022

Total Percent Percent Percent of Life Infant Under 5 Under 5 Maternal

Fertility rate Age <15 Age 65+ population expectancy mortality mortality rate mortality rate mortality rote

1992 1994 1994 urbanized at birth rate (under 1) per 1,000 per 1,000 per 100,000

1994 (years) per 1,000 live

births 1994

live births

1960

live births

1992

live births

1980-91

1.6 18 15 97 76 9 35 11 3

1.9 20 14 67 72 16 70 20 9

1.8 21 12 77 77 7 33 8 5

2.0 21 13 .. 72 11 .. 12

1.7 17 16 85 75 7 25 8 3

1.8 19 14 80 75 6 28 7 11

2.6 31 6 68 70 29 34

2.8 33 5 54 71 37 53

2.0 23 11 67 71 20 23

2.1 22 12 71 70 20 24

2.3 25 9 56 73 25 29

3.0 31 6 58 69 43 50

4.0 38 5 37 69 49 60

2.0 21 12 70 69 22 27

2.0 22 11 69 71 17 20

2.6 28 8 48 69 31 36

2.1 22 11 73 68 28 32

5.4 43 3 31 69 65 .. 85

4.6 40 4 45 66 72 91

2.0 21 12 68 69 21 .. 25

4.4 41 4 40 69 56 68

1.8 20 15 74 77 7 34 9 9

1.5 16 15 85 76 7 40 8 5

1.5 19 14 58 77 8 64 9 5

1.8 19 14 63 69 15 57 16 15

2.2 27 11 56 74 5 36 6 2

2.9 31 9 90 76 9 39 11 3

1.3 16 15 68 77 8 50 10 4

1.7 17 14 77 79 4 40 6 11

1.7 18 13 89 77 6 22 7 10

2.1 23 11 85 75 8 26 10 13

1.9 19 16 72 77 6 23 8 3

2.1 25 10 62 71 14 70 16 11

1.5 20 13 34 74 11 112 13 10

2.2 22 11 54 70 23 82 28 72

.. 25 10 57 71 12 .. 14

1.4 19 14 78 77 8 57 9 5

2.0 18 18 83 78 6 20 7 5

1.6 16 15 68 78 7 27 9 5

2.0 22 13 75 76 9 30 10 8

1.9 19 16 92 76 7 27 9 8

1.9 23 10 47 72 19 113 22 27

3.4 33 6 43 65

Notes

Growth rate for 1980-91.

X Indicates data that refer to years or periods other than those specified in the column heading, differ from the standard definition, or refer to only port of a country.

I %1Hunger 1995 108

1 , ' I I I I I

Human Mean years Mean years Mean years % Infants % 1-year-olds Food Daily Annual

Development of schooling of schooling of schooling with low Immunized Production Calorie Deforestation

Rank 1994 age 25+ Male 1992 Female 1992 hirthweight 1992 per capita Supply es % 1981-90

