Author: Hannah Wind
Location: Germany
Photo Credit: Private Collection of the Wind Family.
SUMMARY
Many people in the Philippines still suffer from hunger. Especially in the first quarter of 2024, the numbers of people experiencing food poverty have risen again. This article narrates my impressions from nearly 20 years ago and aims to inform about food shortages in Filipino communities.
BACKGROUND
When I was four years old, my family and I went on vacation to the Philippines, an archipelago in Southeast Asia. We travelled there because it is the country where my maternal grandmother is from. As we stayed in the countryside of the relatively poor South, where my grandmother’s hometown is located, it was inevitable for us to also see under which circumstances some of the people there were living. While most of them were probably much happier with the bit they had than some wealthy people in the West, poverty was visible in many aspects.
Even though I was still very young, I remember a girl using the cat stickers that were on the back of a book my German grandmother had gifted me. Of course, as a four-year-old, I did not understand why someone would use the stickers that I needed to complete the story of that book. I started crying, telling the girl that she should take the stickers off her paper and put them back to where they belonged.
My grandmother then intervened, explaining that these people never get stickers, for one, because they barely, if at all, get sold in that area, and secondly, because stickers are a luxury good that they cannot afford. Instead, the people we met there have to save everything they earn to get food, and even if they put every peso aside, they often cannot fulfil every family member’s basic needs and are dependent on domestic and international aid organisations, or volunteers, who – like we did when we were there, as you can see in the title picture – distribute food packages to support the families.
Poverty & Hunger in the Philippines Today
This reality is also prevalent today, 18 years after we visited the country. Per the World Food Programme (2024), the Philippines is still “ranked as the country at greatest risk of disaster and exposure to multiple high-intensity hazards […] aggravating food insecurity and malnutrition.”
As a survey about domestic food poverty revealed, around 14.2% of Filipino families were subjected to severe ‘involuntary hunger’ in the first quarter of 2024; the number of those experiencing moderate hunger is much higher. Although I knew that many people are still affected by malnutrition and shortages of food, this number was shocking when I first read it.
As the above graph depicts, while undernourishment has significantly decreased since 2008, the roots of the issue seem not to have been eradicated. In fact, even today, hunger still particularly affects children below the age of five and chronic undernutrition can have immense consequences on these children, including low height, a weak immune system, and impaired cognitive development.
Walang Gutom – The Filipino Government’s Strategic Plan to ‘No Hunger’ and International Aid
This ongoing crisis underscores the need for sustained efforts and support, illustrating why the United Nations, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, aim for ‘zero hunger’ worldwide by 2030. Thereby, a multi-dimensional approach is used, involving the help of the Filipino government and various international organisations. For instance, the Filipino government launched an e-voucher programme, ensuring that up until now, nearly 2500 families receive a monthly food allowance, helping the people to cover their needs. Thereby, the government also contracted local farmer’s retailers, actively supporting domestic producers.
Although the project only ran in its pilot phase up until recently, when it was scaled up, the World Food Programme of the United Nations supported these actions (WPF). In conjunction with ‘Walang Gutom’ and to achieve long-lasting change, the WPF organised workshops for officials to learn about effective humanitarian asset management, discussed research results and forwarded recommendations as to how to improve the policy, and was involved in several other projects that target people in specific locations within the Philippines. In essence, the WPF provides people with the necessary knowledge and strategies to help themselves in the future, thereby tackling one of the underlying issues of food poverty.
In addition to this domestic action plan and the support of the international community, personal donations and the work of volunteers who help locally and/or from abroad are still indispensable for the affected people and an amazing experience for those who help. I remember the people being more than grateful for the small plastic bags of food and toys, sometimes clothes, they received from us back then. The people’s joyful eyes indeed illustrated that small gestures could mean the world to someone else, constituting a powerful reminder of the impact everyone can make.
REFERENCES
Goal 2: Zero hunger. (n.d.). United Nations Sustainable Development. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/
Hunger rises in Q1 2024 — SWS. (2024, April 30). Manila Bulletin. https://mb.com.ph/2024/4/30/hunger-rises-in-q1-2024-sws
Philippines. (2024, July 12).
Global Hunger Index (GHI). https://www.globalhungerindex.org/philippines.html
World Food Programme. (2024). WFP Philippines Country Brief June 2024. https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000160273/download/?_ga=2.193225453.1160029840.1722115573-95518252.1721803595
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