Goal 1: News

HOW TO: Prevent the Sahel's next food crisis

5 July 2010 DAKAR,  (IRIN) - Another food crisis is unfolding in West Africa's arid Sahel region, putting 10 million people at risk of hunger. Preventing such a scenario, or even better, avoiding it altogether, would be a noteworthy goal.

Global hunger: Connecting the headlines

18th June 2010 - A cassava virus, a shortage of rain in West Africa, and food prices that never went down after the food crisis in 2008 all add up to hunger for some of the world’s poorest countries.

ETHIOPIA: The village that will not need food aid

9th June 2010, Ethiopia (IRIN) - "We will be self-sufficient," said Gebremichael Giday, chairman of Abreha we Atsebeha, a village high in the arid uplands of northern Ethiopia, about 45km from Mekele, capital of the Tigray region. He is confident that in another 10 years they will not need food aid.

Niger raises severe hunger forecast, seeks more aid

20th May, Niamey (Reuters) - Niger's government needs another 45 billion CFA francs ($85.24 million) in food aid after a new survey found 500,000 more people than previously thought will face severe food shortages this year, the government said.

MADAGASCAR: Hunger is a hard sell

19th May 2010, Androka (IRIN) - No mother would ever want to be told her child has "severe acute malnutrition", but in parched southwestern Madagascar, 27-year old Donasine, mother of nine and four months pregnant, welcomes the nurse's diagnosis with a smile - the child will receive free life-saving treatment.

GLOBAL: Analysis: What is a famine?

13th May 2010, Johannesburg - Aid agencies and donors have warned of the possibility of a famine in Niger, evoking images of the last food crisis in the Sahelian country in 2005. Some media organizations have already pronounced the current crisis a famine. So, what exactly is a famine?

Investing in women farmers key to halving hunger

21st April 2010 - Investing in women smallholder farmers is the key to halving hunger and results in twice as much growth as investment in any other sector (1), a new ActionAid report reveals, as the European Union launches its rescue plan for the Millennium Development Goals in Brussels today.

Pakistan's Poverty Pushes Its Children to Work

21st March 2010, Islamabad - Abbas Sajeet is 11 years old, but he doesn't go to school. Instead, he earns 2,500 rupees ($30) a month as an auto mechanic in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad...

South Sudan hungry 'quadrupled in a year'

2nd February 2010, Sudan - The number of people needing food aid in south Sudan has quadrupled in a year to more than four million, the UN's World Food Programme says...

Hunger looms as Zimbabwe's planting season ends

23rd January 2010, Bindura, Zimbabwe — In a dusty field in northern Zimbabwe, villagers clap and sing as they receive desperately needed seed and fertilizer for their crops, their only source of food and income...

Fighting Starvation, Haitians Share Portions

21st January 2010, Port-Au-Prince — Maxi Extralien, a twig-thin 10-year-old in a SpongeBob pajama top, ate only a single bean from the heavy plate of food he received recently from a Haitian civic group. He had to make it last...

Number of hungry people rises to 963 million

9th December 2008, Rome - Another 40 million people have been pushed into hunger this year primarily due to higher food prices, according to preliminary estimates published by FAO today. This brings the overall number of undernourished people in the world to 963 million, compared to 923 million in 2007 and the ongoing financial and economic crisis could tip even more people into hunger and poverty, FAO warned...