Total 1992 1985-90 Index 1991 % of

1979-81 . 100 Requirements

1980-90


Total 1.6 2.2 1.0 14 49 96 92

Angola 155 1.5 2.0 1.0 15 33 79 80 0.7

Benin 156 0.7 1.1 0.3 10 75 119 101 1.2

Botswana 87 2.5 2.6 2.5 8 75 68 100 0.5

Burkina Faso 172 0.2 0.3 0.2 12 46 119 95 0.7

Burundi 152 0.4 0.7 0.3 14 81 91 85 0.6

Cameroon 124 1.6 2.6 0.8 13 41 18 93 0.6

Cape Verde 122 2.2 3.2 1.3 94 125 0.0

Central African Republic 160 1.1 1.6 0.5 18 52 94 77 0.4

Chad 168 0.3 0.5 0.2 11 21 102 69 0.7

Comoros 141 1.0 1.2 0.8 13 34 .. 90

Congo 123 2.1 3.1 1.1 15 75 92 107 0.2

Cate d'Ivoire 136 1.9 2.9 0.9 15 38 93 122 1.0

Djibouti 163 0.4 0.7 0.3 9 84 0.0

Equatorial Guinea 150 0.8 1.3 0.3 10 75 .. .. 0.4

Ethiopia 161 1.1 1.5 0.7 10 14 86 71 0.3

Gabon 114 2.6 3.9 1.3 10 82 82 107 0.6

Gambia 166 0.6 0.9 0.2 10 88 90 103 0.8

Ghana 134 3.5 4.9 2.2 17 46 116 91 1.3

Guinea 173 0.9 1.5 0.3 11 55 90 100 1.1

Guinea-Bissau 164 0.4 0.7 0.1 12 73 97 0.7

Kenya 125 2.3 3.1 1.3 15 62 103 86 0.5

Lesotho 120 3.5 2.8 4.1 10 64 70 93

Liberia 144 2.1 3.3 0.8 44 66 97 0.5

Madagascar 131 2.2 2.6 1.7 10 34 86 93 0.8

Malawi 157 1.7 2.4 1.1 11 88 75 87 1.3

Mali 167 0.4 0.7 0.1 10 45 96 107 0.8

Mauritania 158 0.4 0.7 0.1 10 48 80 109 0.0

Mauritius 60 4.1 4.9 3.3 8 87 104 129

Mozambique 159 1.6 2.2 1.2 11 58 77 77 0.7

Namibia 127 1.7 14 71 0.3

Niger 169 0.2 0.4 0.2 20 28 78 98 0.0

Nigeria 139 1.2 1.7 0.5 17 43 123 93 0.7

Rwanda 153 1.1 1.5 0.5 16 86 84 80 0.2

Senegal 143 0.9 1.5 0.5 10 51 98 95 0.6

Sierra Leone 170 0.9 1.4 0.4 13 69 84 86 0.6

Somalia 165 0.3 0.5 0.2 .. 24 78 81 0.4

South Africa 93 3.9 4.1 3.7 12 82 128

Sudan 151 0.8 1.0 0.5 15 69 80 83 1.0

Swaziland 117 3.8 4.1 3.4 7 92 85 105

Tanzania 148 2.0 2.8 1.3 16 87 78 91 1.2

Togo 145 1.6 2.4 0.8 32 51 95 99 1.4

Uganda 154 1.1 1.6 0.6 10 77 98 83 0.9

Zaire 140 1.6 2.4 0.8 10 40 94 97 0.6

Zambia 138 2.7 3.7 1.7 14 45 96 87 1.0

Zimbabwe 121 3.1 4.5 1.8 6 74 78 94 0.6


Table 2, continued: Global Health, Nutrition, and Welfare StatisticsHuman

Development

Rank 1994

Mean years

of schooling

age 25+

Total 1992

Mean years

of schooling

Mole 1992

Mean years

of sthoormg

Female 1992

% Infants

with low

1985-90

% 1-year-olds

Immunized

1992

Food Dagy

Production Calorie

per capita SuPPI7 as

Index 1991 % of

1979-81 = 100 Requirements

Annual

Deforestation

% 1981-90

South Asia

1980-90

Total 30 84 114 103 0.8

Afghanistan 171 0.9 1.6 0.2 19 35 71 76

Bangladesh 146 2.0 3.1 0.9 34 69 96 94 3.3

Bhutan 162 0.3 0.5 0.2 85 0.6

India 135 2.4 3.5 1.2 30 90 119 105 0.6

Nepal 149 2.1 3.2 1.0 26 73 127 103 1.0

Pakistan 132 1.9 2.9 0.7 30 81 106 101 2.9

Sri Lanka 90 7.2 8.0 6.3 22 88 90 99 1.3


Burma (Myanmar) 130 2.5 3.0 2.1 13 74 100 116 1.2

Cambodia 147 2.0 2.3 1.7 37 141 96 1.0

China 94 5.0 6.3 3.8 6 94 138 112

Fiji 59 5.1 5.6 4.6 18 96 108

Hong Kong 24 7.2 8.8 5.5 4 79 .. 129

Indonesia 105 4.1 5.3 3.1 8 92 135 122 1.0

Korea, N. 101 6.0 7.4 4.6 96 104 123

Korea, S. 32 9.3 11.6 7.1 4 83 95 123

Laos 133 2.9 3.6 2.1 13 36 111 111 0.9

Malaysia 57 5.6 5.9 5.2 9 90 159 124 1.8

Mongolia 102 1.2 7.4 7.0 5 85 78 97

Papua New Guinea 129 1.0 1.3 0.7 23 76 116 0.3

Philippines 99 7.6 8.0 7.2 15 92 88 108 2.9

Singapore 43 4.0 4.8 3.2 7 90 144 0.0

Solomon Islands 126 1.0 1.2 0.8 20 77 .. 84

Thailand 54 3.9 4.4 3.4 10 86 106 100 2.9

Vietnam 116 4.9 6.2 3.6 17 90 124 102 1.4


Total 11 81 110 114

Argentina 37 9.2 9.0 9.5 6 87 95 130

Bolivia 113 4.0 5.0 3.0 9 82 124 83 1.1

Brazil 63 4.0 4.1 3.9 15 78 132 114 0.6

Chile 38 7.8 8.1 7.4 7 93 117 104

Colombia 50 7.5 7.3 7.7 17 80 111 104 0.6

Costa Rica 39 5.7 5.8 5.6 7 89 92 120 2.6

Cuba 89 8.0 7.9 8.1 7 95 96 137 0.9

Dominican Republic 96 4.3 4.6 4.0 14 59 95 100 2.5

Ecuador 74 5.6 5.8 5.3 10 83 115 106 1.7

El Salvador 112 4.2 4.4 4.0 8 66 100 102 2.1

Guatemala 108 4.1 4.4 3.8 10 62 88 101 1.6

Guyana 107 5.1 5.4 4.9 12 82 65 108 0.1

Haiti 137 1.7 2.0 1.3 15 30 84 94 3.9

Honduras 115 4.0 4.1 3.8 9 92 92 91 1.9

Jamaica 65 5.3 5.3 5.2 11 77 96 115 5.3

Mexico 52 4.9 5.0 4.8 5 92 96 132 1.2

.1 1 E Hunger 1995 110it


Development

Rank 1994

Mean years

of schooling

age 25+

Tota11992

Mean years

of schooling

Male 1992

Mean years

of schooling

Female 1992

% Infants

with low

birthweight

1985-90

% 1year-olds

Immunized

1992

Food

Production

per capita

Index 1991

1979-81 = 100

Daily

Calorie

supply

% of

Requirements

1980-90

Annual

Deforestation

% 1981.90

Nicaragua 106 4.5 4.3 4.7 8 78 61 100 1.7

Panama 47 6.8 6.6 7.0 8 84 88 100 1.7

Paraguay 84 4.9 5.2 4.6 5 89 114 115 2.4

Peru 95 6.5 7.3 5.8 9 81 92 89 0.4

Suriname 85 4.2 4.3 4.0 12 77 0.1

Trinidad & Tobago 35 8.4 8.4 8.5 13 85 120 1.9

Uruguay 33 8.1 7.7 8.6 8 95 109 96

Venezuela 46 6.5 6.6 6.4 10 70 102 100 1.2

Middle East and North Africa

Algeria 109 2.8 4.8 0.9 9 89 107 118

Bahrain 58 4.3 5.2 3.6 4 92

Cyprus 26 7.0 7.6 6.5 5 85 100 0.1

Egypt 110 3.0 4.2 1.7 12 90 114 133

Iran 86 3.9 4.6 3.1 12 97 116 134

Iraq 100 5.0 5.9 4.0 15 82 68 133

Jordan 98 5.0 6.0 4.0 10 95 89 111

Kuwait 51 5.5 6.1 4.8 7 92 .. 130

Lebanon 103 4.4 5.3 3.5 10 74 136 129

Libya 79 3.5 5.7 1.4 5 69 80 140

Morocco 111 3.0 4.4 1.6 9 87 140 131

Oman 92 0.9 1.4 0.3 8 97

Qatar 56 5.8 6.0 5.6 6 90

Saudi Arabia 67 3.9 6.3 1.6 7 90 120

Syria 73 4.2 5.2 3.1 8 89 77 126

Tunisia 81 2.1 3.1 1.2 7 89 113 137

Turkey 68 3.6 4.9 2.4 8 72 99 124 0.0

United Arab Emirates 62 5.6 5.6 5.7 6 89 151

Yemen 142 0.9 1.5 0.2 10 50 67 93

Industrial CountriesAlbania 76 6.2 7.2 5.2 7x 87x 107 0.0

Australia 7 12.0 12.1 11.9 6x 86x 124 0.0

Austria 12 11.4 12.0 10.8 6x 60x 133 0.4

Belgium 13 11.2 11.2 11.2 6x 75x 149 0.3

Bulgaria 48 7.0 7.6 6.4 6x 97x 148 0.2

Canada 1 12.2 12.4 12.0 6x 85x 122

Czech Republic 27 9.2 9.8 8.6 97x

Denmark 15 11.0 11.1 10.9 6x 86x 135 0.2

Finland 16 10.9 11.0 10.8 4x 97x 113 0.0

Former Soviet Union

Armenia 53 5.0 ..

Azerbaijan 71 5.0 50x

Belarus 40 7.0 94x 0.5

Estonia 29 9.0 75x

Georgia 66 5.0 58x

Kazakhstan 61 5.0 90x

111 Causes o116


Development

Rank 1994

Mean years

of schoohng

age 25+

Total 1992

Mean years

of sdloormg

Male 1992

Mean years

of schoatmg

Female 1992

% Infants

with low

birthweight

1985-90

% 1-year-olds

Immunized

1992

Food Daily

Production Calorie

per capita Supply as

Index 1991 % of

1979-81 =100 Requirements

1980-90

Annual

Deforestation

% 1981-90

Kyrgyzstan 82 5.0 94x

Latvia 30 9.0 95x

Lithuania 28 9.0 89x

Moldova 75 6.0 92x

Russian Federation 34 9.0 83x 0.2*

Tajikistan 97 5.0

Turkmenistann 80 5.0 76x

Ukraine 45 6.0 90x 0.3

Uzbekistan 91 5.0 84x

France 6 12.0 11.9 12.1 5x 71x 143 0.1

Germany 11 11.6 12.2 11.1 .. 80x .. 0.5

Greece 25 7.0 7.4 6.6 6x 76x 151 0.0

Hungary 31 9.8 9.7 9.9 9x 100x 137 0.5

Ireland 21 8.9 8.8 9.0 4x 78x 157 1.3

Israel 19 10.2 11.1 9.2 7x 88x 125

Italy 22 7.5 7.6 7.5 5x 50x 139

Japan 3 10.8 10.9 10.7 6x 66x 125 0.0

Netherlands 9 11.1 10.9 11.4 94x 114 0.3

New Zealand 18 10.7 10.5 10.9 6x 82x 131

Norway 5 12.1 12.2 11.9 4x 90x 120

Poland 49 8.2 8.5 7.8 94x 131 0.1

Portugal 42 6.4 7.3 5.6 5x 96x 136 0.5

Romania 72 7.1 7.5 6.7 7x 92x 116 0.0

Spain 23 6.9 7.1 6.6 4x 97x 141 0.0

Sweden 4 11.4 11.4 11.4 5x 95x 111

Switzerland 2 11.6 12.0 11.2 5x 83x 130 0.6

USA 8 12.4 12.3 12.5 7x 77x 138 0.1

United Kingdom 10 11.7 11.6 11.8 7x 89x 130 1.1

Yugoslavia (former) 76x 140 0.4

World 5.2

Notes

x Years outside range specified.

USSR (former).

For definition of Human Development Index, see p. 51.

No data available for Eritrea.

11 7BEST COPY AV/Winger 1995 112

Table 3: Global Economic IndicatorsGNP GNP Real GDP Military Total Debt Debt Servicing Food as Food as Per Capita Food as %

per Capita per Capita per Capita Expenditure SUS billions as % of % of % of Energy of Household

U.S. dollars Real Growth (PPP SI as %of 1992 Exports Exports Imports Consumption Consumption

1992 rate 1%)

1985.92

1991 education &

health expenditure

1992 1992 1992 (kg. of oil equiv.) 1980-85

1992

1990-91


Total 530 -0.8* 43 194.3 .. 258

Angola b 1,000 208 9.6 7 .. 13.5

Benin 410 -1.5 1,500 1.4 4 9.6 11.9 19 37

Botswana 2,790 8.1 4,690 22 0.6 3.6 4.6 395 25

Burkina Faso 290 0.9 666 30 1.1 9.4 13.0 16

Burundi 210 1.0 640 42 1.0 40 .. 9.0 24

Cameroon 820 -6.7 2,400 48 6.6 16 9.0 15.1 77 24

Cape Verde 850 1.8 1,360 0.2 17.5 33.0

Central African Republic 410 -2.4 641 33 1.0 10 13.8 25.4 29

Chad 220 1.3 447 74 1.0 6 18.2 4.3 16

Comoros 510 -2.3 700 0.2 6 11.3 31.8

Congo 1,030 -3.0 2,800 37 4.8 11 0.8 22.3 131 37

Cote &Noire 670 -5.7 1,510 14 18.0 31 39.9 18.2 125 39

Djibouti b .. 1,000 0.2 4 37.1 32.5

Eqatorial Guinea 330 -0.3 700 0.3 5 8.3 19.6

Ethiopia 110 -2.0 370 190 44 14 7.2 61.9 21 49

Gabon 4,450 -2.1 3,498 51 3.8 17 2.2 11.2 784

Gambia 390 1.8 763 11 0.4 13 11.5 36.8

Ghana 450 1.2 930 12 4.3 27 30.2 40.5 96 50

Guinea 510 0.8 500 37 2.7 12 2.9 22.0 67

Guinea-Bissau 210 0.4 747 0.6 92 56.9 34.9 37

Kenya 330 0:6 1,350 24 6.4 25 10.4 12.1 92 38

Lesotho 590 0.8 1,500 48 0.5 6 8.7 18.4

Liberia a 850 47 2.0 0.9 55.9 .. ..

Madagascar 230 -1.7 710 37 4.4 21 30.3 13.9 38 59

Malawi 210 -0.3 800 24 1.7 24 8.1 14.7 40 30

Mali 300 -1.9 480 53 2.6 26.8 12.2 22 57

Mauritania 530 -0.1 962 40 2.3 9.6 60.9 108

Mauritius 2,700 6.3 7,178 4 1.1 8 29.8 11.1 385 24

Mozambique 60 -1.3 921 121 4.9 9 32

Namibia 1,610 1.1 2,381 23 9.6 8.3

Niger 300 -1.5 542 11 1.7 14 12.8 14.8 39 ..

Nigeria 320 34 1,360 33 31.0 31 1.1 10.0 128 48

Rwanda 250 -2.8 680 25 1.0 0.4 12.6 28 29

Senegal 780 0.3 1,680 33 3.6 13 12.9 2.6 111 49

Sierra Leone 170 0.0 1,020 23 1.3 3.0 65.8 73 56

Somalia a 0.0 759 200 2.5 2.3 27.7 7

South Africa 2,670 -1.3 3,885 41 5.0 6.7 2,487 34

Sudan a 1,162 44 16.2 5 37.7 20.8 69 60

Swaziland 1,080 6.4 2,506 11 0.2 47.1 9.8

Tanzania 110 1.4 570 77 6.7 32 1.0 8.2 30 64

Togo 400 -1.5 738 39 1.4 7 8.2 13.2 46

Uganda 170 1.8 1,036 18 3.0 41 10.2 4.2 24

Zaire a 469 71 10.9 0.5 21.0

113 Causes of Hunger11E

Table 3, continued: Global Economic IndicatorsGNP

Per Capita

U.S. dollars

1992

GNP

per Capita

Real Growth

rate (%)

1985-92

Real GDP

Per Capita

(PPP SI

1991

Military

Expenditure

as % of

education 8

health expenditure

1990-91

Total Debt

US hews

1992

Debt SerWdng

as % of

Exports

1992

Food as

% of

Exports

1992

Food as

% of

Imports

1992

Per Capita

Energy

Consumption

(kg. of oil equiv.)

