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	Hunger cost poor countries $450 billion a year

As Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg prepares to meet world leaders next week in New York to discuss progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a new report by ActionAid has revealed that hunger is costing poor nations $450 billion a year - more than ten times the amount needed to halve hunger by 2015 and meet the first goal. 

ActionAid’s report Who's really fighting hunger? shows how the world is failing on its promise to tackle hunger despite over a billion people going hungry every day. The mammoth human cost is eclipsed only by the shocking fact that developing economies are losing these vital billions each year largely because their people are too hungry to work.

Meredith Alexander, Head of Policy at ActionAid said:“On the eve of the most important development summit for five years, a billion people will be going to bed hungry. Despite promises to the contrary, one sixth of humanity doesn't get enough to eat. But we grow enough food to feed every man, woman and child on the planet.

"The real cause of hunger isn't lack of food, it is lack of political will. In Brazil, President Lula made beating hunger a personal priority and the country has cut child malnutrition in half.

“For the last ten years, the UK has been at the forefront of tackling global poverty. The challenge for Nick Clegg is to show the same kind of leadership on hunger as the UK has demonstrated on education, HIV and Aids and debt relief."

The hunger scorecard

ActionAid’s research also shows the real dates countries will meet MDG1 and scores nations on their efforts to fight hunger so far. The report reveals that 20 out of 28 poor nations are off track to halving hunger by 2015 and 12 of these are going backwards. Globally, 20% more people are going hungry now than when the goals were conceived.

Even in fast-growing, emerging economies like India, the failure to invest in agriculture and support small farms, means nearly half of the country’s children are malnourished and one in five of the population is hungry.

The hunger goal is going backwards globally, largely because of a lack of investment in agriculture and rural development, few legal rights to food in poor nations and little or no support services to help farming communities when harvests fail.

In these economically straightened times, the report shows how important it is to realise the fight against hunger is not just about money - it takes political action. When hunger is prioritised, significant progress can be made.Malawi has reduced the number of people living on food hand outs from 4.5 million to 150,000 in just five years.  Brazil has halved the number of underweight children in less than 10 years.  China will meet its hunger goal five years early. With 5 years to go, now is the time for countries rich and poor to follow their example.

G8 nations pledged $22 billion in 2009 to fight hunger, yet ActionAid estimates $14 billion of this is old aid promises repackaged and it is still unclear when or how the money will be spent. The UK has increased its aid to agriculture, but there is still much more it should be doing. Most importantly, the UK needs to prioritise hunger as a key development issue.

ActionAid’s is calling on Clegg to show leadership on hunger and not allow the UK to fade as a leading light in global development.

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