Group 2_C | SDG 2: Zero Hunger

A collection of 17 interlinked global goals, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve as a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all” so as to promote peace and prosperity for both the people as well as the planet now and in the near future.

The aim to “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture” by 2030 is the crux of Global Goal 2 of SDGs. Hunger has been one of the leading causes of death, especially in the case of children with a child dying every 10 seconds as a result of extreme hunger. As per the Sustainable Goals report, 2021, nearly 2.37 billion people from all across the world are either unable to fulfill the daily food demands or are unable to maintain a healthy and well-balanced diet on a daily basis as of 2020. Moreover, the global pandemic has further added to our woes, with an estimated 70-161 (addnl.) million people experiencing severe hunger, over 200 million children suffering from malnutrition-related issues like obesity or stunting and the number of undernourished people increasing from 650 million in 2019 to nearly 800 million in 2020. The main reason behind the same has been the uneven distribution and inefficient management of the tremendous resources available on the planet.

SDG 2 aims to overcome this particular issue through the promotion of sustainable methods of agriculture using high-quality technologies and a fair/equal distribution mechanism. The main targets as set by this Global Goal include: -

To end hunger by 2030 by ensuring universal access to healthy and sufficient food throughout the year.
To end each and every form of malnutrition by 2030, be in women or children
To ensure sustainable food production while simultaneously doubling the income and productivity of the small-scale producers and preventing trade disruptions
Undertake research and development in agriculture, maintenance of genetic diversity and thus ensure a stable market

Thus, this goal of “zero hunger” can be achieved through the global partnership of both the developed and developing world involving the modification of the existing operational framework so as to ensure that no one is left behind.

Source: https://in.eastwestseed.com/policies/supporting-sdg2-zero-hunger

The situation in India

The Indian society is built on three basic necessities of life – “Roti, Kapda, aur Makaan” i.e., Food, clothes, and shelter. The following facts put a big question mark to the first of those needs – India accounts for 1/4^th of the world’s under-nourished people and 21% of people living on less than 1.9 USD a day. This number for a country with a population in excess of 1.3 billion turns out to be at around 273 million. While the country is enroute economic rise with per capita rising every year, the minimum dietary intake has fallen. India ranked 94^th out of 107 countries on the Global Hunger Index, 2020. The ranking suggests the issue in India is serious.

Year	GHI Score
2000	38.9
2006	37.5
2012	29.3
2020	27.2

As evident, the progress in the past 20 years exists but the levels are still alarming. The high economic disparity in the Indian society is leading to both stunted growth due to malnutrition on one end and obesity on the other (a 40.3% prevalence).

Source- https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/global-hunger-index-india-slams-methodology-after-countrys-position-tanks/article37007672.ece

Steps taken in India

The Government of India has taken steps to tackle the problem of hunger and malnutrition in the country. The focus has been on strengthening the agricultural sector which is currently contributing to just 15% of the country’s GDP despite employing more than half of the population. Measures pertaining to improved irrigation – Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (2015), Micro Irrigation Fund Scheme (2019), crop insurance – Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (2016), and improved varieties are being taken. Another point of focus has been food security including targeted public distribution system, a National Nutrition Mission, and the National Food Security Act (2013). The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture, and similar missions have been leading the way for improving India’s agriculture.

Organisations working for the Issue

The World Food Programme (WFP) – with presence in 83 countries, WFP has been successful in providing food assistance to over 86 million people annually. This UN agency has a massive fleet of 5.6 thousand trucks, 20 ships and 92 planes that are used to provide food assistance to people affected by natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes etc. The organization also runs programs focusing on malnutrition in developing countries along with implementing school feeding programs reaching 16 million children in 60 countries
Care – is focused on being an emergency responder. The organisation also runs the She Feeds the World program, which aims to uplift women as consumers and producers of food. The organisation aims to aid 50 million people out of malnourishment and poverty
The Hunger Project – is an international NGO with a vision of “a world where every woman, man and child lead a healthy, fulfilling life of self-reliance and dignity”. The organization is active in over 16 thousand communities helping them overcome hunger and poverty by themselves. The organization has 3 important elements, namely: empowering women as agents of change, mobilizing communities enabling self-reliant action and fostering effective collaborations with local governments
Akshaya Patra – established in the year 2000, aims to overcome classroom hunger through its Mid-Day Meal Scheme program in Indian government schools. The organization is now one of the largest in the program, serving food to over 18 lakh children from 16,856 schools

Why is the world- and India- battling hunger?