Food as %

of Household

Consumption

1980-85

1992

Zambia 290 -2.1 1,010 63 7.0 29 2.6 10.6 158 36

Zimbabwe 570 -0.6 2,160 66 4.0 32 4.1 15.2 450 40

South Asia

Total 310 3.0* .. 127.9 20.7 .. .. 209

Afghanistan a 700 21.3 13.9

Bangladesh 220 1.7 1,160 41 13.2 17 0.3 16.2 59 59

Bhutan 180 5.2 620 .. 0.8 .. 3.9 9.7 15

India 310 3.3 1,150 65 77.0 26 6.8 5.5 235 52

Nepal 170 2.1 1,130 35 1.8 12 18.9 8.6 20 57

Pakistan 410 1.7 1,970 125 24.1 23 8.5 10.3 223 37

Sri Lanka 540 2.2 2,650 107 6.4 13 4.8 11.3 101 43


Total 760 6.1* 320.2 593

Burma (Myanmar) a 650 222 5.3 34.8 14.9 42

Cambodia 1,250 .. 2.2 12.8

China 380 6.0 2,946 114 69.3 10 7.6 3.6 600 61

Fiji 2,010 2.6 4,858 37 0.3 9 23.2 12.9

Hong Kong 15,380 5.6 18,520 10 0.7 3.4 1,946 12

Indonesia 670 4.7 2,730 49 84.4 32 4.0 5.4 303 48

Korea, N. b 1,750 12.7 11.5 ..

Korea, S. 6,790 8.5 8,320 60 43.0 7 0.9 4.5 2,569 35

Laos 250 1.8 1,760 2.0 .. 13.1 7.1 41

Malaysia 2,790 5.7 7,400 38 19.8 7 6.4 6.1 1,445 23

Mongolia b 2,250 0.4 17 10.4 9.1 1,082

Papua New Guinea 950 -0.1 1,550 41 3.7 30 9.8 12.2 235

Philippines 770 1.9 2,440 41 32.5 28 11.9 5.6 302 51

Solomon Islands 710 2.7 2,113 0.1 23.9 14.0 ..

Singapore 15,750 5.9 14,734 129 2.5 3.9 4,399 19

Thailand 1,840 8.3 5,270 71 39.4 12.3 1.8 614 30

Vietnam a 1,250 16.2 4.7

Latin America and the Carribean

Total 2,690 -0.2* 496.2 923

Argentina 6,050 0.5 5,120 51 67.6 35 42.4 4.3 1,351 35

Bolivia 680 1.0 2,170 57 4.2 39 8.9 10.4 255 33

Brazil 2,770 -0.7 5,240 23 121.1 24 13.3 8.7 681 35

Chile 2,730 6.1 7,060 68 19.4 21 14.8 4.7 837 29

Colombia 1,290 2.4 5,460 57 17.2 35 9.6 7.3 670 29

Costa Rica 2,000 2.6 5,100 5 4.0 21 41.9 7.2 566 33

Cuba 2,000 125 85.9 20.1 .Dominican Republic 1,040 0.3 3,080 22 4.7 13 43.4 12.9 347 46

Ecuador 1,070 0.6 4,140 26 12.3 27 26.0 6.9 524 30

El Salvador 1,170 0.9 2,110 66 2.1 13 12.1 8.9 225 33

Guatemala 980 0.6 3,180 31 2.8 28 34.1 7.0 161 36

Guyana 330 -5.4 1,862 21 1.9 .. 57.5 8.9

1 1E Hunger 1995 114


per NthU.S. dollars

1992

GNP

per Capita

Red Growth

rate MI

1985-92

Red GDP

Per CaPilo

(PPP 51

1991

Mirdary

Expenditure

as % of

education &

heahh expenditure

1990-91

Total Debt

SUS Mons

1992

Debi Servicing

as % of

Exports

1992

Food as

% of

Extorts

1992

Food as

% of

Imports

1992

Per Capita

Energy

Consumption

(kg. of o8 equiv.)

Food as %

of Household

Consumption

1980-85

1992

Haiti .. -2.9 925 30 0.8 .. 10.8 80.5 .. ..

Honduras 580 0.5 1,820 92 3.6 35 28.7 6.8 175 39Jamaica 1,340 2.9 3,670 8 4.3 25 17.2 12.9 1,075 36Mexico 3,470 1.1 7,170 5 113.4 44 7.6 9.8 1,525 35Nicaragua 410 -7.8 2,550 97 11.1 26 39.3 19.8 253 ..

Panama 2,440 -1.2 4,910 34 6.5 31 32.4 8.5 520 38Paraguay 1,340 1.0 3,420 42 1.8 41 33.8 4.6 209 30Peru 950 -4.3 3,110 39 20.3 23 3.6 13.1 330 35Suriname 3,700 -3.2 3,072 27 .. .. 9.6 10.0 .. ..

Trinidad 8, Tobago 3,940 -3.0 8,380 9 2.3 25 4.1 15.2 4,910 19

Uruguay 3,340 2.9 6,670 38 5.3 22 31.5 6.1 642 31

Venezuela 2,900 1.1 8,120 33 37.2 20 1.0 8.4 2,296 23

Middle East and North AfricaTotal 1,950 -2.3* 189.0 1,109Algeria 1,830 -2.0 2,870 11 26.4 72 0.3 26.0 988Bahrain .. -1.7 11,536 41 0.1 5.5

Cyprus 9,820 5.1 9,844 17 14.1 6.5Egypt 630 0.8 3,600 52 40.0 15 9.8 24.6 586 49Iran 2,190 -1.4 4,670 38 14.2 4 2.3 8.2 1,256 37Iraq b 3,500 271 1.9 51.4Jordan 1,120 -7.0 2,895 138 8.0 20 12.8 19.4 813 35Kuwait d 13,126 88 7.3Lebanon b 2,500 .. 1.8 7 23.0 14.1

Libya c .. 7,000 71 .. 10.6 ..

Morocco 1,040 1.3 3,340 72 21.3 12.8 11.0 278 38Oman 6,490 1.0 9,230 293 2.9 0.9 11.1 3,070Qatar 16,240 -6.9 14,000 192 0.4 15.3 ..

Saudi Arabia 7,940 1.3 10,850 151 .. 1.0 12.7 4,463Syria .. 0.0 5,220 373 16.5 12.2 17.1 823Tunisia 1,740 2.1 4,690 31 8.5 20 7.1 6.2 567 37Turkey 1,950 2.7 4,840 87 54.8 32 19.8 3.3 948 40United Arab Emirates 22,220 0.0 17,000 44 2.0 8.4 14,631

Yemen 1,374 197 6.6 3.8 37.4 241

Industrial CountriesAlbania b .. 3,500 51 0.6 2 20.1 30.6 ..

Australia 17,070 0.7 16,680 24 2.5 3.7 5,263 13Austria 22,110 2.4 17,690 9 2.5 3.7 3,266 16Belgium 20,880 2.8 17,510 20 5,100 15Bulgaria 1,330 -3.6 4,813 29 12.2 7 10.3 0.4 2,422Canada 20,320 0.3 19,320 15 6.5 4.6 7,912 11

Czech Republic 2,440 -5.3 3,873Denmark 25,930 1.2 17,880 18 18.2 5.7 3,729 13

Finland 22,980 0.7 16,130 15 2.0 4.1 5,560 16

Former Soviet Union

Armenia 780 -8.2 4,610 0.0 0.3 25.0 1,092



per Capita

U.S. dollars

1992

GNP

per Capita

Real Growth

rate ( %)

1985.92

Real GDP

per Capita

(PPP 5)

1991

Military

Expenditure

os % of

education

health expenditure

1990.91

Total Debt

US bffions

1992

Debt Servicing

os % of

Exports

1992

Food as

% of

[Wit1992

Food as

% of

Imports

1992

Per Capita

Energy

Consumption

(kg. of o0 equiv.)

Food os %

of Household

Consumption

1980-85

1992

Azerbaijan 870 3,670 0.1 34.0

Belarus 2,910 6,850 0.2 4,154

Estonia 2,750 3.0 8,090 0.1 4.6

Georgia 850 3,670 0.1

Kazakhstan 1,680 4,490 0.0 53.7 24.9 4,722

Kyrgyzstan 810 2.3 3,280 0.0 1,148

Latvia 1,930 -3.6 7,540 0.1

Lithuania 1,310 -2.7 5,410 0.0

Moldova 1,260 -2.9 3,500 0.0 9.9 28.1 1,600

Russian Federation 2,680 6,930 132 0.3 14.2 5,665

Talikistan 480 2,180 0.0 0.7 97.5

Turkmenistan 1,270 3,540

Ukraine 1,670 5,180 0.4 17.5 11.9 3,885

Uzbekistan 860 2,790 0.0 77.2

France 22,300 2.2 18,430 29 10.3 6.7 4,034 16

Germany 23,030 2.2 19,770 29 3.9 7.7 4,358 12

Greece 7,180 1.1 7,680 71 24.9 1.1 2,173 30

Hungary 3,010 -1.5 6,080 18 21.9 36 17.5 2.4 2,392 25

Ireland 12,100 5.0 11,430 12 20.7 7.9 2,881 22

Israel 13,230 2.3 13,460 106 6.5 5.3 2,367 21

Italy 20,510 2.3 17,040 21 5.5 9.1 2,755 19

Japan 28,220 4.0 19,390 12 0.2 8.8 3,586 17

Netherlands 20,590 2.1 16,820 22 16.0 9.4 4,560 13

New Zealand 12,060 -0.4 13,970 16 39.5 5.4 4,284 12

Norway 25,800 0.2 17,170 22 0.7 4.0 4,925 15

Poland 1,960 -1.9 4,500 30 48.5 9 6.8 8.8 2,407 29

Portugal 7,450 5.5 9,450 32 32.1 2.6 7.3 1,816 34

Romania 1,090 -5.5 3,500 25 3.5 11 7.3 11.5 1,958

Slovakia 1,920 -7.0 12,670 3,202

Spain 14,020 3.8 12,670 18 12.0 6.4 2,409 24

Sweden 26,780 0.4 17,490 16 1.4 4.6 5,395 13

Switzerland 36,230 1.1 21,780 14 12.6 4.2 3,694 17

United Kingdom 17,760 1.5 16,340 40 4.0 7.8 3,743 12

USA 23,120 1.1 22,130 46 7.1 3.2 7,662 10

Yugoslavia (former) b .. 16.3 2,296 21

World 5,490 37 1,447

Notes

a GNP per capita estimated to be low-income (8675 or less).

b GNP per capita estimated to be lower-middle-income (5676-S2,695).

c GNP per capita estimated to be upper-middle-income (S2,696-88,355).

d GNP per capita estimated to be high-income (88,356 or more).

x Years outside of range specified.

