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Stronger political action needed as hunger in Africa increases

Oxfam says countries need to take stronger political action as the number of hungry people in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to increase

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Wed, May 27, 2015

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Stronger political action needed as hunger in Africa increases

Oxfam says countries need to take stronger political action as the number of hungry people in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to increase.

Citing new figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the international aid agency says the amount of people going hungry has dropped by 167 million in the last decade. However, the number of hungry people in Sub-Saharan Africa has increased by 46 million since 1990-1992, while the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on hunger have not been reached.

Oxfam food and agriculture advisor Luca Chinotti said it was encouraging that fewer children, women and men were going hungry today, but the concern was that progress in fighting hunger was slowing down.

'€œWe must not lose sight of the fact that in 2015 there are still 795 million people not getting enough to eat in a world of plenty. This is unjust and inexcusable,'€ he said in a statement on Wednesday.

Chinotti further said climate change was a key threat in the agency'€™s efforts to overcome hunger and malnutrition and, if left unchecked, could reverse progress on hunger dramatically.

'€œThis year, world leaders are set to agree a new sustainable development goal of reaching '€˜zero hunger'€™ by 2030. Such ambition is badly needed, but we won't be able to sustain the needed progress unless we also tackle climate change at the same time,'€ he said.

Chinotti said progress made by many countries in the last decade showed that eradicating hunger by 2030 was possible, but only if there was enough political will.

'€œInvesting in smallholders, maintaining programs that protected those at risk of hunger, implementing the right to food, stopping land grabs and addressing protracted crises are fundamental to achieving a world free from hunger.'€ (ebf)(+++)

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