The number of undernourished people in the world rose by 161 million in 2020, and more and more face acute food insecurity in 2021 mainly due to - ^[a1]

Conflict -

Violent conflicts destroy the food production and supply lines and make food availability unstable. As major violent conflicts have increased, tripling since 2010, so has food scarcity for the people living in unstable regions of Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen and Syria.^[a2]^[a3]

1: Conflict as the major cause of food insecurity

https://www.wfpusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/WFP-USA-Winning-the-Peace-2020.pdf

Extreme Weather and Climate Shocks -

The frequency of extreme weather events has increased by five times in the last 50 years due to climate change. These cause shortage of food by devastating crops and degrading fertile lands. The vulnerable people in poorer countries are disproportionally affected due to a lack of preparedness and technology for forewarning.

Impact of COVID-19 -

The measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 had a negative impact on food supply with difficulties for humanitarian organisation to reach vulnerable people.The economic shock also resulted in malnourishment with both quantity and quality of available food going down significantly.

Food Wastage -

One-third of the food produced in the world worth 1 trillion US$ is wasted every year. While the developed countries are responsible for by over-buying, the rest struggle with proper harvest and storage problems. Additionally, pests destroy crops and cause food shortages.

Poverty -

Poverty is at the root of hunger issues in the world. People in extreme poverty survive on less than $2 per day, and simply cannot afford to procure the required food.^[a8] Whatever they get is not nutritious enough to sustain a healthy life which in turn affects their ability to earn a living wage. Poverty is exacerbated by other causes like conflicts, and the people are unable to break the perpetual cycle of hunger.

India

Two-thirds of the chronically hungry live in Asia.

Increasing Poverty and failure of Hunger Alleviation Schemes - 20% of the people in India makes less than the income needed to sustain a nutritious meal. The food surplus that exists in the country in unaffordable to these people from the open market, and despite the PDS systems put in place by the government, there exist large inefficiencies in the system, that were aggravated in COVID, especially among the daily wage laborers. In a post-pandemic report on the review of the PDS system, the following was reported-

“During the lockdown, the Centre announced that 80 million ‘migrants’ would be entitled to free grain for two months (subsequently extended till November). At the end of the initial two months, few states had used this provision, primarily due to problems in identification of such persons”

Declining land productivity- Population increase is giving rise to increased scarcity of land and more and more strain on the limited productivity of land. Agriculture output from these small and marginal holdings are either stagnant or declining due to fragmented lands. Nearly 50M households in India are dependent on these marginal land holdings, whose output isn’t sufficient for even self-sustenance.

Source- https://scroll.in/article/1008089/why-does-india-struggle-to-battle-hunger

Business Implications

Each and every level of economic operations, be it global or national, have faced serious implications due to the increasing problem of hunger and malnutrition. Hunger is driven by poverty which in turn drives poverty perpetually. This continuing prevalence of hunger has proved to be detrimental for business operations as it affects productivity and economic growth due to an increased burden on health and education system.

Post the pandemic, it was estimated that nearly 230 million Indians have been pushed into poverty, with a possibility of a 0.6% rise in the poverty rate in India (rural and urban poverty up by 15 and 20 percentage points respectively). Moreover, the government’s failure in providing a well-outlined policy for food security stagnated the GHI score which fell from 38.8 in 2000 to 28.8-27.5 in 2020 (pandemic era). A well mandated CSR law has seen several business houses taking both fund and non-fund-based initiatives in relation to the SDGs.