Data for Eritrea, not yet disaggregoted, are included in Ethiopia.

Data for 1980-92.

Negligible amount.

121n.

Hunger 1995 116

Table 4: Poverty and Hunger Statistics - Developing Countries

Africa (sub-Saharan)

% drildren

<5 suffering

from

underweight

1990

% Severe

underweight

under 5

1980-92

% Wasting

12.23 months

moderate

and severe

1980-92

% Stunting

24-59 months

moderate

and severe

1980-92

% of

population

with access

to health

services

1985-92

% of

population

with access

to safe water

1988-91

total

If of

population

with access

to safe water

1988-91

when

% of

population

with access

to safe water

1988-91

rural

aduh

kerary

rate 1990

total

(%)

aduh

Dietary

rate 1990

male

(%1

adult

Gemrate 1990

female

(%1

Total 26.0 9 12 49 56 43 75 35 51 63 40Angola 35.3 30x 41 71 20 43 57 29Benin 23.5 18 51 66 46 25 35 17Botswana 26.8 89x 90 100 88 75 85 66Burkina Faso 27.1 49x 68 44 72 20 31 10Burundi 29.1 10x 10 60x 80 57 99 54 52 63 42Cameroon 16.7 3x 2 51x 41 48 100 27 57 70 45(ape Verde 18.8x .. .. .. .. 67

Central African Republic 31.9 45 24 19 26 40 55 26Chad 30.6 30 57 25 70 33 46 20Comoros

Congo 27.5 13 33 83 38 92 2 59 72 45Cote &Noire 12.3 2 17 20 30x 76 70 81 56 69 41

Djibouti .Equatorial Guinea 52 66 38Ethiopia 39.8 16x 12x 63x 46 25 91 19

Gabon 15.1 90x 68 90 50 62 76 50Gambia 17.1 27 30 43 18Ghana 26.7 6 15 39 60 52 93 35 63 74 54Guinea 24.0 75 53 87 56 27 39 15Guinea-Bissau 23.4x .. 41 56 35 39 53 25Kenya 17.4 3x 5x 32x 77 49 74 43 71 82 60Lesotho 17.5 2 7 23 80 47 59 45Liberia 20.1 .. .. 39 50 93 22 42 53 31

Madagascar 38.1 8x 17 56x 65 23 55 9 81 90 74Malawi 23.5 8 11 62 80 56x 97x 50xMali 21.6 9x 16 34x 35 41 53 38 36 46 27Mauritania 15.7 18 65 45 66 67 65 35 48 22Mauritius 17.0 16x 22x 100 96 100 92 80 85 75Mozambique 46.8 39 22 44 17 34 46 21

Namibia 29.0 6 13 29 72 52 98 35Niger 44.0 .. 23x 38x 41 53 98 45 31 44 18Nigeria 35.4 12 16 54 66 36 81 30 52 63 41

Rwanda 31.7 6x 9x 58x 80 66 75 62 52 67 39Senegal 19.6 2 8 30 40 48 84 26 40 55 26Sierra Leone 25.9 18 39 38 37 33 37 24 35 12Somalia 38.8 80 27x 37 50 27 41 16South Africa 43.0

Sudan 33.7 7x 13x 32x 51 48 55 43 28 45 13Swaziland 8.8

Tanzania 24.2 7 10 58 76x 49 65 45

Togo 18.4 6x 10 37x 61 60 77 53 45 59 33Uganda 25.5 5x 4x 51x 61x 33 60 30 51 65 37Zaire 33.2 26 39 68 24 74 86 63Zambia 26.0 6 10 47 75x 53 70 28 75 83 67Zimbabwe 14.1 2 2 31 85 84 95 80 69 76 61


Table 4, continued: Poverty and Hunger Statistics - Developing Countries

South Asia

% children

<5 suffering

ham

underweight

1990

% Severe

underweight

under 5

1980-92

% Wasting

12-23 months

moderate

and severe

1980-92

% Stunting

24-59 months

moderate

and severe

1980-92

% of

population

with access

to health

services

1985-92

% of

population

with access

to safe water

1988-91

total

% of

population

with access

to safe water

1988-91

urban

% of

population

with access

to safe water

1988-91

rural

adult

literary

rate 1990

total

( %)

adult

literary

rate 1990

male

1%)

adult

literary

rate 1990

female

( %)

Total 62.0 25 19 64 52 80 85 78 48 .Afghanistan 40.3 29 23 40 19 32 48 15

Bangladesh 65.8 27 28 65 45 84 82 81 37 49 23

Bhutan .. .. 4x 56x 65 34 60 30 41 55 26

India 63.1 27x 65x 85 87 85 50 64 35

Nepal 50.5 42 67 39 27 39 14

Pakistan 41.6 14 11 60 55 56 80 45 36 49 22

Sri Lanka 42.0 2x 21x 39x 93x 60 80 55 89 94 85


Total 26.0 87 68 83 63

Burma (Myanmar) 33.0 9x 48 32 37 .. 82 90 72

Cambodia 37.7 53 36 65 33 38 52 24

China 21.0 3x 8x 41x 90 72 87 68 80 92 68

Fiji

Hong Kong .. 99x 100 100 96

Indonesia 38.0 80 51 68 43 84 91 77

Korea,N. 0

Korea,S. 100 97 97 96 97 99 95

Laos 34.0 20 44 67 36 54 33

Malaysia 17.6 78 96 66 80 89 72

Mongolia 2x 29x 95 80 100 58

Papua New Guinea 36.0 96 33 94 20 65 82 48

Philippines 33.5 5 14 45 75 82 85 79 90 90 90

Singapore 100 100 100

Solomon Islands ..

Thailand 13.0 4x 10 28x 90 77 87 72 94 96 92

Vietnam 41.9 14 12x 49x 91 24 39 21 89 93 84


Total 12.0 2 4 23 74 78 87 55 89

Argentina 1.2 .. .. 71 65 73 17 96 97 96

Bolivia 11.4 3x 2 51x 63 52 77 27 79 86 72

Brazil 7.1 1 3 16 87 95 61 82 84 81

Chile 2.0 Ox 1 10x 97 86 100 94 95 94

Colombia 10.1 2x 5 18x 60 86 87 82 87 88 86

Costa Rica 8.1 3 8 80x 93 100 86 93 93 93

Cuba 8.4 1x 98 98 100 91 95 96 94

Dominican Republic 12.0 2 1 22 80 67 82 45 84 86 83

Ecuador 13.0 0 4 39 88 55 63 43 87 89 85

El Salvador 19.4 3 36 56 47 85 19 75 80 70

Guatemala 25.0 8x 3 68x 34 62 92 43 56 65 48

Guyana 18.0 97 99 96

Haiti 24.4 3x 17x 51x 50 39 55 33 55 61 49

Honduras 19.8 4 2x 34x 66 77 98 63 75 78 73

Jamaica 7.2 1 6 7 90 100 100 100 99 99 99

1.2 3

LEST COPY AVAILABLE

Hunger 1995 118

Table 4, continued: Poverty and Hunger Statistics Developing Countries% children

<5 suffering

from

underweight

1990

% Severe

underweight

under 5

1980-92

% Wasiing

12-23 months

moderate

and severe

1980-92

% Stunting

24.59 months

moderate

and severe

1980-92

% of

population

with access

to heahh

services

1985-92

% of

population

with access

to safe water

1988-91

total

% of

population

with access

to safe water

1988-91

urban

% of

population

with access

to safe water

1988-91

rural

adult

literacy

rate 1990

total

aduh

literary

rate 1990

male

(%)

adult

literacy

rate 1990

female

(%)

Mexico 13.9 6x 22x 78 76 81 68 89 91 86Nicaragua 18.7 11 0 22 83 54 76 21 ..

Panama 11.0 7 24 80x 83 100 66 90 90 90Paraguay 4.2 1 0 17 61 35 50 24 91 93 89Peru 13.1 2 3 46 75x 56 77 10 86 93 80Suriname .. .. 96 96 96

Trinidad & Tobago 9.0 Ox 5 4x 99 97 99 91 .. ..

Uruguay 7.0 2x 16x 82 75 85 5 97 98 97Venezuela 5.9 4 7 89 89 89 89 88 91

Middle East and North AfricaTotal 14.0 8 31 78 77 94 61

Algeria 12.3 7 18 88 68x 85x 55x 61 74 49Bahrain 79 84 71

Cyprus 7.5

Egypt 10.0 3 4 32 90 95 86 50 66 35Iran 39.0 80 89 100 75 56 67 45Iraq 11.9 2 .. 93 77 93 41 62 73 51

Jordan 12.7 1 3 21 97 99 100 97 82 91 72Kuwait 5.0 2 14 100 .. 100 .. 74 78 68Lebanon 8.9 95 92 95 85 81 89 74Libya 4.0 .. 97 100 80 66 78 52Morocco 12.0 4x x 34x 70 56 100 18 52 64 40Oman 5 11 22 95 84 91 77

Qatar

Saudi Arabia 12.6 97 95 100 74 64 76 50Syria 12.5 83 74 90 58 67 82 53Tunisia 8.9 2x 4 23x 90x 99 100 99 68 77 59Turkey 10.5 .. 78x 95x 63x 82 91 72United Arab Emirates 7.0 99 95

Yemen 19.1 4 17 49 38 36 61 30 41 56 28

Notes

x Years outside range specified.

