The Big Problem of Hunger and Malnourishment Around the World

In this blog, the words hunger, malnourishment and famine will be used frequently but, what do
they mean? Which countries have the highest rate of hunger? What can we learn from famine all
over the years? Follow through to learn more about this issue.
Famine is a synonym of food scarcity and food shortage, it is "a situation in which there is not
enough food for a great number of people, causing illness and death..." (famine, Cambridge
Dictionary, n.d.).
Hunger is "the feeling you have when you need to eat" it is normal and all of us have felt this at
least once, but sometimes there is not enough food and people feel this for weeks or months, which
is not normal anymore (hunger, Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.).
Malnourishment is the consequence of hunger it is "the fact of being weak and in bad health
because of having too little food..." (malnourishment, Cambridge Dictionary, n.d.).
Now having these definitions clear let’s start off.

History
The history of hunger and malnutrition has always been present and goes back from the first people
who existed to the present day. But there was a very relevant time that stood out in which almost all
death fitted for to lack of food.
The Irish potato famine is one of the most talked of examples, it began in 1845 and ended up in
1852, when an organism fungus-like called Phytophthora spread out through Ireland. The
infestation ruined one-half of the potato crop that year, and about three-quarters of the crop over the
next seven years.
The worst part of this is that the potato came out as one of the most important foods in that time.
The farmers relied heavily on the potato as a source of food, the infestation had a catastrophic touch
on Ireland and its population.
The Potato Famine resulted in the death of close on one million Irish from starvation, with at least
another million being forced into leave their homeland as refugees. (Irish Potato Famine, 2017)
Countries with the most and less hunger.
According to Sarah Dougherty if we answer to these four questions, we will be able to measure the
countries average of hunger that each one has. These questions are:

 Do people have enough to eat? This looks at the percentage of malnourished people and
underweight children.
 Is food of good quality? This looks at the nutritional diversity of food and access to clean
and safe water.
 Can people afford to eat? This looks at food prices relative to other goods and services, and
whether there’s inflation (aka, food price volatility).
 What is the extent of unhealthy outcomes of people’s diet? This looks at rates of diabetes
and obesity. (Dougherty, 2014).
Countries with more hunger: Countries with the less hunger:
 Somalia  The Netherlands
 Yemen  Switzerland
 Central African Republic  France
 Chad  Belgium
 Democratic Republic of Congo  Austria
(THESE ARE THE WORLD’S 10 HUNGRIEST COUNTRIES IN 2021, 2021)

Malnourishment and Hunger in Colombia.

Members of the Wayuu people in the department of La Guajira, Colombia, find it extremely
difficult to access food, water and medical attention. The Colombian government should take up
urgent action to look after the rights of Wayuu children.
"The indigenous communities of La Guajira do not have access to enough food or the water
necessary to carry on basic hygiene (including hand washing) information and access to health care
is extremely deficient." said José Miguel Vivanco, director for the Americas of Human Rights
Watch. (Colombia: Niños indígenas en riesgo de desnutrición y muerte, 2020)
In Bucaramanga, the nutritional problem came up in the studies carried out by the Ministry of
Health and the most worrying thing is that children are the most affected by this problem.
The Public Health Observatory of Santander, the entity in charge of disseminating information on
health and violence in the Department, revealed that during 2005, the Ministry of Health received
data on 45,484 boys and girls under 12 years of age with malnutrition.
In children around this age (12 years old), the prevalence of chronic malnutrition is 10.8%, acute
malnutrition is 4%, and global malnutrition is 6.9%. (Sánchez, 2006)

How are we fighting of hunger and malnourishment?

The WFP (World Food Programme) is a programme that gives out food to people who needs it, this
is a great way to slowly pull-down malnourishment around the world.
Who are they?
The World Food Programme (WFP) works to bring life-saving food to people displaced by conflict
and made destitute by disasters. (Who We Are, 2020)
Mission
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and
changing lives, sending out food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to look
up for nutrition and build resilience. (Mission, 2020)
Colombia
This agreement opened up new possibilities for the World Food Programme (WFP) to tackle the
outstanding challenges of inequality and malnutrition and to build the resilience of community’s
long cut-off by armed activities. (Colombia, 2020)
We need to do away with hunger and malnutrition around the world is it not something that we
should let get away and we can’t let people that are suffering this condition down. We should set off
new ways to help people in need around the world, not just to sit down and let others do it. And tell
me, after reading this, what would you do to help so that this issue eventually fades away?

References:

 What causes child hunger and malnutrition? World Food Program USA. (2021,
August 11). Retrieved January 20, 2023, from https://www.wfpusa.org/articles/9-
things-to-know-about-malnutrition-2/
 Famine. FAMINE | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.).
Retrieved January 20, 2023, from
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/famine
 Hunger. HUNGER | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.).
Retrieved January 20, 2023, from
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/hunger
 Malnourishment. MALNOURISHMENT definition | Cambridge English
Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved January 20, 2023, from
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/malnourishment
 Others potato famine painting - potato famine print for sale: Potato Famine, Irish
history, painting. Pinterest. (2019, May 7). Retrieved January 20, 2023, from
https://co.pinterest.com/pin/337910778292647592/
 Hungry? these 14 countries are the best and worst at feeding their citizens. The
World from PRX. (2014, January 17). Retrieved January 20, 2023, from
https://theworld.org/stories/2014-01-17/hungry-these-14-countries-are-best-and-
worst-feeding-their-citizens
 The world's hungriest countries in 2022. Concern Worldwide. (2022, October 25).
Retrieved January 20, 2023, from https://www.concernusa.org/story/worlds-
hungriest-countries/
 Colombia: Niños Indígenas en riesgo de desnutrición y muerte. Human Rights
Watch. (2022, October 6). Retrieved January 21, 2023, from
https://www.hrw.org/es/news/2020/08/13/colombia-ninos-indigenas-en-riesgo-de-
desnutricion-y-muerte
 La Desnutrición Causa Alarma en Bucaramanga. Quiero ser UNAB. (n.d.).
Retrieved January 21, 2023, from https://unab.edu.co/la-desnutricion-causa-alarma-
en-bucaramanga/
 137 children under five have died of malnutrition in Colombia in 2022. justice for
Colombia. (2022, July 19). Retrieved January 21, 2023, from
https://justiceforcolombia.org/news/137-children-have-died-of-malnutrition-in-
colombia-in-2022/
 Who we are: World food programme. UN World Food Programme. (n.d.).
Retrieved January 22, 2023, from https://www.wfp.org/who-we-are
 Mission: World food programme. UN World Food Programme. (n.d.). Retrieved
January 22, 2023, from https://www.wfp.org/overview
 Colombia: World Food Programme. UN World Food Programme. (n.d.). Retrieved
January 22, 2023, from https://www.wfp.org/countries/colombia