World Food Prize laureates ask Biden to alleviate global hunger, poverty and malnutrition

A group of 24 World Food Prize laureates have written a letter to US President Joe Biden urging him to alleviate global hunger and malnutrition. In the missive, that was made public by the World Food Prize Foundation on February 23, the group had urged Biden to lead the way to elevate hunger from the world. Furthermore, they asked him to change the existing food systems and reduce the gap between the haves and have nots.

Calling the US a the catalyst for action, they said that any action by the country would also inspire other nations to follow the same. “American leadership on getting food systems right will inspire and embolden others to join forces to end hunger, counter climate change, generate jobs, and promote responsible stewardship of the environment,” an excerpt from the letter read.

They also asked Biden to reestablish American global leadership to end hunger. Additionally, they also urged Biden to refresh the country’s evidence-based policy and investment to end hunger and expand the USAID Feed the Future initiatives.

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“American leadership will be a beacon that helps to light the way and a catalyst for action that gets us to a world in 2030 where we live within our planetary boundaries, everyone is well-nourished, and no one goes to bed hungry,” said Lawrence Haddad, 2018 World Food Prize laureate and executive director of Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.

Acute hunger 

According to the Global Hunger Index, the global level of hunger is at a moderate level however situation in three countries –Chad, Timor-Laste and Madagascar- suffer from ‘alarming’ hunger while eight countries—Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—have also been ‘provisionally’ are battling alarming levels of hunger. In addendum, hunger is at ‘serious’ levels in 31 countries and moderate in 14 countries. While the world is already struggling with food scarcity, the COVID-19 crisis has led to failure in food systems across the globe.

(With inputs from AP)

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