No data available for Eritrea.

119 Causes of Flungei`s,

_124

Table 5: United States Poverty Trends1970 1980 1982 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992

Population in millions 205.1 227.8 232.5 237.0 239.3 241.6 243.9 246.3 248.3 248.7 252.2 255.1

Total poverty rate 12.6 13.0 15.0 14.4 14.0 13.6 13.4 13.1 12.8 13.5 14.2 14.5

White poverty rate 9.9 10.2 12.0 11.5 11.4 11.0 10.4 10.1 10.0 10.7 11.3 11.6

Black poverty rate 33.5 32.5 35.6 33.8 31.1 31.1 32.6 31.6 30.7 31.9 32.7 33.3

Hispanic poverty rate 25.7 29.9 28.4 29.0 27.3 28.1 26.8 26.2 28.1 28.7 29.3

Elderly poverty rote 24.6 15.7 14.6 12.4 12.6 12.4 12.5 12.0 11.4 12.2 12.4 12.9

Total child poverty rate 15.1 18.3 21.9 21.5 20.7 20.5 20.5 19.7 19.6 20.6 21.1 21.9

White child poverty rate 13.9 17.0 16.7 16.2 16.1 15.4 14.6 14.8 15.9 16.1 16.9

Black child poverty rate 42.3 47.6 46.6 43.6 43.1 45.6 44.2 43.7 44.8 45.6 46.6

Hispanic child poverty rate 33.2 39.5 39.2 40.3 37.7 39.6 37.9 36.2 38.4 39.8 39.9

Poverty rate of people in

female-headed households 38.1 36.7 40.6 38.4 37.6 38.3 38.3 37.2 32.2 33.4 39.7 38.5

Percent of federal budget

spent on food assistance 0.5 2.4 2.1 2.1 2.0 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 2.0 2.3

Total infant mortality rate 20.0 12.6 11.5 10.8 10.6 10.4 10.1 10.0 9.7 9.1 8.9 8.5

White infant mortality rate 17.8 11.0 10.1 9.4 9.3 8.9 8.6 8.5 8.5 7.7 7.3

Black infant mortality rate 32.6 21.4 19.6 18.4 18.2 18.0 17.9 17.6 17.6 17.0 17.6

Unemployment rate 4.9 7.1 9.7 7.5 7.2 7.0 6.2 5.5 5.3 5.5 6.7 7.4

Household income distribution (per quintile in percentages)

Lowest 5.0 4.5 4.4 4.4 4.3 4.3 4.4 3.8 3.9 3.8 3.8

Second 11.6 11.0 10.7 10.8 10.8 10.6 10.7 9.5 9.6 9.6 9.4

Middle 17.3 16.9 16.7 16.7 16.7 16.6 16.7 15.8 15.9 15.9 15.8

Fourth 24.5 24.2 24.1 24.1 24.2 24.1 24.2 24 24 24.2 24.2

Highest 41.5 43.5 44.2 44.1 44.2 44.4 44.1 46.8 46.6 46.5 46.9

Table 6: United States - State Poverty ConditionsPopulations

in millions

July 1993

% Population

in Poverty

1992

Unemployment

Rate Apnl

1994"

Alabama 4.19 17.1 5.8

Alaska .60 10.0 8.3

Arizona 3.94 15.1 5.6

Arkansas 2.42 17.4 5.1

California 31.21 15.8 9.6

Colorado 3.57 10.6 5.4

Connecticut 3.28 9.4 4.9

Delaware .70 7.6 5.5

District of Columbia .58 20.3 7.3

Florida 13.68 15.3 7.4

Georgia 6.92 17.8 5.6

Hawaii 1.17 11.0 5.6

Idaho 1.10 15.0 4.7

Illinois 11.70 15.3 5.5

Indiana 5.71 11.7 4.9

AFDC and

Food Stamp

Benefits as

X of Poverty

Level, 4 person

Family, 1993

Infant

Mortality Rate

1993

% of Children

Under 12

Hungry, 1991

% of Population

all ages

Hungry, 1991

47.2 9.9 17.0 15.8

92.7 7.5 8.3 9.9

63.6 7.0 12.1 12.4

51.6 9.5 18A 14.5

82.7 6.7 13.1 13.2

64.4 7.5 9.9 8.7

85.5 7.5* 7.8 7.2

63.0 8.3 10.6 6.3

68.4 18.5 17.1 15.6

60.4 8.7 13.2 12.9

58.5 10.1 13.1 14.4

98.1 6.7 10.8 6.4

61.5 7.5 15.6 11.6

63.8 10.3 13.9 11.3

59.4 9.3 12.0 13.2

1 2 E BEST COPY AVAIL.blimger 1995 120

Table 6 continued: United States State Poverty ConditionsPopulations

in mean

July 1993

% Populatiest

in Possum

1992

Unemployment

Rate April

1994**

AFDC and

Food Stamp

Rene% as

% of Poverty

Level, 4 person

Family, 1993

Want

Mama* Rate

1993

% af children

Under 12

Hungry, 1991

% of Population

all apes

Hungry, 1991

Iowa 2.81 11.3 3.6 68.1 6.9 14.7 8.0

Kansas 2.53 11.0 5.9 70.1 8.2 10.5 10.3

Kentucky 3.79 19.7 4.9 54.8 8.8 14.3 15.8

Louisiana 4.30 24.2 8.4 50.5 9.8 15.9 15.9

Maine 1.24 13.4 6.4 72.5 6.6 11.2 11.8

Maryland 4.97 11.6 5.4 66.7 9.4 7.9 7.6

Massachusetts 6.01 10.0 6.1 75.9 5.6 9.3 9.2

Michigan 9.48 13.5 5.7 73.0 9.3 13.3 11.8

Minnesota 4.52 12.8 4.2 75.5 7.3 9.8 10.8

Mississippi 2.64 24.5 7.2 43.0 11.9 18.9 19.9

Missouri 5.23 15.6 5.0 59.2 8.5 12.7 12.4

Montana .84 13.7 5.2 67.4 7.9 14.7 12.9

Nebraska 1.61 10.3 3.1 64.6 8.8 13.2 8.0

Nevada 1.39 14.4 5.2 63.0 6.6 12.9 9.6

New Hampshire 1.13 8.6 4.6 72.8 4.8 5.8 6.1

New Jersey 7.88 10.0 7.2 68.4 8.0 10.0 8.1

New Mexico 1.62 21.0 5.1 64.3 9.3 17.2 18.8

New York 18.20 15.3 8.2 85.1 8.5 14.6 12.8

North Carolina 6.95 15.7 3.9 55.8 10.3 12.4 12.2

North Dakota .64 11.9 3.8 68.4 7.1 12.8 12.2

Ohio 11.09 12.4 6.3 64.2 8.8 11.7 11.2

Oklahoma 3.23 18.4 6.5 62.7 9.2 13.5 14.2

Oregon 3.03 11.3 5.9 75.2 6.7 11.3 11.3

Pennsylvania 12.05 11.7 6.6 69.2 8.7 12.3 9.2

Rhode Island 1.00 12.0 6.2 79.8 8.5 12.2 8.7

South Carolina 3.64 18.9 7.0 51.0 9.4 15.0 13.7

South Dakota .72 14.8 2.8 66.3 10.5 13.4 11.7

Tennessee 5.10 17.0 4.7 49.9 9.9 14.7 13.0

Texas 18.03 17.8 6.3 49.4 7.6 13.6 14.7

Utah 1.86 9.3 3.5 67.4 6.0 11.3 10.8

Vermont .58 10.4 4.0 82.5 4.9 10.0 10.6

Virginia 6.50 9.4 5.1 63.2 9.7* 9.7 8.3

Washington 5.26 11.0 5.9 79.3 6.9 10.7 8.0

West Virginia 1.82 22.3 8.9 57.1 9.3 18.3 15.0

Wisconsin 5.04 10.8 4.7 75.3 8.0 11.4 8.3

Wyoming .47 10.3 6.7 62.0 8.1 10.2 8.3

Notes

1991.

** Preliminary data


Sources for Tables

TABLE 1: Column 1 PopulationReference Bureau, Inc., WorldPopulation Data Sheet 1994(Washington: Population Refer-ence Bureau, 1994); hereafter"WPDS."

2 - Ibid.

3 UNICEF, The State of theWorld's Children 1994 (NewYork: Oxford University Press,1994); hereafter "SWC."

4 - United Nations DevelopmentProgram, Human DevelopmentReport 1994 (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1994); hereafter"HDR."

5 WPDS.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 SWC

10 - Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 - Ibid.

TABLE 2: Column 1 - HDR.

2 Ibid.

3 - Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 - For developing countries,Ibid. For industrial countries andthe newly independent states ofthe former Soviet Union, SWC(1990 data).

6 For developing countries,HDR. For industrial countriesand former Soviet Union(measles only), SWC (1990-1992data).

7 HDR.

8 - For developing countries,HDR. For industrial countriesand former Soviet Union, SWC

9 World Resources Institute,World Resources 1994-1995(New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1994).

TABLE 3: Column 1 - WorldBank, World Development Report1994 (New York: Oxford Uni-versity Press, 1994) (for regionalaggregate data) and The WorldBank Atlas 1994 (Washington:World Bank, 1994).

2 World Development Report1994.

3 - HDR.

4 - Ibid.

5 World Bank, World DebtTables 1993-94 (Washington:World Bank 1993).

6 Ibid.

7 Based on data provided bythe Food and Agriculture Orga-nization of the UN.

8 Based on FAO data.

9 - World Development Report1994.

