SDG 2
Zero Hunger
Zero Hunger
Welcome to you, distinguished delegates! Thank you for your participation in the KGUMUN. This section explains Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger, the second goal in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, as one of the four committee themes at KGUMUN. This topic focuses on ending hunger alongside severe situations such as conflict, climate change, and even COVID-19 as a recent issue.
We prepared an overview of the theme and tips for your further research about your country. We hope this could be useful as clues for your research on the theme, and you can touch on many various kinds of topics that not only your country has but also others do, which could expand your worldview and interest in sorts of issues all around the world.
Best regards,
The number of people under the harmful circumstances of hunger, based on the number of patients with inadequate nutrition, started to rise slowly again in 2015. Current data shows that almost 690 million people are suffering from hunger, which is 8.9 percent of the population in the world. Zero Hunger could be unlikely to be achieved by 2030 at this rate. The number of people who suffer from hunger will be more than 840 million by 2030. The World Food Programme stated that extreme hunger suffered by 135 million people is mainly caused by armed conflicts, worsening economy and climate change. Such a number of people could rise to double from the current level because of the COVID-19 pandemic, risking 130 million people more in danger of hunger by the end of 2020. Concerning a quarter of a billion people who may potentially starve, prompt actions need to be taken to provide food and humane relief to most regions in need. Meanwhile, a further change in the global food and agricultural technology is required to help the more than 690 million people in hunger today, and the 2 billion more people the world will have by 2050. It is crucial to improve agricultural productivity and sustainable food production for helping alleviate the world situation of hunger.
★Goal 2 Targets are here both in English and Japanese: https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/oda/sdgs/statistics/goal2.html
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) supports securing food security by creating ways of growing food for the future not to make millions of people hungry in order to achieve SDGs 2: Zero Hunger.
The FAO is also recognized as a leader in order to translate global food safety initiatives into country level action. The Food Safety and Quality Programme helps support a synthesizing and scientific approach to food safety management and comprehensive and realizable “food chain” solutions to specific food safety issues as stated by FAO’s Strategy for Improving Food Safety Globally. The Food Safety and Quality Unit works together with national and international bodies and organizations frequently.
For example, at the UN Food Systems Summit, held by the Secretary-General with the FAO in 2021, international and regional cooperation and COVID-19 recovery was called for among 37,000 delegates and 165 Members, contributing to eradicating famine and enhancing nutrition, tackling for climate change mitigation, and helping all scale farmers with investments and technology.
(https://www.fao.org/food-safety/background/en/)
(https://www.fao.org/home/en/)
(https://www.fao.org/3/ni547en/ni547en.pdf)
The World Food Programme (WFP), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020, is the humanitarian organization which helps saving and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergency circumstances and working together with communities for better nutrition and supporting resilience. It also assisted 115.5 million people in 84 countries in 2020.
The WFP owns 5,600 trucks, 30 ships and almost 100 planes on the move to be able to deliver food or any other support to the region in need.
Focusing on emergency assistance such as supplied food to the people in conflict areas and the spread of COVID-19, for example, the WFP works on providing food assistance to any regions, helping rebuild shattered lives and livelihoods, strengthening the resilience of people and communities, bettering nutrition including school meals, providing UN humanitarian Air Service, Funding and more.
The WFP works closely together with two sister organizations, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, in cooperation with more than 900 national and international NGOs partners to provide food assistance and end hunger.
As some of the the WFP’s programs, the Food Assistance for Asset (FFA) programmes helped recover natural buffer areas and infrastructure to mitigate the influence of hazards related to climate change for vulnerable people, as well as Forecast-based Financing (FbF) and Weather and Climate Information Services, and help to inform remote farming communities of irregular rainfall for reducing crop losses.
(https://www.wfp.org/overview)
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) nutrition programmes provide a universal assumption that prevention comes first and treatment comes next, in 130 countries. UNICEF works on preventing all sorts of malnutrition, bettering access to nutritious, safe, affordable and sustainable food for children and women, by supporting quality nutrition, health, water and sanitation, and more. UNICEF also helps improve children’s and women’s best feeding, hygiene and care practices.
Also, UNICEF works together with many nutrition partners at any levels of community to enhance nutrition policies, strategies and programmes that promote progress for achieving the SDGs, including Goal 2.
UNICEF is a leading body as a partner in the “Scaling Up Nutrition” movement and the “Global Nutrition Cluster” collaborating with more than 45 partners and 10 observers in response to any nutrition emergencies.
UNICEF works on WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) programmes that support providing children in areas of conflict as well with safe water and sanitation, access to the basic toilets and better hygiene practices to prevent the spread of disease such as COVID-19.
Hunger still afflicts many people as almost one in three people in the world could not access enough food in 2020 according to the FAO. Hunger is still one of the problems that must be solved at the global level. The threat of COVID-19 has also made the situation more serious in some areas, as an additional 83 to 132 million people were pushed into hunger in 2020 referring to the indicators from the FAO. Even under such circumstances, we must first save ourselves through the Sustainable Development Goals. To do so, we must find better solutions from multiple perspectives, especially in the area of hunger, and how we can approach the problem, believing that this will create a better world tomorrow for all of us.
Food Agriculture Organization (FAO): (https://www.fao.org/home/en/)
World Food Programme (WFP): (https://www.wfp.org/)
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): (https://www.unicef.org/)
International Fund for Agricultural Development: (https://www.ifad.org/en/)
United Nations Development Programme: (https://www.undp.org/)
Sustainable Development Goals 2: (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/)