The fact that poverty and hunger are among the leading issues that the world at large is dealing with currently, is no longer a secret. Surprisingly, both these issues are greatly linked together to the extent that one is directly proportional to the other. Poverty leads to hunger, and both these issues go hand in hand.
In the modern-day world, poverty and hunger statistics have skyrocketed to the point where it has turned into an alarming situation. If the world doesn’t pay the well-deserved attention to these issues right now, soon we\’ll be witnessing devastating effects throughout the globe and it will be too late to reverse this catastrophe.
This is exactly why major organizations in the world are dedicated to drawing the attention of the masses to these issues of massive magnitude generally known as poverty and hunger. Let’s go over this detailed article that discusses the causes and statistics of global poverty and hunger, in order to understand the graveness of these challenges and how can the world collectively deal with them.
What\’s Causing World Poverty?
There is a multitude of reasons that directly and indirectly contribute to the ever-growing statistics of poverty worldwide. These causes range anywhere from economic disparity, unequal distribution of wealth worldwide, conflicts, excessive discrimination on religious and political grounds, and unfavorable climatic conditions.
Let’s go over a few prominent causes of global poverty and their devastating effects.
1. War and Conflict
Conflict can be labeled as the number one cause of poverty. Massive-scale violence and ethnic cleansing as witnessed in the case of Rohingya results in people being displaced in large volumes. This directly causes poverty, as those people forced to flee due to constant subjection to violence are left with no means of secure income in order to carry on with their lives in a smooth manner.
2. Undernutrition and Hunger
You might wonder how hunger can result in poverty when it is crystal clear that poverty is mainly responsible for causing hunger? Let us clear the air by telling you that, as we already mentioned above hunger and poverty are greatly intertwined, these both issues go hand in hand.
Lack of nutritious food resources for a prolonged period can cause serious stunting in young children and pregnant women. In this way, the coming generation is deprived of the necessary nutrients that are required for proper mental and cognitive growth. Thus, they are left behind and can no longer make efforts to improve their financial standing.
3. Climate Crisis
The role of climate crisis in causing poverty is quite prominent in the misery that people of Thar have been suffering from for ages. Due to intense climatic conditions, Thar lacks rainfall which eventually leads to an excessive shortage of water supply. This interrupted and irregular water supply directly affects the growth of crops and agricultural activities.
When the food supply is adversely affected due to water scarcity people are deprived of food staples, in this way as mentioned above poverty is indirectly favored.
4. Lack of Quality Education
The absence of access to quality education for all plays a crucial role in causing poverty. As obvious as it seems, without education one can’t get the required confidence and skills to go out in the world and make a place for themselves. In this way, due to a lack of education, the financial growth is limited and the ones lacking education are caught in an endless cycle of poverty.
Poverty Statistics Worldwide
The global poverty statistics are extremely unnerving, but sadly they are hundred percent true and authentic. Unluckily, an estimate of around 9.2% of the world or 689 million people are living below the line of poverty. They are forced to survive on less than $1.09 per day. In Pakistan alone, the country-wide poverty figures are projected at 3.79% of the entire population for 2022.
What\’s Causing World Hunger?
Poverty is the fundamental cause of global hunger and undernutrition. In fact, poverty tops the list of causes of hunger in the world. The acute shortage of resources and economic disparity render mass volumes of people helpless, this means these people are unable to gather a sufficient supply of food and farming resources in order to satisfy their food demand.
All the factors mentioned above that contribute greatly to poverty can be counted as the causes of hunger as well.
Reasons ranging from conflict, unstable economic conditions, long-term poverty, lack of water resources, and climate emergencies to food wastage and forced migration are all hugely responsible for causing the exponential increase in the statistics of global hunger.
Hunger Statistics Worldwide
You might be beyond surprised to hear that the world produces more than enough supply of food to feed the entire world’s population yet due to unmonitored wastage of food resources, 1 in 9 people go hungry on a daily basis. Globally, 8.9% of the entire world’s population which makes 690 million people are forced to go to bed with empty stomachs.
Apart from these nerve-wracking figures, in the time span of 1 year from 2019 to 2020 the number of malnourished people grew by 161 million as a result of the global pandemic.
Moreover, conflict is known as both the cause and consequence of hunger. In 2020 alone conflict was the primary cause of hunger for 99.1 million people in 23 different regions of the world.
Last but not the least, due to the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic world hunger in the coming decade is projected to increase by 30 million people.
EkPlateBiryani’s Role in the Fight Against World Poverty and Hunger
Like many other NGOs that are actively working against world poverty and hunger, Eklatebiryani has also played a prominent role in fighting against these two issues. Since it first came into being back in May 2019, Ekplatebiryani has been working tirelessly towards achieving poverty and a hunger-free world.
At Ekplatebiryani we firmly believe that no individual deserves to be deprived of fundamental rights such as access to food, water, education, and shelter. We have initiated multiple projects that have proved to be impactful in combating poverty and hunger in various regions of the world.
Our food aid operations such as food distribution, food drives, and monthly food ration projects have done wonders in terms of reducing the hunger statistics, especially for destitute areas like Thar.
You can also take part in this fight against global poverty and hunger in order to fulfill the moral obligation toward those in need. For making your contributions come forward and donate as much as you can to Ekplatebiryani for ensuring that our aid projects are run smoothly without any hindrance.
Wrap Up on Global Poverty and Hunger
There is no denying, that poverty and hunger are two leading challenges that the world is facing right now. Both these issues are greatly linked together and they go hand in hand, hence we can include that any efforts made to reduce global poverty will automatically reduce global hunger and vice versa.
It\’s high time that we realize the devastating effects of poverty and hunger along with taking timely measures in order to cease the growing figure of poverty and hunger.