10 SWC

TABLE 4: Column 1 - U.N. Ad-ministrative Committee on Coor-dination/Subcommittee on Nutri-tion, Second Report on the WorldNutrition Situation, Vol.II: Coun-try Trends, Methods, and Statis-tics (Geneva: ACC/SCN, 1993).

2 - SWC

3 - Ibid.

12 -;

4 Ibid.

5 - Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 HDR.

10 Ibid.

11 - Ibid.

TABLE 5: - Except as noted, datafrom U.S. Bureau of the Census.Percent of federal budget spenton food assistance from U.S.Department of Agriculture. Un-employment rate from U.S. De-partment of Labor. Infant mortal-ity data from National Center forHealth Statistics.

TABLE 6: Column 1 U.S. Bureauof the Census.

2 - U.S. Bureau of the Census.

3 - U.S. Department of Labor.

4 Kids Count Data Book 1994(Washington: Center for theStudy of Social Policy, 1994).

5 - National Center for HealthStatistics, Monthly Vital StatisticsReport 42:12 (May 1994).

6 Food Research and ActionCenter, Community ChildhoodHunger Identification Project(1991 data).

7 Center on Hunger, Poverty,and Nutrition Policy, Tufts Uni-versity (1991 data).

Hunger 1995 122

Abbreviations

ACC/SCN U.N. Administrative Committee on Coordination/ Subcommittee on Nutrition

AFDC Aid to Families with Dependent Children

AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

BFW Bread For The World

EU European Union

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N.

GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

HDI Human Development Index

IFAD U.N. International Fund for Agricultural Development

IFI International Financial Institution

NGO Nongovernmental Organization

OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

U.N. United Nations

UNDP U.N. Development Program

UNHCR U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees

UNICEF U.N. Children's Fund

U.S. United States

WIC Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children

123 Causes o 128

Anemia A condition inwhich the hemoglobin con-centration (the number ofred blood cells) is lower thannormal as a result of a defi-ciency of one or more essen-tial nutrients, such as iron, ordue to disease.

Apartheid The legally-enforced system of racialsegregation and discrimina-tion against blacks and oth-ers of colored descent inSouth Africa.

Caste An exclusive socialor occupational class orgroup; in Hinduism, distincthereditary social classes.

Child mortality rate Theannual number of deaths ofchildren between one andfive years of age per 1,000live births.

Cretinism Physical andmental retardation due toiodine deficiency.

Daily calorie requirementThe average number of

calories needed to sustainnormal levels of activity andhealth, taking into accountage, sex, body weight, andclimate; roughly 2,350 calo-ries per person per day.

Debt service The sum ofrepayments of principal andpayments of interest on debt.

Desertification Thechange of arable land into adesert, either from naturalcauses or human activity.

II I

Developing countriesCountries in which mostpeople have a low economicstandard of living. Alsoknown as the "Third World,"the "South," and the "lessdeveloped countries."

Ethnicity A system of cate-gorizing communities accord-ing to culture, custom, race,language, religion, and othersocial distinctions.

Fallow To leave landuncultivated for one or moreseasons.

Famine A situation ofextreme scarcity of food,potentially leading to wide-spread starvation.

Fertility rate The numberof children born by awoman during her lifetime, ameasure of long-term popu-lation changes.

Food security Assuredaccess for every person, pri-marily by production or pur-chase, to enough nutritiousfood to sustain productivehuman life.

Foreign exchangeCurrency acceptable for usein international trade, such asU.S. dollars. The value of onecurrency in terms of anotheris the exchange rate.

Goiter Enlargement of thethyroid gland (causing aswelling in the front of theneck) due to iodine defi-ciency.

Green revolution A termused to describe technologi-cal changes in agriculturalproduction methods sinceWorld War II. The technolo-gies rely on the use ofimproved seeds, known ashigh-yielding varieties, chem-ical fertilizers, and pesticides.

Gross domestic product(GDP) The value of allgoods and services producedwithin a nation during aspecified period, usually ayear.

Gross national product(GNP) The value of allgoods and services producedby a country's citizens, wher-ever they are located.

Hunger A condition inwhich people lack the basicfood intake to provide themwith the energy and nutri-ents for fully productive,active, and healthy lives.

Industrial countriesCountries in which mostpeople have a high econom-ic standard of living (thoughthere are often significantpoverty populations). Alsocalled "developed countries"or the "North."

Infant mortality rate (IMR)The annual number of

deaths of infants under oneyear of age per 1,000 livebirths.

Inflation An increase inoverall prices, which leads toa decrease in purchasingpower.

Informal sector or econo-my Small-scale manufac-ture and trade in goods andservices, generally not recog-nized in official plans, poli-cies, and statistics.

International MonetaryFund (IMF) An internation-al organization which makesloans to countries whichhave foreign exchange andmonetary problems. Theseloans are conditioned uponthe willingness of the bor-rowing country to adopt IMF-approved economic policies.

Low birthweight infantsBabies born weighing 2,500grams (five pounds, eightounces) or less, who areespecially vulnerable to ill-ness and death during thefirst month of life.

Malnutrition Failure toachieve nutrient require-ments, which can impairphysical and/or mentalhealth. Malnutrition mayresult from consuming toolittle food or a shortage orimbalance of key nutrients,e.g., micronutrient deficien-cies or excess consumptionof refined sugar and fat.

Micronutrients Vitamins,major minerals, and traceelements needed for ahealthy and balanced diet.

Morbidity The proportionof sickness or of a specificdisease in a geographiclocality.

12E BEST COPY AVAILAW2ger 1995 124

Patriarchy Systems ofsocial and cultural organiza-tion characterized by maledominance.

Poverty line An officialmeasure of poverty definedby national governments. Inthe United States, it is basedon ability to afford the U.S.Department of Agriculture's"Thrifty Food Plan," whichprovides a less-than-ade-quate diet.

Purchasing Power Parity(PPP) An estimate of theU.S. dollars required to pur-chase comparable goods indifferent countries.

Recession A period inwhich a country's GDPdeclines in two or more con-secutive three-month peri-ods; a period of reducedeconomic activity that is lesssevere than a full fledgedeconomic crisis ("depres-sion").


Sovereignty Supremeindependent political author-ity, generally residing innational governments.

Structural adjustment pro-gram (SAP) Economic pol-icy changes, often imposedupon an indebted country byits lenders as a condition forfuture loans, intended tostimulate economic growth.These generally involvereducing the role of govern-ment in the economy andincreasing exports.

Stunting Failure to growto normal height caused bychronic undemutrition dur-ing the formative years ofchildhood.

Sustainability Society'sability to shape its economicand social systems so as tomaintain both naturalresources and human life.

Underemployment Thesituation of not being fullyemployed year round.

Under five mortality rateThe annual number ofdeaths of children under fiveyears of age per 1,000 livebirths.

Undernutrition A form ofmild, chronic, or acute mal-nutrition which is character-ized by inadequate intake offood energy (measured bycalories), usually due to eat-ing too little. Stunting, wast-ing, and being underweightare common forms of under-nutrition.

Underweight A conditionin which a person is seriouslybelow normal weight forher/his age.

Unemployment The stateof being without work, usu-ally applied to those notworking involuntarily.

130

Uprooted people Peopledisplaced against their willfrom their communities andmeans of survival, includingrefugees who flee theirhomelands, people displacedwithin their own countries,and people living in"refugee-like" circumstanceswho are not legally recog-nized as refugees.

Vulnerability to hungerIndividuals, households,communities, or nations whohave enough to eat most ofthe time, but whose povertymakes them especially sus-ceptible to changes in theeconomy, climate, or politi-cal conditions.

Wasting A condition inwhich a person is seriouslybelow the normal weight forher/his height due to acuteundemutrition.

World Bank An intergov-ernmental agency whichmakes long-term loans to thegovernments of developingnations.

Introduction1. The Bellagio Declaration, issued by

23 hunger experts from 14 countriesin 1989, sets specific, feasible targetsfor reducing world hunger by theyear 2000: eliminate deaths byfamine, cut malnutrition in half formothers and small children, eradi-cate iodine and vitamin A deficien-cies, and end hunger in half thepoorest households. The MedfordDeclaration, issued in 1991 andendorsed by thousands of organiza-tions representing millions of people,focuses on hunger in the UnitedStates. It calls for full funding of U.S.government food programs, eco-nomic self-reliance through market-based employment and trainingprograms, child care, and tax incen-tives which reward work.

2. U.S. Bureau of the Census, StatisticalAbstract of the United States: 1993(Washington: U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office, 1993).

3. "The Entertainment Economy, Busi-ness Week, March 14, 1994, p. 60.

4. Christopher Lasch, The True andOnly Heaven: Progress and Its Critics(New York: W.W. Norton, 1991), p.516.

5. Andrew Bard Schmookler, The Illu-sion of Choice: How the Market Econ-omy Shapes Our Destiny (Albany:State University of New York Press,1993), pp. 12-13.

6. World Bank, World DevelopmentReport 1994 (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1994).

Overview of World Hunger1. FAO, World Food Supplies and the

Prevalence of Hunger (Rome: FAO,1992), p. 8.

2. Africa in this table equals sub-Saha-ran Africa elsewhere (except inclu-sion of Algeria and non-inclusion ofSomalia). Eastern Mediterraneanincludes all of Near East and NorthAfrica (except Algeria) and countriessuch as Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan,and Somalia. Americas includes theUnited States and Canada. Asiaincludes all of Asia (except for somecountries that are included in EasternMediterranean) as well as Australia,New Zealand, and Japan.

3. Shlomo Reutlinger, "AddressingHunger: An Historical Perspective ofInternational Initiatives," BackgroundPaper Prepared for the World BankConference on Overcoming GlobalHunger, The American University,Washington, DC, November 29-December 1, 1993, p. 9.

4. South Asia consists of Afghanistan,Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal,Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SoutheastAsia includes Indonesia, Cambodia,Laos, Malaysia, Burma (Myanmar),Papua New Guinea, the Philippines,Thailand, and Vietnam.

