Nutrition Report 2022

Hunger – how we can end it

In 2022, the Alliance published its first nutrition report. It describes the global hunger problem and its context; and it shows how the Alliance organizations want to improve food security. The report contains a baseline survey of the situation at the start of the program and a scientific assessment.

Here you can read the summary and find links to the full report.

Shocking figures – hunger on the rise

Up to 828 million people are affected by hunger, an increase of about 150 million between 2019 and 2021. Until 2015, the proportion of malnourished and hungry people had fallen slightly. Since then, however, their numbers have been rising again and today reach ten percent of the world‘s population! These latest FAO’s figures on the world food situation underline the findings of Sufosec’s analysis in this report: Our 2021 survey of 14’000 households in 16 countries revealed expectedly bad results: At the start of the project, one in four households on average was affected by hunger, and two in three households had limited access to food. Based on this data, Sufosec is engaged in the project areas.

Women are hit harder – malnutrition is becoming more and more female

Women are often the last to feed themselves, and often from what is left over after feeding children and husbands. We see this fact in all Sufosec project regions. Crises increase inequality to the disadvantage of the weaker. During the COVID crisis, the gap between women and men widened further, so that today ten percent more women than men are affected by malnutrition. Women, men, the elderly and children have to eat differently to stay healthy. In a food system that is becoming increasingly uniform, the needs of adult, wealthy men are in the foreground. One consequence of this is that, since 2012, almost one in three women aged between 15 and 49 worldwide has been affected by anemia: That‘s 571 million women – without any progress for ten years! Anemia is a consequence of unbalanced and inadequate nutrition in a high percentage of women. Sufosec addresses these challenges.

The drivers for the misguided development – climate, crises, wrong priorities

The COVID pandemic and the Ukraine war are the current fire accelerators that have dramatically worsened the trend towards more and more hunger. For years, however, food speculation has been at the root of hunger and malnutrition, leading to price explosions time and again. Added to this are long- and medium-term processes such as the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity. Moreover, where arable land is used in favour of export-oriented, resource-wasting meat and milk production or, worse, for the cultivation of plant fuels, land for food cultivation is lacking. Only by addressing these challenges in an integrated way, can we reverse the trend in the long term and achieve the sustainable development goal of «Zero hunger» by 2030. Sufosec is actively involved in this reversal.

Everyone is challenged: The goal of «Zero hunger» must be achieved

These misalignments and the recent setbacks show that great efforts must continue to be made in politics, business and civil society to successfully combat hunger. Only together will politics, business and civil society be able to develop solutions that finally make hunger history and achieve the goal of «Zero hunger». Progress has been achieved up to 2015. Hunger is man-made – which also means we can end it.

The contribution of the Sufosec Alliance – Local Food Systems and Agroecology

The Sufosec Alliance is on a common path to develop and implement solutions to the current challenges of overcoming malnutrition and hunger. Our experience as NGOs in development cooperation and scientific studies show that agroecological methods and the promotion of local food systems are the most promising approaches to combat hunger and malnutrition in an integrated manner. We can no longer afford approaches that seek to achieve one goal at the expense of another. Food security, climate protection and species conservation must be addressed simultaneously and in an integrated manner, as agroecology does. Such approaches should also be the focus of Switzerland‘s development cooperation and agricultural policy. In the Sufosec project areas, around 72 percent of people were malnourished or affected by hunger. By the end of 2024, the alliance has set itself the goal of sustainably enabling sufficient and healthy nutrition and thus reducing malnutrition and hunger by 20 percent. Sufosec can be measured against this goal! The initial results are encouraging: Sufosec has achieved that 52,000 families per year were able to apply agro-ecological measures for the first time and thus sustainably improve their nutritional situation. This alone reduced the risk of suffering from malnutrition by up to 16 percent. As a result, up to 8,300 families a year were able to feed themselves sufficiently, sustainably and healthily. The Sufosec Alliance will intensify and broaden these positive results.

16%

reduction in malnutrition and hunger (plus 8‘300 families) in the Sufosec projects

According to the Sufosec survey:

291'000

households use at least one agroecological farming method. Every year, about 52,000 more households start using agroecology

Target by 2024!

-20%

starving and malnourished people in the Sufosec projects until 2024