If donors double their investments and spend the money wisely, they could help end hunger by 2030, a coalition of research groups said in a call-to-action ahead of World Food Day.
Donors must spend an additional US$14 billion on average each year between now and 2030, roughly double what they currently spend on aid for food security and nutrition, according to new research from the Center for Development Research (ZEF), Cornell University, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
Maximo Torero, Chief Economist at FAO, said: “The world produces enough food to feed everyone. So it’s unacceptable that 690 million people are undernourished, 2 billion don’t have regular access to sufficient amounts of safe, nutritious food, and 3 billion people cannot afford healthy diets. If rich countries double their aid commitments and help poor countries to prioritize, properly target, and scale-up cost-effective interventions on agricultural R&D, technology, innovation, education, social protection, and on trade facilitation, we can end hunger by 2030.”
The call-to-action represents a coming together of two projects – Ceres2030: Sustainable Solutions to End Hunger, led by Cornell, IFPRI, and IISD, and joint research from FAO and ZEF.
Ceres2030 and FAO-ZEF used different methodologies but arrived at the same conclusion that donors should double their spending. Ceres2030 built a computable general equilibrium economic model to assess the best way to end hunger sustainably, in line with the second UN Sustainable Development Goal.
David Laborde, Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI, said: “We found that if donors double their aid, alongside poorer countries also increasing spending from their own budgets, then by the end of the decade we could end hunger, double the incomes of 545 million small-scale farmers, and limit agricultural emissions in line with the Paris climate agreement.”
An additional $39 billion to 50 billion per annum is needed to end hunger by 2030, as envisaged by the second Sustainable Development Goal. To make good on the promise that G-7 countries made in Elmau in 2015 to lift 500 million people out of hunger, requires donors to spend an additional $11 billion to 14 billion per annum, which is about double their current aid spending on food security.
The Ceres2030 and FAO-ZEF studies both recommend that donors make interventions that are evidence-based and designed to support each other, including investing in agricultural R&D, supporting social protection programs that provide food or cash to those in aid, and driving inclusion, such as through improving female literacy and providing training for rural youth. Spending should focus on where the need is greatest – primarily sub-Saharan Africa, and also South Asia.
Original source: FAO
