The world is starving, but war is the priority

Way back in 2015 the World Bank presented an agenda to permanently end world poverty and hunger by 2030, raise real incomes of the poorest people; provide safe food and adequate nutrition; that can better steward the world’s natural resources.   

Seven years later, after world leaders committed to end hunger by 2030, the crisis is unfortunately heading in the wrong direction. The UN reports that 150 million more people are affected by hunger since the start of the global pandemic.   

That means as many as 828 million people experienced hunger in 2021.   

In our own country UNICEF reports 1 in 2 children are going hungry and its estimated that 2.3 million children in Sri Lanka need urgent aid right now. Without action, millions could face acute malnutrition UNICEF has warned.   

The advocacy group Oxfam on 9 December 2022 estimated that as of this year, if donor governments invest around $37 billion every year until 2030 it will be sufficient to tackle both extreme and chronic hunger permanently.   

According to Oxfam it would take around $23 billion just this year to meet the needs of people facing starvation, acute malnutrition and to eliminate extreme hunger.   

Amid the fight against poverty and malnutrition world wide, earlier this year Oxfam reported the richest 1 percent of people on Earth accumulated almost two-thirds of the new wealth created since the coronavirus pandemic began!   

The report adds, while millions of children starve, “food and energy companies more than doubled their profits in 2022, paying out $257 billion to wealthy shareholders. At the same the report added, over 800 million people went to bed hungry,”   

As though the situation was not dire enough, the war in Ukraine continues. The news agency Reuters reports thousands of people are being killed and injured in that conflict. As per the report, 354,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in the Ukraine war which is grinding towards a protracted conflict that may last well beyond 2023.   

To make matters worse, no effort is being made to bring the conflict to an end. Rather, the US and its NATO allies are pouring arms and armaments into Ukraine to continue its war effort.   

On 21 February this year BBC reported the US and NATO bloc had made commitments of US $64.3 billion in military aid to Ukraine. The US alone has committed some $46.6bn in military aid to Ukraine.   

Thousands are dying as a result of the war in Ukraine. Children are being traumatised, their education disrupted and Ukraine itself is being laid waste -according to UN estimates damage to that country’s infrastructure is over $100 billion.   

Yet today, the ongoing war in Ukraine is being side lined. It is being supplanted by growing US tensions with China in the Straits of Taiwan in the South China Sea, where the US is stoking tensions over China’s territorial claims over Taiwan and bringing a new conflict to Asia.   

At the same time it (the US) is also attempting to drag our giant neighbour India, into the conflict via attempts to form another NATO-like alliance in the Asia-Pacific region in opposition to China.   

Fortunately India has always had the political acumen not to be dragged into super power political games and has maintained China and India have been able to settle their problems without third party involvement.   

South Asia has the largest number of poor concentrated in the region. We do not need super power confrontation to drag us further into poverty.   

Rather than spending multi-billions of dollars in creating more killing fields, it would be better for the whole of this world, if these ‘excess’ funds of the super rich nations could be spent more profitably to end poverty rather than spreading death and destruction.   

The US is spending over $46 billion to bankroll the Ukraine war. Oxfam reveals it would cost just $23 billion this year to meet the needs of people facing starvation, acute malnutrition and to eliminate extreme hunger.   
Which is it going to be?