Each 16 October has been designated by the United Nations World Food Organization (FAO) as World Food Day. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030) aims by 2030 to " Double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and imputs, knowledge, financial services, markets, and non-farm resources."
However, a 3 May 2023 report of the FAO concerning early warning on areas facing acute food insecurity highlighted that some 250 million persons are living in a situation of acute food insecurity with the Democratic Republic of Congo leading the list with some 27 million persons due to armed violence and the breakdown of government structures. The Congo is followed by Ethiopia, largely due to fighting in the Tigrey area. The war in Ukraine is also having a negative impact limiting production and exportation of food goods - a principle export of Ukraine.
In a 11 November 2022 presentation, David Beasley, then Director of the United Nations World Food Programme had warned that there are real dangers of famine in countries in armed conflict or which have been in armed conflict in recent years such as Afghanistan. He mentioned in particular Somalia where the conflicts have not received the media attention they deserved. (1). He also mentioned the situation in South Sudan, in Ethiopia, in the countreis of the Sahel and in Yemen.
In each of these countries, the agricultural infrastructure has been sharply damaged. Infrastructure rebuilding, the creation of water wells, the redevelopment of livestock, the establishment of functioning markets will take a great deal of effort even if peace is restored. These conflicts have led to migration, especially of men which has further weakened the agricultural potential.
Today, cooperation on food security is needed among the U.N. family of agencies, national governments, non-governmental organizations, and the millions of food producers. These measures will have to be taken in a wholistic way with actions going from the local level of the individual farmer, the national level with adequate governmental policies, measures at the multi-State regional level such as the European Union and the African Union and the world level with better coordination within the United Nations system.
Food is a key aspect of deep structural issues in the world society, and thus must be seen in a wholisitc framework. As Stringfellow Barr wrote in Citizens of the World (1952) "Since the hungry in the world community believe that we can all eat if we set our common house in order, they believe also that it is unjust that some die because it is too much trouble to arrange for them to live."
(1) For a good overrview of the many-sided conflicts in Somalia see Gerah G. Phillips. When There Was No Aid. War and Peace in Somaliland (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2020, 227pp)
René Wadlow, Association of World Citizens
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