SDG2 – The Elusive Global Quest to End Hunger

SDG2 recognizes that access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food is arguably the most fundamental necessity for a healthy and productive life. This chapter provides an overview of the many dimensions of hunger and malnutrition and how societies from ancient times—states, civil society, and private philanthropists—have gradually organized collectively to reduce the burden of hunger and malnutrition. The chapter begins with a discussion of famine, the most visible manifestation of hunger throughout history that was once a scourge in most societies but has now largely been eliminated in the twenty-first century. We then discuss how from the early twentieth century the goal of zero hunger became an international cause and a basic human right. The review then moves to the post-Second World War period when foreign assistance programs and countries focused on producing more staples to feed the world’s burgeoning population, narrowly measured in per capita calories supplied. In the 1980s, the focus turned from supply to access to food, and from around 1990 to the multiple dimensions of malnutrition, now including obesity. This has resulted in the move to multi-sectoral approaches including agriculture, the food industry, nutrition policy, public health, and the status of women. Finally, we conclude that although the world has registered impressive achievements on some measures of malnutrition, the continuing presence of hundreds of millions suffering chronic malnourishment in its various dimensions remains a huge challenge but one that with sufficient will and focus can be solved with available resources and knowledge.