International Food Policy Research Institute

2020 Brief 19, May 1995

Causes of Hunger
by Marc J. Cohen and Don Reeves

The persistence of hunger in a world of plenty is the most profound moral contradiction of our
age. Nearly 800 million people in the developing world (20 percent of the total population) are
chronically undernourished. At least 2 billion suffer from vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Yet
since the mid-1970s the world has produced enough food to provide everyone with a minimally
adequate diet.

The Geography of Hunger

The number of undernourished people in developing countries fell from 942 million in 1970 to
786 million in 1990 and from 36 percent to 20 percent of the population (Figure 1). The poorest
and most food-insecure people are disproportionately in Africa. The largest number of chronically
undernourished people live in the Asia-Pacific region, although the number dropped from 762
million in 1970 to 540 million in 1990 (from 40 to 20 percent of the population). However,
hunger remains especially severe in South Asia (Figure 2). In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of
hungry people rose from 94 million in 1970 to 175 million in 1990. Growing poverty, debt,
economic decline, poor terms of trade, rapid population growth, unfavorable weather, war, and
governmental collapse have all contributed to the continent's food problems. In the United States,
the share of the population facing hunger rose from 8 percent in 1985 to 12 percent in 1990 (from
20 to 30 million). But hunger in wealthy nations is neither as severe nor as widespread as in
developing countries.

Causes of Hunger

Hunger is one piece of a complex of interrelated social ills. It is linked intricately to global
economic, political, and social power structures; modes of development and consumption;
population dynamics; and social biases based on race, ethnicity, gender, and age.

(1) Poverty and powerlessness. One of the main causes of hunger is poverty--lack of purchasing
power and access to resources. Worldwide, 1.3 billion people live on less than US$1 per day.
Nearly one-third of the people in developing countries are poor; the figure rises to 70 to 80
percent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Poverty is linked not only with poor national economic performance but also with an unequal
distribution of income and a political structure that renders poor people powerless, whether in a
democracy or a dictatorship.

Mustering the political will to make policies that fight hunger and favor a more equitable
distribution of income a top government priority requires a strong public constituency. Popular
movements and government policy can work to end the spiral of powerlessness. In such diverse
places as Brazil, Zimbabwe, and the Indian state of Kerala, popular movements have pressed
governments to end hunger. In South Korea the government enacted public policies that fostered
economic growth accompanied by decreasing income inequality.

(2) Population, consumption, and the environment. The world's population is expected to
grow from its current 5.5 billion to about 8 billion by 2020; more than 93 percent of this increase
will occur in lower-income countries. Debate is ongoing over whether the earth can support its
growing population without severe ecological damage. Even if the world's population stabilizes by
the mid-21st century, food production will have to double. Pessimists see this requirement as
beyond the planet's "carrying capacity." Optimists expect continued innovations, such as the
recent breakthrough in rice breeding, to meet this demand.

Fresh water, land, forests, and fisheries are today being used at or beyond capacity. In the
competition for resources, poor and hungry people, lacking economic and political clout, become
even more marginalized. Especially in countries where landholdings are inequitable, poor families
are forced to move onto fragile land and often to overcrowded cities.

Globally, incomes and consumption differ starkly. Twenty percent of the world's
population--mostly in industrial countries--receives 85 percent of the world's income and accounts
for 80 percent of consumption, producing two-thirds of all greenhouse gases and 90 percent of
ozone- depleting chlorofluorocarbons. This level of consumption is not sustainable at the global
level. If the current global population lived as the richest 20 percent do, consumption of energy
would increase 10 times and minerals 200 times.

Policymakers on all levels need to shape integrated policies and programs that reflect the
relationship between improved lives for poor people and reduced population growth, reduced
consumption of nonrenewable resources, and protection of the environment.

(3) Violence and militarism. New and continuing civil strife are the source of severe human
disasters in Afghanistan, Burma, Mozambique, Nagorno-Karabakh, Rwanda, Somalia, Sri Lanka,
Sudan, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. Most victims of these conflicts are innocent
civilians, not combatants. A study by Frances Stewart found that in 14 of 16 developing countries
at war since 1970, per capita food consumption dropped, by more than 15 percent in 6 of them.

