Welt Hunger Hilfe: COVID-19 is exacerbating hunger worldwide

According to the latest report from one of the largest German private aid organizations, Welt Hunger Hilfe, the ongoing pandemic has dramatically increased the level of world hunger.

This is just one more publication that confirms that the COVID-19 outbreak has severely impacted households and their ability to obtain enough food. Previously, the UN World Food Programme had estimated that about 270 million people were at risk of starvation due to the coronavirus and the World Bank had assessed that up to 150 million people will fall into extreme poverty by the end of 2021.

The latest survey undertaken by Welt Hunger Hilfe merely confirms these negative trends. The German NGO conducted a survey of 16,200 households from 25 countries throughout October and November 2020. The results show that 42% of households had less available to eat compared to before the pandemic and 44% were affected by a deterioration in the quality and diversity of their diets.

The main reason cited for the deterioration in diet was a significant reduction in income which was indicated by 90% of the households surveyed while over 75% declared they were afraid of further decreases in income. According to the publication, nine countries were particularly affected by hunger with six of these being located in Sub-Saharan Africa: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Kenya, Burundi, Liberia, and Madagascar. The remaining three are Ecuador, Afghanistan, and Haiti.

In DRC and Malawi, over 80% of the households that participated in the survey indicated that they had less food available than before the pandemic.

The research pointed out that the rise in hunger levels was also caused by movement restrictions and the loss of income in both the formal and informal sectors although those who worked in the informal sector were more severely hit.

At the same time, another study conducted by Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in February 2021 indicates that there were no serious food shortages worldwide so therefore the global food system emerged as being immune to the turmoil triggered by the pandemic. However, whilst there was no disruption to global trade flow, hunger levels continue to increase.

Welt Hunger Hilfe suggests that countries did have the opportunity to avoid such a dramatic increase in hunger levels as, at the beginning of the pandemic, international organizations, including the German non-profit, had predicted that hunger would increase especially in poor countries.

The German aid organization also offered a set of recommendations that may serve to counter such crises in the future. According to Welt Hunger Hilfe, development aid policy should focus on a transformation of the world’s food systems so that they become more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient to potential crises.