LEARN

THE ROLE OF THE RISING GENERATION

To unleash your generation, the most tech-savvy and globally aware in human history, there is no better place than a university environment. Not only is it rich, fertile ground for student engagement, but also universities bring the power of cross-disciplinary research, teaching, and outreach to address hunger’s deep systemic roots. The result is a near limitless capacity to create and disseminate new strategies, programs, and processes to achieve a zero hunger world.

  • This is your world.

    Your generation stands at a pivotal point in human history. You have come of age just as the full implications of our global challenges have come clearly into focus. And you understand that the future of all life will be determined by what humanity does, or fails to do, in the next 15 years.

  • This is your time.

    Yours is also the connected generation. You are more aware of humanity’s shared global identity than any before you. And you fully recognize the imperative for collaboration and partnerships that transcend all traditional boundaries and divisions.

Sustainable Development Goals

Nearly a billion people on the planet are chronically hungry, and thousands die every day from hunger-related causes—mostly women and children. It is a reality that both contributes to and is exacerbated by a host of other social and environmental ills, including gender and economic inequality, conflict, global warming, unsustainable consumption, resource degradation, and more.

Hunger’s connection to these other complex global challenges has raised our collective awareness of hunger as a foundational problem—not a regional issue that threatens the survival of some, but a globally interconnected issue that threatens the survival of all. It is a powerful shift in perspective and has brought about an unprecedented international commitment to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty by the year 2030.

That commitment is embodied in the new Sustainable Development Goals, replacing and building on the Millennium Development Goals which expire at the end of 2015. Recognizing that we cannot end extreme hunger and poverty without also addressing all our global challenges, the SDGs merge, for the first time, the world’s economic, environmental, and social agendas. The result is an action plan for the planet—a systemic and measurable roadmap for developed and developing nations alike.

While UFWH’s focus has always been hunger and malnutrition, we realize that hunger will be eradicated, and our collective future secured, only within the broader context of the SDGs. Just as important, achievement of other SDGs – from maternal mortality to universal education to elimination of deadly diseases, especially those impacting children – will be greatly accelerated when people no longer struggle to find enough to eat each day.

Learn more about the SDGs

Hunger Education Resources

The more you know about hunger and malnutrition the more effective you can be in helping to solve these local and global challenges. Below are some links to resources and information provided by some UFWH partners.

WFP Hunger Center: Get the latest facts and figures about hunger around the world; download infographics and an annual hunger map, take a hunger quiz and take advantage of this extensive tutorial on the causes of hunger and the way to help solve it.
Congressional Hunger Center: View the new Congressional Hunger Center video and discussion guide to learn about the problem of hunger and how you can get involved in solving it.
FAO Hunger Portal: Read the annual State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) Report and see the latest data in easy to use and download maps and graphics.
FAOSTATE: Large time-series and cross sectional data relater to hunger, food and agriculture in 245 countries and territories and 35 regional areas going back to 1961. Innovative tools for visualization and statistical analysis.
Zero Hunger Challenge: See governments, international organizations, corporations and institutions, including UFWH, are planning to fight hunger to meet the goal of a zero hunger world.
Food Research and Action Center: Get the latest information, statistics and analysis about hunger in America.
Save Food Initiative: Up to 40 percent of grown food is never used – whether thrown away in developed countries or unable to reach markets in the developing world. Find out more about this issue and how you can help.
E-agriculture: A global community facilitating dialogue and resources about how technology and communication can transform agriculture and rural development.
Toolkit on the Right to Food: Developed by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Right, this site looks at hunger – and solutions to this challenge – as a global policy issue.

Bookshelf

Pat Collier, “The Bottom Billion : why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can be Done about It” (Oxford University Press, 2007)

Jared M. Diamond, “Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” (Norton, 1997)

William Easterly, “The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good” (Penguin Press, 2006)

Tony P. Hall, “Changing the Face of Hunger” (W Publishing Group, 2006)

George McGovern and Bob Dole, “Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith” (Fortress Press, 2005)

Jeffrey D. Sachs, “The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities of Our Time” (The Penguin Press, 2005)

George McGovern, “The Third Freedom: Ending Hunger in Our Time” (Simon & Shuster, 2001)

Dambisa Moyo, “Dead Aid: The Means to Success in World Politics” (Public Affairs, 2004)

Joseph S. Nye, Jr. “Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics” (Public Affairs, 2004)

Janet Poppendieck, “Sweet Charity?: Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement” (Penguin Press, 2009)

Sharman Apt Russell, “Hunger – An Unnatural History” (Perseus Book Group, 2006)

Eric Schlosser, “Fast Food Nation” (Houghton Mifflin, 2001)

Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman, “Enough, Why the World’s Poor Starve in an Era of Plenty” (Public Affairs, 2010)

Roger Thurow, “The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change” (Public Affairs, 2012)