5. Center on Hunger, Poverty, andNutrition Policy at Tufts University.These figures have beenchallenged. The most commonlyused method of estimating hunger(inability to afford sufficient food tomeet the nutritional needs of ahousehold) is through interviews, inwhich randomly selected people areasked whether they know someonewho at some time in the past yeardid not have enough to eat.

6. Barry Davidson, Canadian Associa-tion of Food Banks, personal com-munication, April 1994.

7. Bob Evans, National Anti-PovertyOrganization, personal communica-tion, April 1994.

131

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9. Hartmann and Boyce, p. 8; see alsoBarraclough, pp. 180-182.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 3

10. "World Declaration on Nutrition,"Paragraph 1, p.1, in InternationalConference on Nutrition: WorldDeclaration and Plan of Action forNutrition (Rome: FAO and WHO,1992).

11. Ibid., Paragraph 12, p. 3.

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14. Comelia Nkomo, ORAP DivisionHead, personal interview, Washing-ton, DC, February 25 and March 22,1994; United Nations DevelopmentProgram, Human DevelopmentReport 1993 (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1993), P. 97; BillRau, From Feast to Famine: OfficialCures and Grassroots Remedies toAfrica's Food Crisis (London: Zed,1991), pp. 174, 192.

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16. Ibid., p. 81.

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12. Ibid., p. 27.

13. Ibid., p. 50.

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3

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Hunger 1995 134

Sponsors and Cosponsors of Causes of Hunger

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Bread for the World Institute seeks to inform, educate, nurture, and motivate concerned citizens for action on policieswhich affect hungry people. Based on policy analysis and consultation with poor people, it develops educational resourcesand activities including its annual report on the state of world hunger, policy briefs, and study guides, together with work-shops, seminars, briefings, and an anti-hunger leadership development program. Contributions to the Institute are tax-deductible. It works closely with Bread for the World, a Christian citizens' movement of 44,000 members, who advocate spe-cific policy changes to help overcome hunger in the United States and overseas.

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BROT fiir die Welt is an association of German Protestant churches which seeks to overcome poverty and hunger in develop-ing countries, as an expression of their Christian faith and convictions, by funding programs of relief and development.Founded in 1959, BROT has funded more than 15,000 programs in over 100 nations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Fornearly 35 years the emphases of the programs which BROT funds has shifted from relief to development and empowerment.BROT's programs of education in Germany are intended to lead to changes in understanding and lifestyle at the personallevel, and to policy changes at the national, European Union, and international levels.

Stafflenbergstrasse 76, Postfach 10 11 42D-70010 Stuttgart, GermanyPh. 07 11-2159-0Fx. 07 11-2159-368

CARE is the world's largest relief and development organization not affiliated with a government or religion. Each year, CAREreaches more than 25 million people in over 40 nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The organization's work began in1946, when its famous CARE packages helped Europe recover from World War II. Today, CARE improves health care and theenvironment, helps subsistence farmers and small business owners produce more goods, addresses population concerns, andreaches disaster victims with emergency assistance. The scope of CARE's work is broad, but its vision focuses on a single con-cept helping people help themselves.

151 Ellis StreetAtlanta, GA 30303Ph. (404) 681-2552Fx. (404) 577-6271

Christian Children's Fund is the largest independent childcare agency in the world, providing assistance to more than half amillion children and their families in 40 countries and the United States. An international, not-for-profit, nonsectarian agency,free of political associations, Christian Children's Fund provides education, medical care, food, clothing, and shelter to childrenaround the world. Services are provided based on need and without regard to sex, race, creed, or religion. Christian Children'sFund recently began new programs in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East.


2821 Emerywood Parkway, PO Box 26227Richmond, VA 23261-6227Ph. (804) 756-2700Fx. (804) 756-2718

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LCMS World Relief (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) provides relief and development funding for domestic and interna-tional projects. Based under the Synod's Department of Human Care Ministries, LCMS World Relief provides domestic grantsfor Lutheran congregations and social ministry organizations as well as other groups with Lutheran involvement which areengaged in ministries of human care. Domestic support is also provided to Inter-Lutheran Disaster Response and LutheranImmigration and Refugee Service. International relief and development assistance is channeled through the Synod's missionstations and partner churches as well as Lutheran World Relief.

1333 So. Kirkwood RoadSt. Louis, MO 63122-7295Ph. (800) 248-1930, ext. 1392Fx. (314) 965-0541

Lutheran World Relief, founded in 1945, acts in behalf of Lutheran Churches in the U.S.A. LWR is an overseas relief anddevelopment agency which responds quickly to disasters and humanitarian crises and supports more than 160 long-rangedevelopment projects in over 35 countries throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Through an Office onDevelopment Policy in Washington D.C., LWR also monitors legislation on foreign aid and development and serves as anadvocate for public policies which address the root causes of hunger, injustice, and poverty.

390 Park Avenue SouthNew York, NY 10016Ph. (212) 532-6350Fx. (212) 213-6081

For twenty-five years, the Presbyterian Hunger Program has provided a channel for congregations to respond to hunger inthe United States and around the world. With a commitment to the ecumenical sharing of human and financial resources, theprogram provides support for programs of direct food relief, sustainable development, and public policy advocacy. A networkof 100 Hunger Action Enablers leads the Presbyterian Church (USA) in the study of hunger issues, engagement with communi-ties of need, advocacy for just public policies, and the movement toward simpler corporate and personal lifestyles.

100 Witherspoon StreetLouisville, KY 40202-1396Ph. (502) 569-5832Fx. (502) 569-5018

Share Our Strength (SOS) works to alleviate and prevent hunger by distributing grants, educating the public, and creatingcommunity outreach programs in the United States and throughout the world. SOS is one of the nation's largest private, non-profit sources of funds for hunger relief, and mobilizes thousand of volunteers to contribute their skills and resources to itsprograms. Founded in 1984 to organize the food industry on behalf of hunger relief groups, SOS's network of volunteers nowincludes more than 6,000 chefs, restaurateurs, writers, artists, photographers, and creative professionals from a variety of fields.Since its inception, SOS has raised over $15 million for distribution to more than 600 hunger relief and community develop-ment organizations in the U.S., Canada, and in developing countries. Beneficiaries include: direct food assistance programs(food banks, prepared and perishable food rescue programs), long-term approaches to hunger relief (nutrition education,microenterprise development), and international community development agencies. Some of Share Our Strength's programsinclude: Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation, presented by American Express; Operation Frontline; Writers Harvest: TheNational Reading; Share Our Strength's Book Projects; and SOS Market Booths.

Shield-Ayers Foundation

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1511 K Street, N.W., Suite 940Washington, DC 20005Ph. (202) 393-2925Fx. (202) 347-5868

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The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) was formed in 1940 in response to the suffering of people duringWorld War II. It was a "voice of conscience" expressing the concern of the church for the disrupted and devastated liveschurned out by the war. UMCOR has expanded its ministry into more than 80 countries to minister with compassion to per-sons in need, through programs and services which provide immediate relief and long-term attention to the root causes oftheir need. Focusing on refugee, hunger, and disaster ministries, the work of UMCOR, a program department of the GeneralBoard of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, is carried out through direct services and a worldwide network ofnational and international church agencies which cooperate in the task of alleviating human suffering.

475 Riverside Drive, Room 1374New York, NY 10115Ph. (212) 870-3816 (800) 841-1235Fx. (212) 870-3624

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for more than 40 years has supported countries to improve and expand theirservices for children, to help establish priorities, and to reach the neediest children. UNICEF promotes the well-being of chil-dren throughout their formative years in 127 countries and territories. Almost all UNICEF resources are invested in the poorestdeveloping countries, with the greatest share supporting children up to age five. UNICEF support is provided for emergenciesand for longer-term programs in such areas as health, water supply and sanitation, nutrition, and education. UNICEF is an inte-gral, yet semi-autonomous part of the U.N. system. It is also unique among U.N. organizations in that it relies entirely on vol-untary public and government contributions.

3 United Nations PlazaNew York, NY 10017-4414Ph. (212) 326-7035Fx. (212) 888-7465

World Vision, founded in 1950, is a Christian humanitarian aid organization carrying out relief and development activities in94 countries, including the United States. The U.S. national support office is headquartered in Los Angeles, and national sup-port offices in 16 other countries raise funds for transforming the lives of the poor in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and EasternEurope. Meeting the health care, educational, vocational, and nutritional needs of children and their families is the focal pointof programs leading to the long-term sustainable development of communities. Through 6,243 projects, worldwide, WorldVision affirms the right of every child to education, good nutrition, health care, and spiritual nurture. More than 1 million chil-dren are sponsored through World Vision donors from industrialized nations.

919 West Huntington DriveMonrovia, CA 91016Ph. (818) 357-7979Fx. (818) 303-7651

Cosponsors

The Academy for Educational Development (AED), founded in 1961, is an independent, nonprofit service organization commit-ted to addressing human development needs in the United States and throughout the world. Under contracts and grants, theAcademy operates programs in collaboration with policy leaders; nongovernmental and community-based organizations; govern-mental agencies; international multilateral and bilateral funders; and schools, colleges, and universities. In partnership with its clients,the Academy seeks to meet today's social, economic, and environmental challenges through education and human resource devel-opment; to apply state-of-the-art education, training, research, technology, management, behavioral analysis, and social marketingtechniques to solve problems; and to improve knowledge and skills throughout the world as the most effective means for stimulat-ing growth, reducing poverty, and promoting democratic and humanitarian ideals. The Academy for Educational Development isregistered with the U.S. Agency for International Development as a private voluntary organization. The Academy is exempt from fed-eral income taxes under Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to the Academy are tax deductible.

