To gain the nutritional substances that provide energy for activities, growth and other functions of the body in keeping the immune system healthy, food is essential for a human being. The United Nations global facts show that in 2020, between 720 million and 811 million persons worldwide were suffering from hunger, roughly 161 million more than in 2019. A staggering 2.4 billion people, reflecting above 30 per cent of the world’s population, were moderately or severely food-insecure, lacking regular access to adequate food; and globally, 149.2 million children under the age of five (22%), were suffering from stunting (low height for their age) in 2020. These were some of the food and nutritional crisis that the United Nations Member States envisaged when Goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals was adopted, which seeks to end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round by 2030.
In Nigeria, all the indicators of undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting, and child mortality combine to Nigeria’s ranking of 103 out of 121 countries under the Global Hunger Index in 2022. The index indicates that 12.7 per cent of the nation’s population is undernourished, 31.5 per cent of children under five are stunted and 6.5 per cent of under-five children wasted. With 133 million Nigerians reported to be multidimensionally poor, without access to basic necessities of life like food, education, quality healthcare, sanitation, nutrition, among others, it means 63 per cent of Nigerians are living within the extreme line of poverty. What then is Nigeria’s Zero Hunger policy and what strategies do we intend to create a country free of hunger in 2030 or at least in 2060 when Nigeria will be 100 years as a sovereign country? How is Nigeria navigating the effects of multiple global crisis such conflicts, COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and growing inequalities converging to undermine global food security? These are not questions that demand answers from the Federal Government alone; these are questions that urgently demand sustainable commitments from all stakeholders in the zero hunger ecosystem – governments, private sector-led commitment to access to food, and non-profit organisations’ engagement in both holding leaders accountable on zero hunger policies and providing food assistance to vulnerable communities.
To ensure that the 133 million multidimensionally poor Nigerians do not continue to go to bed hungry each day, the government must swiftly reduce the causes and main drivers of hunger crisis such as insecurity and herder-farmers conflicts in rural areas in Nigeria; and launch a national zero hunger policy and food security strategy at all levels of government- federal, state and local. No doubt, Nigeria has adopted a wide range of policy instruments and measures since the early 1970s but such food policies have not been as effective as intended. Take the school feeding programme for instance, though the sound bite of the Federal Government’s free school meals is theoretically good, the implementation can only be effectively felt by the intended beneficiaries when it is corruption-free and expanded to benefit more Nigerians within the poverty belt. Such policy plan must be specific on how to reduce the number of households experiencing hunger and cut diet-related diseases by increasing access to healthy food by 2030. There is so much that individuals and corporations can do but the government has the key to end structural poverty and inequality, particularly at the subnational level.
More importantly, the tool to achieving sustainable solution to end hunger is to educate, empower and expand opportunities for everyone. When one person, particularly the girl child at the rural area is educated, it has a ripple effect that catalyzes to a far-reaching impact on communities. Unless the country gives those living in hunger unhindered access to quality education, it will be difficult to pull them out of worsening poverty indexes. Education, improved and mechanized agriculture, healthcare and access to finance at the rural areas are crucial resources that every nation needs to break its poverty cycle. To achieve a sustainable result in this drive, Nigeria needs a disciplined deliberateness in accountable, inclusive, humane, people-driven and transformational leadership at all levels and spheres of our society, including in traditional and religious spaces.
Collectively, we must make food an instrument of social solution, both for the individual and society. Since we cannot have food security without physical and environmental security, everyone must take responsibility to ensure that poor and vulnerable Nigerians have access to quality food. It is in line with this reasoning that the T200 Foundation brings life-saving food and nutritional assistance to people affected by social conflicts and people who are in need of food.
It is important for everyone to be involved because a hungry nation is an angry nation. Zero hunger is possible and we must make it happen.
- Emmanuel Osadebay is the Executive Director, T200 Foundation
