staples
While many in rich countries struggle with rising consumer prices, their peers in the East African country face hunger and poverty.
In Somalia, maize prices in May 2022 (78%) were six times higher than global prices (12.9%) compared to 12 months ago.
In some regions, spending on minimum food baskets has soared by more than 160% compared to last year. The cost of a kilogram of sorghum, a staple food, is more than 240 percent higher than the five-year average.
In Ethiopia, food inflation has surged by 43.9% since last year.Cereal prices jumped 70% in the year to May, more than double the global increase
In Kenya, the price of maize meal, a staple staple, has doubled in seven months and has risen by 50% in just one month (June-July 2022). Higher food and energy prices will increase poverty by 2.5%, Pushed some 1.4 million Kenyans into extreme poverty.
drought
In South Sudan, cereal prices in May tripled from a year earlier, while bread prices have doubled since last year. The average price of cereals is already 30 percent above the five-year average.
In the village of Bundunbuto in Puntland, Somalia, households’ purchasing power has halved compared to two months ago, meaning they used to buy 25kg of rice and sugar, but now can only buy 12.5kg a month.
In Somalia, which was recently declared “at risk of famine”, nearly half of the population (more than 7 million people) face acute hunger, of which 213,000 are at risk of famine.
Shamis Jama Elmi (38), a mother of eight, moved from Barate to the Docoloha IDP camp in 2017 due to drought.
the richest
Her monthly cash assistance of $60 from Oxfam can only buy 12 kilograms of flour, rice and sugar to support her family for half a month. “We ate one meal a day and used to eat three meals a day. We only ate rice with salt.”
Global food prices have reached their highest level in 50 years, and 828 million people are now starving worldwide – an increase of 150 million since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ukrainian conflict has sent food and energy prices soaring, but this has only exacerbated the inflationary trend already seen. This means that even if food is available, millions of people cannot afford it.
Even in advanced economies like the United States, the poorest 20% of the population are forced to spend four times as much on food as the richest 20%.
Donors
“Our broken global food system, and the inequality behind it, has waged a war of attrition against millions of poor people who have lost their last purchasing power and can no longer afford food,” Saarinen said.
“To help these countries deal with rising food prices and hunger crises, rich countries must immediately cancel their debts — doubled in the past decade– To allow them to free up resources to cope with skyrocketing hunger and import the grain they need. This money can and should be easily recovered by taxing the super-rich. ”
To combat the root causes of hunger, governments must better regulate food markets and ensure more flexible international trade rules to benefit the world’s most vulnerable consumers, workers and farmers.
Governments and donors should support smallholder farmers in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa that provide more than 70 percent of food supplies.
this author
Brendan Montague is the editor ecologist. This article is based on a press release from Oxfam.
