The End World Hunger Essay Example

spanned from 2000 to 2015, were a good start, but the UN was looking for even more acceleration and progress towards a better world, which led to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being adopted in late 2015 and coming into effect on January 1, 2016. “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” is how SDG 2 is summed up by the UN (United Nations). According to the same page, the number of undernourished people actually increased from 777 million people in 2015 to 815 million in 2016. Additionally, food prices rose in 26 countries in 2008, which likely hurt food security (United Nations). Hunger and malnourishment are not centralized to one particular area—63% are in the far East and Pacific, 26% in sub-Saharan Africa, 4% in North Africa and near East, 5% in Latin America and Caribbean (Butler). It is a global problem.

There is a lot of progress that must be made, but it is hard to tell what needs to happen first because all of the SDGs are linked in more than one way. Corrupt regimes and heinous governments need to be transformed, first and foremost. The 2011-2012 famine of Somalia could have been prevented by timely “humanitarian action, but restrictions on international relief agencies providing assistance in places controlled by the group al-Shabaab, designated as a terrorist organisation by the US government, meant that action was too little and too late” to save approximately 250,000 people, most of which were children (de Waal). Of course, the US should be mindful of the kind of aid we provide, but as long as it is done purposefully and given for

a specific purpose, there is no reason not to help—the goal is to help the people, not the terrorists. The same scenario exists in Syria today, being that there is a “near-total denial of humanitarian aid in areas control by the Islamic State” (de Waal). Despite the resources we could use, we are not (de Waal). In short, the “elimination of famine requires greater efforts at preventing and resolving deadly conflicts, and fewer hindrances on providing humanitarian assistance in those conflicts that do occur” (de Waal). Better and more just governments are required for hunger to ever be alleviated, and unfortunately, it is both one of the largest issues at hand as well as the first that needs to be tackled.