Reckitt: In its sustainability report of 2019, Reckitt recognized how the SDGs are critical in fulfilling its purpose to promote a cleaner and a healthier world. Focusing on SDG 2, Reckitt is an active supporter of “One Young World”, which undertakes the Lead 2030 programme. Under this initiative, Reckitt sponsors the prize for young leaders to undertake their endeavors in challenging the problem posed by SDG 2 i.e., zero hunger. The winners receive a prize money of $50,000 for their initiative along with access to the mentorship programme at Reckitt.

Bain:

Source:https://www.bain.com/about/further-global-responsibility/social-impact/impact-report/food-systems/

Bain works to transform world’s food systems—making them more inclusive, sustainable, and nutritious—by working with big clients. It also works to make supply chains more sustainable, traceable, and transparent. Specifically in Africa, Bain is pushing for agricultural development that anchors on farmer-allied intermediaries, as detailed above.

Pidilite: While the company is focused on SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth, the employment provided to a large workforce is essential to eradicate hunger in a country where unemployment is an epidemic in itself. With 6000+ workers at its helm, Pidilite is providing enough support from its side to these people and their families to be able to cater to their food and other needs. Being awarded multiple times as one of the safer places to work, Pidilite provides healthy and safe conditions to work in and enough perks to its employees.

Asian Paints: While Asian Paints does not actively participate into initiatives that focus on fixing hunger issues, they do however, partner with the government to fund schools (thereby providing midday lunches, albeit indirectly). They also work towards upskilling labour through vocational trainings at Asian Paints Colour Academy, thereby providing employment. Other interventions that Asian Paints takes, include installing rooftop harvesting units, recycling and reusing water and undertaking construction activities to increase capacity of surface water storage.

Vodafone Idea: Vodafone Idea established a partnership with FSSAI and NASSCOM Foundation to start the Save Food Share Food initiative which aims to reduce food wastage by encouraging people to donate surplus food with them. They also have a smart agri initiative where they aim to leverage technology to make valuable information available to small farmers to help them improve their yield. Their digital village initiative aims to create a model village and support women in creating robust food supply chains utilising technological innovations.

BCG

BCG is helping WFP improve the efficiency and impact of their projects by designing tools for informed decision making and guiding the organization on best practices. BCG has also supported the redesign of WFP’s school feeding program, helping improve the rollout to nationally owned programs. The tools designed by BCG has helped WFP to analyze the need and coverage in its school feeding programs, and assess investments.

Way Ahead

With the increasing rate of economic growth and development, there is an urgent need to address the demands of the bottom 50% of the population in relation to basic amenities such as food, water, shelter and education so as to ensure the growth of all sections of the society and that no one is left behind. Ensuring fair wage rates for people to sustain themselves and their dependents (including gig workers) would be a welcome move as it would increase the overall income levels of the population. Moreover, the rise in incidents of stunting and food shortage has emphasized on the need to develop mechanisms of tackling food wastage coupled with the demand for better transportation and storage facilities. As the agricultural sector is the largest employment provider in India, sustainable agricultural practices such as better use of agricultural biodiversity rather than monocrop plantations would alleviate malnutrition and improve the overall livelihood of people.

The pandemic has furthermore transformed the distribution mechanism in India, with over 23 million tons of food grains being successfully provided to people through public distribution system from both the central and the state government. This tested the efficacy of various avenues under the ambit of the food supply chain currently in function which can significantly help in tackling food scarcity. The Gujarat Public Distribution System is an excellent example of an efficient distribution mechanism.

The food grains so distributed primarily consisted of rice, wheat and pulses and there was a noticeable lack of vegetables or fruits, thereby making it a very imbalanced diet. Thus, even though the number of people suffering from malnutrition issues has reduced, 30+ million children are still enduring nutritional deficiency. In this regard, provision of cooked meals are exhibits of the government's efforts in the right direction.

Thus, with these steps, it is possible to contribute to alleviating the issue of world hunger and in turn address its associated problems of poverty, malnutrition, corruption and many more.

References

Search This Blog

Group 2_C | SDG 2: Zero Hunger

Group 2_C | SDG 2: Zero Hunger

Comments

Post a Comment