By: Rimsha Mansoor – Student of University of Karachi
WITH HIGH LEVELS OF POVERTY, LIMITED ACCESS TO FOOD, AND DISTURBED EATING HABITS, EVERY YEAR MILLIONS OF PAKISTANIS FALL BACK INTO THE TRAP OF MALNUTRITION. ACTION AGAINST HUNGER IMPLEMENTS NUTRITION-SENSITIVE PROGRAMS IN RURAL AREAS OF SINDH TO COUNTER THIS THREAT
Despite massive food production, the latest National Nutrition Survey revealed that 36.9 percent of the population in Pakistan is food insecure. Furthermore, two-fifth of Pakistanis – a population as large as Germany – live in multidimensional poverty. The Sindh province, where Action Against Hunger primarily work, is one of the most food-deprived provinces and bear the highest burden of malnourished children. These striking figures show the extent to which food insecurity must be considered as a matter of urgent importance and tackled accordingly.
Who does Food Insecurity Affect?
There is no single face of food insecurity, as it impacts every community in the United States. To learn more about child and overall food insecurity in your state, including congressional districts and county-level data, to study conducted by Feeding America®. For information about food insecurity among certain populations:
Almost 64 % of the population of Pakistan resides in rural areas and earns its livelihood from agricultural activities. According to the World Food Program, Pakistan as a major producer of wheat has become a food surplus country. The agriculture sector employs the largest number of people in the country, which exports more than 1 million metric tons of wheat annually.
Today, food insecurity is not only associated with hunger; somewhat paradoxically, it often correlates with obesity as well. This does not mean that the two are necessarily causally linked. Both food insecurity and obesity are the consequences of poverty and a lack of access to nutritious food. Low-income neighborhoods often lack grocery stores or other markets that carry a wide range of healthy foods and instead have a high prevalence of convenience stores and fast food restaurants. People living in poverty are less likely to have reliable transportation for shopping. Healthy foods tend to be more expensive than highly processed foods that are filling but have low nutritional value. As an added obstacle, when fresh produce is available in low-income areas, it is often of poor quality, making it less appealing to purchase.
The prevalence of undernourishment, as a share of the population, is the main hunger indicator used by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. It measures the share of the population which has a caloric (dietary energy) intake which is insufficient to meet the minimum energy requirements defined as necessary for a given population.
The global map of the prevalence of undernourishment – as a percentage of the total population – is shown from 2000 onwards. Countries with a prevalence below 2.5% are not shown.
The prevalence of undernourishment provides the core indicator of hunger with FAO metrics. However, this measure does not give an indication of the average severity of undernourished; it tells us how many lie below the minimum energy requirements, but not how far they lie below this line. To provide an estimate of the intensity of undernourishment in a population, the FAO used a metric called the ‘depth of the food deficit’. This measure provides an estimate of the number of calories the average individual would need in order to balance their caloric intake with energy requirements. This is calculated by measuring the difference between the average energy requirement and average caloric consumption of the undernourished population, multiplying this food deficit by the number of undernourished individuals (to give a value of the total caloric deficit of the country), and then dividing by the total population. The average intensity of the food deficit is measured in kilocalories per person per day.
Pakistan’s economy is being hit hard by the twin shocks of Covid-19 and now the desert locust. These have created a high risk of food insecurity and hunger in the country. The main problem is not the availability of food. It produces more cereal crops, wheat and rice, than the national requirement. Unfortunately, the country’s food policy has failed to recognise food as an entitlement for its citizens, particularly for the poor and the vulnerable.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has recently released the key findings of the Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES), 2018-19. It reveals that 16% of the population is experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity. The incidence is twice as high among the rural population, 20%, as among the urban, 9.2%. Shockingly, three out of five households, 61%, among the lowest two income quantiles in the survey, are experiencing food insecurity.
The World Food Program (WFP) 2020 reports that over three million people in the country are experiencing severe food insecurity, mainly in the drought-affected districts of Balochistan and Sindh. Over half a million people in these provinces are described as in emergency conditions.
The situation has further worsened since March 2020 as a result of the pandemic crisis. As the economy has shrunk, the rate of unemployment and poverty has risen. The worst affected are the poorest segment of the population, who are more likely to be wage labourers, peasant farmers, women, and children.
The shortcomings in public policy to address this are apparent at three levels. First, the government appears to be more concerned about the security of the state than the food insecurity of the people. Despite the publication of the first ever policy report on national food security in 2018, progress on the key policy goals — the eradication of hunger and malnutrition and the improvement of food security. Second, higher food prices since 2018 have adversely affected the affordability of food for the poor. The PBS, May 2020, shows a general inflation rate of 8.2% in the country, an increase from 5% in May 2018. For the same period, the general rural inflation rate has doubled, from 4.5 to 9.7%. As the poor spend a considerably higher share of their income on food, this has a greater effect on their purchasing power. So, with the same level of income, they are able to buy less food. Third, there is poor coordination between the centre and the provinces for monitoring and responding early to the problems of food insecurity. This is despite the passage of the landmark 18th Amendment in 2010, which devolves agriculture and food security to the provincial level.
There is an urgent need for the PTI government to realise the severity of the situation and take special policy measures to avert the unfolding crises. One, increase resources for the improvement of food security; two increase co-operation, instead of confrontation, with the respective provincial governments; and three, control the rising prices of essential food items, and to improve its accessibility and affordability for the poor, to enable them to live a life without fear of hunger and uncertainty of food.
