The international civil society gathered in the Civil 7 (C7) in Rome from 14-15th May to call upon the G7 and G20 leadership to step up to the multilayered challenges of our time, including hunger, to save lives, build resilience and secure the future.
In 2022, an estimated 691 to 783 million individuals worldwide experienced hunger. The majority of those facing hunger resided in Asia (55%) and Africa (38%). Among children under the age of 5, 22.3% (148.1 million) suffered from stunted growth, 6.8% (45 million) were wasted, and 5.6% (37 million) were overweight. Alarmingly, approximately 75% of children under 5 affected by stunting lived in countries experiencing conflict.
The situation is equally dire for adolescent girls and women, with over one billion experiencing undernutrition, which includes being underweight and having short stature, deficiencies in essential micronutrients, and anaemia. These conditions have devastating consequences for their lives and well-being. Most recently, deteriorating food security has been seen in Sudan where 18 million people face acute hunger while famine looms in Gaza.
Among other things, the C7 calls for;
- Develop a global plan for greater accountability and coordination to end the global food crisis
- Transform trade to support food justice
- Support farmers and build resilient food systems
- Promote women’s empowerment
- Avert food crises with anticipatory action
- Prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war
- Establish national plans to address emerging food crises
- Scale cash assistance and essential life-saving services
- Unlock the funds with debt relief and IDA21 replenishment
- Make ambitious, trackable commitments at Paris N4G
“The G7 can be part of the problem, if it unilaterally promotes the interests of the most developed economies, or part of the solution, if it champions human rights and the common interests of humanity and the planet for a more peaceful, just, sustainable and secure future.”, reads the communique’s preamble.
