Eliminating hunger must remain a political priority!

The increase in global crises, the exacerbation of conflicts and armed struggles, climate change and growing global inequality have led to the number of people chronically suffering hunger growing by 152 million people since 2019. Today, 733 people are going hungry, which is every eleventh human being. At the same time, the largest donor countries are drastically reducing their development cooperation and humanitarian aid budgets – with drastic consequences.

“Cuts cost human lives. What looks like an austerity policy on paper means hunger, flight or even displacement for millions of people,” Welthungerhilfe President Marlehn Thieme warned, presenting her organisation’s Annual Report in Berlin/Germany in late July.

Decline in financing rural development particularly worrying

The USA’s abrupt withdrawal from development cooperation could result in around 14 million people being threatened with death by 2030, Germany’s Federal Development Minister, Reem Alabali Radovan, recently noted with view to the dissolution of the US development agency USAID. However, Welthungerhilfe Secretary General Mathias Mogge pointed out that cuts in the German development budget were also putting human lives in danger. He was above all concerned about the decline in support for rural development and food security. According to the draft budget, the corresponding budget item of the Federal Ministry for Development and Economic Cooperation (BMZ) is to be cut by 18 per cent, from 420 million euros to 345 million euros. Budget cuts are even more drastic in humanitarian aid, where support is to be reduced by 53 per cent, amounting to a decline from roughly 2 billion euros to 1 billion euros.

A catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip

“Access to people in need is getting more and more difficult,” Mogge noted. The example he referred to was the disastrous humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where Welthungerhilfe has been active since April 2024. According to the child relief organisation Unicef, the entire population there depend on humanitarian aid, just under half of whom are children. Even Welthungerhilfe staff lack food, because there simply is no more food, or, if food is available, then at an exorbitantly high price. For example, in Gaza City, a 25-kilogram sack of wheat flour costs up to 520 US dollars. In February, Welthungerhilfe was able to distribute food for the last time. Relief supplies are stored in Amman. Owing to the entry ban imposed early in March, it is no longer possible to get food supplies into the Gaza Strip via the Jordanian border.

Gaza Strip: Mobile health teams run by Welthungerhilfe and its partner Juzoor treat up to 1,500 patients every day.
Photo: Welthungerhilfe

Fighting has led to the destruction of most of the drinking water, sanitary and health facilities; there is hardly any fuel left to operate the seawater desalination plant. According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Alert, more than 500,000 people – nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population – are enduring famine-like conditions, while the remaining population is facing emergency levels of hunger. Around 90 per of the population are displaced persons. Together with more than 100 further relief organisations, Welthungerhilfe calls for an immediate ceasefire and free access for relief organisations across all border checkpoints.

The way forward: research cooperation with a local focus

In other crisis regions throughout the world, too, the close link between hunger and conflicts can be observed, for example in Sudan and in Syria, where a major share of the population continues to rely on humanitarian aid and Welthungerhilfe provides emergency relief. However, achieving food security in the long term requires systemic changes and innovative approaches. This is why Welthungerhilfe, with the support of international research partners, has opted for strategic cooperation with local and national research institutions since 2021. “We are developing the approaches together with the people,” Thieme notes. “The research activities are closely intermeshed with the work in the projects and directly help people lead their lives in a better way.” In this context, Welthungerhilfe is cooperating with a total of 14 countries.

Climate resilience, knowledge exchange and women’s empowerment

Here, one of the objectives is to develop agricultural systems which are better adapted to climate change – for example by improving soil health via agricultural residues or through cultivating traditional, heat-resistant crops such as millet, which is also extremely nutritious. In the Central African Republic, since 2014, the organisation has been cooperating with Icrisat (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) and national research units in restoring a seed system so that the country no longer has to rely on importing seed. In Mali, Welthungerhilfe has opted for a combination of sustainable agriculture, knowledge exchange and community building, with women assuming a leading role, for instance as demonstration farmers.

The Central African Republic. Farmer Emile Ngam (left) has taken part in Welthungerhilfe trainings and
is now a certified seed producer. Together with Welthungerhilfe staff Kazele Sila-Soheranda (centre)
and project head Godefroit Niyonkuru, he pays a visit to the maize field for certified seed production.
Photo: Welthungerhilfe

Creating space for innovations

“We have to keep on renewing our efforts and finding new approaches in combating hunger,” Mogge maintained. Here, one important measure was to create space for innovations. At the Global Bioeconomy Summit in Nairobi/Kenya in October 2024, for instance, Welthungerhilfe, together with the Seeding the Future Foundation, brought together 50 business start-ups with representatives from politics and business to present their exciting ideas for improving food security – from enhancing the shelf life of sweet potatoes by covering them with ash to the development of a biopesticide out of local fungi to fight the parasitic Striga weed, which is a threat to more than 40 million smallholder farms in Africa. 

Silvia Richter, editor, Rural 21

Further reading:

Link to Welthungerhilfe's Annual Report (in German; English version to follow)

Link to Welthungerhilfe's Kompass 2025

Facts & Figures on hunger at Welthungerhilfe website

Rural 21 Dossier on Bioeconomy

Rural 21 Dossier on Food Systems