Hunger and malnutrition in Africa: challenges and solutions

Hunger - as an extreme manifestation and tremendous social poverty - hit the masses of people in antiquity, the Middle Ages and also periods of new and recent history.

There is an extensive ‘belt of hunger and malnutrition’ on Earth, stretching on both sides of the equator. This belt begins in South America, covers most of Africa, and then continues to Asia. The epicenter of this belt has long been located in Tropical Africa, the poorest region of the world. In the early 70s of the XX century, there were 90 million hungry people in Africa, in the early 80s - 110 million, in the mid-80s - 140 million, and in the mid-90s - 210 million. In this region, there are countries where the proportion of hungry and undernourished people exceeds 40% of the population (Chad, Somalia, Uganda, Mozambique) or ranges from 30 to 40% (Ethiopia, Mali, Congo, Zambia.

There are a number of UN agencies working in the field of food security:
• World Food Program (WFP), designed to respond to emergencies;
• The World Bank Group, whose priority is to attract investment in rural and farm development to stimulate food production;
• International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which is engaged in poverty alleviation;

• The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), whose goal is to create an environment in which every person is provided with high-quality nutrition necessary for maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle.

Since the Food and Agriculture Organization was founded in 1945, the world's population has tripled. According to the current prospective estimate, it will reach almost 10 billion people by 2050.

Despite the titanic efforts, according to the new data, the number of hungry people in the world is growing. Hunger was on the rise in the last three years, returning to a level of ten years ago.

The situation is still getting worse in most regions of Africa. To date, the number of hungry people in the world is 821 million, or every ninth inhabitant of the planet, of which Africa has 256.5 million.

The alarming signs of growing food shortages in Africa and the high level of various forms of malnutrition are a clear warning that existing programs are not effective and a slightly different approach is needed to fight hunger.

Proper nutrition is necessary for children - after all, they are our future. Despite the abundance of various programs such as the World Food Programme, and even modern digital approaches, such as ShareTheMeal application, the problem still exists. These programs help a little, but combining them with the Hamlet Edible Parks initiative will definitely give better results and become a vitally needed solution for fighting malnutrition and famine on the African continent.

The Phoenix Voyage team’s program of installing Hamlet Edible Parks is an outstanding opportunity to preserve the diversity of living organisms on Earth, to cover the desert areas with plants and greens, and at the same time, to alleviate poverty and hunger in the most suffered regions of Africa.

The success of this program is already obvious, being recognized by government officials in Africa, who are willing to expand the project in Tanzania and other regions. Hamlet Edible Parks, apart from supplying food to the communities, can serve as an educational environment suitable for school trips or a family walk. There are now more than 45 Hamlets in six countries in Africa and the work of expanding their network is continuing, showing great results and remarkable achievements!

If you want to know more about the amazing Hamlet parks initiative, please visit Phoenix Voyage Hamlet’s activity page.

“Recognize that the world is hungry for action, not words.
Act with courage and vision." ~ Nelson Mandela