Hunger: It's Not a Lack of Food, It's Waste!

Sunday, May 28, the 7th of Khordad, has been designated by the United Nations as 'Hunger Awareness Day.' The UN considers hunger, alongside child marriage, climate change, lack of women's empowerment, lack of access to clean drinking water and health facilities, and lack of education and illiteracy, as one of the silent indicators of poverty and social inequality. The number of hunger victims in one year exceeds the total deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. Hunger and malnutrition, caused by the lack of necessary food (proteins and minerals), claim millions of lives worldwide each year. According to estimates by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 870 million people globally, or nearly 11% of the world's population, suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Of these, 780 million, or 98%, live in developing or underdeveloped countries. The highest numbers are found in Asia (525.6 million), Africa (214 million), and Latin America and the Caribbean (37 million). According to UN statistics, the countries experiencing the highest levels of hunger include Burundi, Eritrea, East Timor, Sudan, Chad, and Yemen. It is estimated that over seventy percent of the population in Burundi suffers from hunger or malnutrition. In recent years, countries like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Cuba, Georgia, Ghana, Kuwait, Thailand, and Venezuela have significantly reduced hunger among their populations. Women and children are the largest victims of hunger worldwide. Statistics show that sixty percent of the world's hungry population are women. Meanwhile, half of pregnant women in developing countries suffer from a lack of nutritious food, leading to over three hundred thousand deaths during childbirth. One in six children born in developing countries is underweight due to maternal hunger or malnutrition. More than half of child mortality under five years old in these countries is directly related to malnutrition and food shortages. The UN states that every ten seconds, a child dies from hunger or related diseases. Last year, Ali Rabiei, the Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, announced that thirty million people in Iran suffer from hunger or malnutrition. Although some officials later denied these figures, stating they referred to food shortages. However, on a global scale, Iran has performed well in combating hunger. In 2014, Iran was recognized for significantly reducing child hunger (from 13.8% in 1997 to 4.1% in 2014) and received a diploma of honor from the FAO. Iran is also home to a large number of migrants and refugees (notably from Afghanistan and Iraq). According to FAO statistics, one-third of these refugees in Iran suffer from severe food shortages. The amount of food produced globally in one year is sufficient to feed ten billion people, while the world's population is less than eight billion. The main issue is poor management and food waste in many countries. Women in African and South Asian countries, which experience the highest levels of hunger, are also the primary agricultural workforce. However, in these patriarchal societies, they are unable to make decisions about what crops to produce. John Conrad, the Executive Vice President of the Hunger Project, an international NGO working to eliminate hunger, states that most of the world's hungry are those who farm themselves, and most farmers globally are women. If you empower these women, they will make decisions that directly impact their families' lives. They are the ones who feed the children, prioritizing food, health, and education for them.