Our Response

Child hunger and malnutrition are not new. Prior to the current ‘food crisis’, there were already more than 800 million undernourished people in the world. As Australia’s largest humanitarian and relief agency, with the generous support of everyday Australians, World Vision has been assisting many of the world’s poorest children and their families to respond to hunger, malnutrition and unstable food supplies for decades.

A WV volunteer helps with maize distribution

22 August 2008 Anthea Spinks, World Vision's advocacy and relief policy advisor discusses World Vision's approach to the Global Food Crisis (1:34)

However, the price of rice alone – which is a staple food from many countries – tripled between January and March 2008. Soaring food prices – fuelled by income growth, climate change, high fuel / energy prices, globalisation, urbanisation and the production of bio-fuels – are transforming the entire structure of food consumption, food production, global stock markets and global food distribution.

With over 12 million people across the Horn of Africa in urgent need of food our current emergency appeal will allow us to continue supporting over two million people across Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Somalia. This includes the distribution of emergency food and water, urgent supplementary feeding for starving children, water and sanitation projects and activities in agricultural and livestock recovery.

Following this emergency response we need to address both the long and short-term implications of the Global Food Crisis. With this in mind, World Vision is giving priority to:

• Assisting communities that have no food available
• Addressing declining agricultural productivity, particularly in communities with an unstable supply of food
• Improving nutrition and health outcomes, particularly for women and children
• Assisting communities in the development of sustainable farming practices that will withstand the effects of severe climate change
• Lobbying and advocacy at national and international levels to reduce the impact of economic systems that disadvantage the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.