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1875 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20009-1202Ph. (202) 884-8000Fx. (202) 884-8400Internet: [email protected]

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) is the relief and development agency of the Christian ReformedChurch in North America, with offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Burlington, Ontario, Canada. CRWRC was begun in1962 to respond to the needs of Korean war victims, Cuban refugees, and victims of natural disasters in North America. Today,it focuses on helping the poorest of the poor meet their own needs through community development in more than 30 coun-tries around the world. Through cooperative efforts with national Christian churches and organizations, CRWRC staff enablesmore than 75,000 families to free themselves from material and spiritual poverty. CRWRC also helps strengthen churches andcommunity organizations.

2850 Kalamazoo Ave., S.E.Grand Rapids. MI 49560-0600Ph. (616) 247-5875Fx. (616) 246-0806

Church World Service (CWS) is a global relief, development, and refugee assistance ministry of the 32 Protestant andOrthodox communities that work together through the National Council of Churches. Founded in 1946, CWS works in partner-ship with local church organizations in more than 70 countries worldwide, supporting sustainable self-help development ofpeople which respects the environment, meets emergency needs, and addresses root causes of poverty and powerlessness.Within the United States, CWS resettles refugees, assists communities in responding to disasters, advocates for justice in U.S.policies which relate to global issues, provides educational resources, and offers opportunities for communities to join a peo-ple-to-people network of global and local caring through participation in a CROP walk.

475 Riverside Drive, Suite 678New York, NY 10115-0050Ph. (212) 870-2257Fx. (212)870-2055

CODEL (Coordination in Development) is a membership association of Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox organizations thatrespond globally to our Lord's invitation, "Whatever you do to the least of mine, you do unto me," through environmentallysustainable socioeconomic development. The purpose of CODEL throughout the developing world is to support training andother development activities identified by people of all faiths who have limited opportunities to participate in economic,social, environmental, and political decisions that affect their lives. CODEL supports these activities wherever that support fos-ters ecumenical collaboration and Christian unity. CODEL also seeks to inform and awaken the consciousness of the people ofthe U.S. to human needs.

475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1842New York, NY 10115-0050Ph. (212) 870-3000Fx. (212) 870-3545

EuronAid is a European association of nongovernmental organizations which facilitates dialogue with the Commission of theEuropean Union. EuronAid cooperates with the Commission in programming and procuring food aid for the NGOs, thenarranges and accounts for delivery to Third World NGOs for distribution. In recent years, triangular operations (purchaseswithin Third World nations) have accounted for half of EuronAid's food aid, which meets both emergency and developmentpurposes. EuronAid assimilates the experiences of NGOs involved in food aid and employs this knowledge in its dialoguewith the Commission and the European Parliament to achieve improved management of food aid. EuronAid was created in1980 by major European NGOs in cooperation with the Commission of the European Union. The association has at present 26member agencies, and services an additional 50 European NGOs on a regular basis.

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PO Box 12NL-2501 CA Den HaagThe NetherlandsPh. 31 70 330 57 57Fx. 31 70 364 17 01

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Freedom from Hunger, founded in 1946 as Meals for Millions, launches innovative programs to eliminate chronic hungerproviding resources and information that empower the poorest families and communities to help themselves. The Credit withEducation program in developing countries on four continents supports self-help groups of women by providing cash, credit,and nonformal adult education. Credit enables participants to increase their income-earning and savings opportunities so theycan buy or grow more and better food. Education enhances their money management and offers knowledge and motivationto improve their health, nutrition, and family planning practices. In the United States, Freedom from Hunger helps existinghealth and human service programs work more effectively with low-income communities to improve family health and nutri-tion.

1644 DaVinci CourtDavis, CA 95617Ph. (916) 758-6200Fx. (916) 758-6241

Hunger Action United Church of Christ. For almost 20 years the Hunger Action program has been overseeing the hungerministries of the United Church of Christ. Working with local congregations, regional and national offices, the Hunger Actionprogram offers a holistic approach, providing educational and worship resources, making grants to organizations seeking toaddress systemic causes of hunger and poverty, and coordinating efforts of advocacy and public policy.

700 Prospect AvenueCleveland, OH 44115Ph. (216) 736-3290Fx. (216) 736-3293

MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger has granted more than $8 million since 1986 to nonprofit organizations confrontinghunger in the United States and abroad. MAZON (the Hebrew word for "food") awards grants principally to programs workingto prevent and alleviate hunger in the United States. Grantees include emergency and direct food assistance programs, foodbanks, multi-service organizations, anti-hunger advocacy/education and research projects and international hunger-relief andagricultural development programs in Israel and impoverished countries. Although responsive to organizations serving impov-erished Jews, in keeping with the best of Jewish tradition, MAZON responds to all who are in need.

2940 Westwood Blvd., Suite 7Los Angeles, CA 90064-4120Ph. (310) 470-7769Fx. (310) 470-6736

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), founded in 1920, is an agency of the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches inNorth America, and seeks to demonstrate God's love through committed women and men who work among people sufferingfrom poverty, conflict, oppression, and natural disaster. MCC serves as a channel for interchange between churches and com-munity groups where it works around the world and North American churches. MCC strives for peace, justice, and dignity ofall people by sharing experiences, resources, and faith. MCC's priorities include disaster relief and refugee assistance, rural andagricultural development, job creation (SELFHELP Crafts), health, and education.


21 South 12th StreetAkron, PA 17501-0500Ph. (717) 859-1151Fx. (717) 859-2171

Save the Children Federation/U.S. helps make lasting, positive differences in the lives of disadvantaged children in theUnited States and 35 countries overseas. Programs are guided by a set of principles known as CBIRD community-based inte-grated rural development. This approach includes community participation in identifying goals and implementing projects. TheCBIRD approach relies on nonformal educational techniques transferring skills and encouraging self-help and the maximumuse of available resources. In SC's international programs, the four key development sectors are: primary health; environmen-tally sound sustainable agriculture; productivity, especially through small-scale enterprises; and education. Save the Childrenalso supports refugee assistance programs in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and provides disaster relief.

54 Wilton RoadWestport, CT 06880Ph. (203) 221-4000Fx. (203) 221-4123

Second Harvest is a network of 185 affiliated food banks in the United States which provide food to the hungry throughnearly 50,000 social service agencies. As the largest charitable source of food in the United States, the Second Harvest networkannually distributes more than 500 million pounds of donated food and grocery products.

The Second Harvest mission is to:

Feed the hungry by soliciting and judiciously distributing marketable but surplus food and grocery products to a nationwidenetwork of food banks;

Develop, certify, and support Second Harvest food banks that channel food and grocery products to local nonprofit chari-ties that provide services to the needy;

Serve as a liaison between food banks and donors; and

Educate the public about the nature of, and solutions to, the problems of hunger.

116 South Michigan Avenue, Suite 4Chicago, IL 60603-6001Ph. (312) 263-2303Fx. (312) 263-5626

The Trull Foundation (and predecessor B.W. Trull Foundation) has been interested in educational, religious, cultural, andsocial programs since 1948. Current priorities include concern for:

1. The needs of the Palacios, Texas area where the Foundation has its roots;

2. Pre-adolescents, and opportunities to direct lives away from child abuse, neglect, and hunger, towards an adolescence ofgood mental and physical growth; and

3. Mexican-Americans in South Texas, to help them "catch up," hurdle a language barrier, a poverty barrier, and system whichhas consistently kept them poor, uneducated, and unrepresented.

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404 Fourth St.Palacios, TX 77465Ph. (512) 972-5241

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The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the world's largest multilateral development grant organization.Funded by voluntary contributions from governments totalling about US $1 billion yearly, it serves more than 170 developingcountries and territories. To carry out its programs, UNDP draws upon developing countries' capacities, as well as the exper-tise of specialized U.N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations. People are at the center of all UNDP activities, whichaim to build developing countries' capacities for sustainable human development. The emphasis is on poverty alleviation andgrassroots development; environmental protection and regeneration; job creation; and the advancement of women. Closecooperation is maintained with other U.N. agencies. UNDP administers the U.N. Development Fund for Women and severalother special purpose funds. With the World Bank and U.N. Environment Program, it manages the Global EnvironmentFacility. At the country level, the head of the UNDP office is usually responsible for coordinating all U.N.-supported develop-ment activities.

One United Nations PlazaNew York, NY 10017Ph. (212) 906-5000Fx. (212) 826-2057

Winrock International is a leader in sustainable agricultural, rural development, and environmental programs that help peo-ple increase food production and stimulate economic growth, without threatening natural resources. Projects provide technicalassistance, human resource development, policy and institutional improvement. Winrock works in the United States, Asia,Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. Projects are funded bygrants, contracts, and contributions from public and private sources. Operations are headquartered outside Little Rock,Arkansas, on the mountain-top farm of the late Winthrop Rockefeller. Regional offices are located in Arlington, Virginia;Manila, the Philippines; and Abidjan, C6te d'Ivoire.

Route 3, Box 376Morrilton, AR 72110-9537Ph. (501) 727-5435Fx. (501) 727-5242

World Relief is the relief and development arm of the National Association of Evangelicals in the United States. Since 1944,World Relief has provided both immediate and long-term assistance to people who suffer from poverty, disease, hunger, andwar. Working with groups in Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and the United States, World Relief supports pro-grams focused on disaster relief, refugee assistance, income generation, and health.

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PO Box WRCWheaton, IL 60189Ph. (708) 665-0235Fx. (708) 653-8023

SponsorsBROT fur die Welt

CARE

Christian Children's FundLCMS World Relief,

The Lutheran Church Missouri SynodLutheran World Relief

Presbyterian Hunger Program, PC(USA)Share Our Strength

Shield-Ayres FoundationUNICEF

United Methodist Committee on ReliefWorld Vision

CosponsorsAcademy for Educational Development

Christian Reformed World Relief CommitteeChurch World Service

CODEL (Coordination in Development)EuronAid

Freedom from HungerHunger Action United Church of ChristMAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger

Mennonite Central CommitteeSave the Children Federation/U.S.

Second HarvestThe Trull Foundation

United Nations Development ProgrammeWinrock International

World Relief

BREAD FOR THE WORLD

STITUTE1100 WAYNE AVENUE, STE. 1000

SILVER SPRING, MD 20910USA

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