War slows or stops food production and marketing. Food supplies are plundered and used as
instruments of war, crop cycles are interrupted, seeds and breeding livestock are consumed in
desperation, and children suffer permanent damage as a result of insufficient food.

Even if fighting never occurs, heavy military spending drains resources away from food
production, education, and health care. Global military spending declined from its peak of $1
trillion in 1987 to an estimated $767 billion (still more than the total income of the poorest 45
percent of the world's population) in 1994. Some of the savings have shifted to national social
programs, but none have gone to international development assistance. Developing countries
spend $125 billion per year on military forces. One-quarter of this would provide primary health
care for all their citizens, reduce adult literacy by half, and provide family planning to all willing
couples.

(4) Racism and ethnocentrism. Racial discrimination and competition between ethnic groups
have caused hunger, malnutrition, and resource deprivation for black populations in South Africa
and the Americas, Indians in Latin America, Kurds in Iraq, and Tamils in Sri Lanka, to name just a
few. In Sudan, discrimination against the black Christian and animist south by the predominantly
Arab Muslim north has locked the country in civil war for decades. Both sides use food as a
weapon, and malnutrition rates are the highest ever documented--80 percent in some areas. In
recent years, 1.3 million people have died from famine and disease. In 1994, the United Nations
estimated that 2.5 million Sudanese required food aid. Between 1980 and 1991, per capita food
production in the south declined by 29 percent.

While the problems are immense and complicated, some countries have triumphed over racial
differences. Zimbabwe has achieved social integration without substantial racial strife, offering a
model for achieving multiracial democracy and reduced hunger in nearby South Africa.

(5) Gender discrimination. Because women bear and nourish children, they have special
nutritional needs. Yet women of every age have disproportionately higher rates of malnutrition
than men and are overrepresented among poor, illiterate, and displaced people. Malnutrition
among mothers also has a negative effect on the growth of children.

Almost universally women work longer hours than men and carry primary responsibility for
household chores even when working outside the home. Women's pay rates are nearly universally
lower than those for men (on average, 30 to 40 percent lower), even for equivalent work.

Women's needs and rights are receiving greater weight in development efforts, but there is still a
long way to go before women and men around the world have equal economic, social, and
political opportunities.

(6) Vulnerability of children and elderly people. The effects of childhood malnutrition last a
lifetime, and even into succeeding generations. Malnutrition is a factor in one-third of the 13
million annual deaths of children under five years old. The number of malnourished children under
five in the developing world rose from 168 million in 1975 to 184 million in 1990, but fell as a
share of all developing-country children from 42 to 34 percent. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies
are less easily noticed, but they can severely retard the growth and mental development of
children. The 1990 World Summit for Children pledged to halve malnutrition among children
under five by the year 2000. Progress is uneven, but generally encouraging.

Elderly people are disproportionately vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition in both industrial and
developing countries. Elderly populations are growing everywhere as people live longer, and with
changing lifestyles and family structures, the elderly in many countries are receiving less care from
the family. Strategies to care for the increasing number of aged over the next 25 years need to be
developed.

Conclusion

The world community has both the knowledge and the resources to eliminate hunger. Putting
these tools to work requires us to ground our choices--small and large, individual and collective,
political and economic--in ethical values, including empowerment and justice, stewardship of
common resources for the common good, and affirmation of diversity.

Marc J. Cohen is senior research associate and Don Reeves is economic policy analyst at Bread
for the World Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.
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"A 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment" is an initiative of the International Food
Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to develop a shared vision and consensus for action on how to meet
future world food needs while reducing poverty and protecting the environment. Through the 2020 Vision
initiative, IFPRI is bringing together divergent schools of thought on these issues, generating research, and
identifying recommendations. The 2020 Briefs present information on various aspects of the issues.