ESSAY 7
Development Assistance: Where Does It Lead?
Laura Elizabeth Pohl/Bread for the World
Just 50 years ago, one person in three
around the world was malnourished. Now,
hunger is less common, affecting one in six
people. Has there been enough progress if
“only” one-sixth of the global population is
hungry? No. But it’s a big improvement over
a time—still in living memory—when twice
as many people were hungry.
Sandesh Rai (leaning forward), 5, and his mom Sapana Rai (in yellow)
wait for a nutrition education seminar to start in Bandarkharka, Nepal.
An increasing share of Nepali children are surviving to celebrate their
fifth birthdays thanks to better nutrition and basic health care.
SNAPSHOT
• Today, one in six people around the world is malnourished—far
too many, but only half as many as 50 years ago. In just the past
20 years, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty has
been cut in half.
• Such dramatic progress shows that it is now well within human
capabilities to end mass hunger and extreme poverty within a
generation.
• The idea of “building resilience” is simply that poor communities
can better fight hunger by identifying potential threats to their
livelihoods and developing workable alternatives before they are
desperately needed.
• Safety net programs are a key part of building resilience.
Emergency feeding programs, too, can distribute food in
exchange for work that contributes to the community’s future
food security.
• Country-led plans to reduce hunger help build the resilience of
the country itself. U.S. assistance helps support these plans.
Countries with effective governments and strong civil societies
are also more resilient.
In just the past two decades the global
community has also made impressive progress:
• The percentage of people living in extreme
poverty (on less than $1.25/day) has been
cut in half.
• Low-income countries as well as wealthier
nations are making rapid progress against
child mortality. For example, Liberia,
Rwanda, and Bangladesh have each reduced their child death rate by more than
two-thirds.
• In 1990, an estimated 12 million children
younger than 5 died of preventable causes,
while by 2011, this number was less than
7 million. Measuring child mortality in
the millions means there is a long way to
go. Still, each year 5 million young lives
are being saved, children who would have
died in 1990.
• About 80 percent of the global population
now has access to safe drinking water close
to their homes.
• Polio is near eradication: this deadly and
disabling disease is vying with guinea
worm disease to become the second diswww.bread.org/institute
n
Development Works 39