Gender justice is needed to reverse the ‘grim’ chances of achieving Zero Hunger
Supporting more just food systems is a path to greater resilience and nutritional security for all
The new Global Hunger Index report shows the ‘grim’ state of food insecurity and stalling progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030. Despite international efforts, there has been little change in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) since 2016, with 42 countries still experiencing worrying hunger levels. Rising conflicts and climate change have worsened food insecurity. The thematic focus of the 2024 report is on exploring how attention to gender justice can offer a path to reduce hunger and build climate resilience.
The 2024 GHI for the world is currently 18.3, which is considered ‘moderate’ and shows only a slight improvement since the 2016 score of 18.8. While this does show some progress to addressing global hunger, this rate of change means that the world is a long way off meeting the 2030 target, instead reaching ‘low’ hunger levels by around 2160. Another cause for concern is that hunger levels have increased in 22 of the included countries since the last report.
The 2024 findings demonstrate the need to redouble efforts to achieve global food security. The new report explores overlapping causes that have led to rising hunger levels, as well as pathways to achieve food security. Solutions need to be multi-scalar and multi-dimensional, but at the core, there needs to be a commitment to public investments in achieving gender and wider social justice.
‘We are far off track from addressing global hunger by 2030 and this new report shows the scale of the challenge. At a time of conflict, rising inequality and climate change, we find gender justice remains crucial to advance climate resilience and Zero Hunger,’ said Prof. Nitya Rao, Director, Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development and co-author on the report
Increasing conflict and inequality have driven hunger
A combination of armed conflicts, increasing inequality, rising food prices and climate change have exacerbated hunger in low- and middle-income countries. In particular, the conflicts across Gaza and Sudan have caused some of the worst hunger crises in the last 20 years. Millions also remain hungry related to civil strife in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Mali, and Syria. Against this backdrop, the right to food has been unenforced, preventing humanitarian aid and disregarding many who are hungry.
The most concerning GHI scores can be found across Somalia, Yemen, Chad, and Madagascar, where ‘alarming’ hunger levels have caused widespread human misery, undernourishment, and malnutrition. Burundi and South Sudan share a similar status. Despite significant progress over the last 20 years, sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the highest hunger levels and progress has slowed since 2016. Hunger levels in South Asia also remain ‘serious’, where poor diets, economic impacts and natural disasters have led to 281 million undernourished people.
There are, however, signs of hope. GHI scores decreased by over 5 points in Bangladesh, Mozambique, Nepal, Somalia, and Togo. The changes in Mozambique and Nepal reflect approximately a 30% improvement in hunger levels. Reflecting on the new GHI levels, the report identifies key areas to reduce hunger.
Gender inequality deepens the crisis
The report shows a link between a country’s food vulnerability and both levels of hunger and gender inequality. Countries with high GHI levels, such as Chad and Yemen, also show high gender inequality, with the reverse also evident. Women are consistently the most food insecure group, where unequal access to resources intensify women’s vulnerability to hunger. Subsequently, the report shows women are as much as 19 percentage points more food insecure than men in some countries.
An underlying challenge appears to be that agri-food policies and financing systems fail to address gender inequalities, such as discriminatory norms, labour burdens, and land inheritance. Yet at the same time, many agro-food systems rely on women for unpaid labour and household food security. Women are also disproportionately affected by climate change, where local adaptation strategies often involve additional workloads for women, such as adopting more livelihoods and travelling further for water. Instead, more needs to be done to recognise and address the inequalities faced by women.
‘We see a clear link where gender inequality repeatedly results in greater hunger risks for women and the household. Pushing for gender justice is a key path to reduce hunger and build resilience in agri-food systems,’ said Prof. Nitya Rao
Gender justice as a path to climate resilience
The GHI report argues that achieving gender justice is a ‘cornerstone’ to climate resilience and nutrition security. Gender justice here is defined as equity between all people in all spheres of life. The report outlines meeting this target through addressing all three dimensions of gender justice: recognition, redistribution and representation.
Gendered roles in communities, such as labour burdens or access to resources, affect the vulnerability to hunger of those groups. As the report argues, the first step to addressing these challenges is to acknowledge the diverse needs of different groups. After recognising these differences, societies can redistribute access and control over resources which affect nutrition security. This might include addressing income inequality or corporate control over production systems. Because of the role women often play in household nutrition, addressing gender inequalities can have cascading effects.
The participation and leadership of women in decision-making roles can help towards making food systems more equitable. The report argues that global commitments on achieving gender equality in food systems transformations or within countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), provide governments an opportunity to design more inclusive and rights-based food security as well as climate adaptation plans and policies. Further, public investments in education, healthcare and rural development can alleviate discriminatory norms and foster more just food systems.
As the 2030 Zero Hunger target draws closer, the 2024 GHI report points to the urgency of action and the need for collaboration across stakeholders to address food insecurity. Women are disproportionally affected by hunger, but supporting more just food systems is a path to greater resilience and nutritional security for all.
The new Global Hunger Index findings can be found here.
This post was written by Nitya Rao and Matt Heaton.