than ever before and that you one warren's are growing. billions of dollars are needed to prevent a global food crisis, but what is causing it? can we do something before it is too late? this is inside story. >> welcome to the program. i am sohail rahman. at least 828 million people went

hungry on a daily basis last year. war, natural disasters are threatened and food security. the prices of wheat have increased exponentially and will continue to do so. in the horn of africa, the severe drought is exacerbating the situation. let's take a look at the key findings. nearly 830 million people around the world went hungry and 2021. that is up nearly 50 million the year before and 150 million more than 2019. the gender gap has also widened, nearly 32% of women are food insecure in 2021, compared to more than 27% of men. 45 million children younger than five suffer from wasting, which is the deadliest form of malnutrition. it increases the child's risk of death by up to 12 times.

reporter: security offices make it clear. anybody trying to jump the line will not be helped. people are waiting for cash payouts from kenya's government. money to help them cope with the rising food prices and or recurring drought. how much they receive depends how how vulnerable they are. >> all of my animals have died because of the drought. i have nothing left to eat. reporter: many people in east africa are facing food shortages. >> the drought extends far beyond kenya. even this starts raining and people plant crops, it will be months before they can harvest anything. climate change is expected to increase the frequency of droughts. as rivers run dry, they have to

travel long distances in search of water. >> i have been walking for days with my animals. i have finally found some want to her, but it is not do enough. reporter: many are still desperate. >> it is very hard to see that mothers and families by run out of food for almost a day or two days. sometimes we reported death case due to hunger. the situation is very bad. reporter: people have started fighting over dwindling resources. >> my son was looking after the camels. four months ago, some men shot and killed him and sold the animals. reporter: savings are held in livestock. a man without animals cannot provide.

drought can wipe out a family's fortunes and it can take years to recover, so make sure the hurt stays alive is a priority. sohail: let's bring in my guests. in amsterdam, policy advisor for action -- climate justice. in france, former senior economist. a very warm welcome. can i begin with you in amsterdam? we see reports of food poverty all the time. what is so different about this report? >> i think the simple answer is that there is an increase that is astronomical. we have seen that countries have not been able to recover from

covid and conflicts have come a long, and we are also starting to see the impacts of climate on the food systems. it is exposing just how vulnerable the global food systems are to these shocks to the system that we are not able to remedy with our current food system. sohail: what do you think can come out of this particular report? you have the director general of the fao. we have the president of unicef. the who. it is a who's who trying to get the world to focus on the real problem. >> it is unfortunate, isn't it? it has been many years that organizations have been warning

that we are not doing what we are supposed to be doing to reduce hunger and malnutrition. in fact, one thing about this report that makes it more said, is that the numbers predate the war. it reflects back on the developments of 2001 and before. already we have failed. prices of food had been bracing before the -- had been rising before the war. we are in a situation that there was no better term than to call it a crisis. we are in trouble and i think -- it is good they all came together and pledging again for a global effort, but honestly, something fundamental has to happen or else we are into much deeper problems in the future. sohail: you touched on one of those issues is ukraine.

we cannot blame everything on what is happened on the war. but we were coming out about pandemic. we saw the problems within two years, but the last 10 years has not been an easy time globally in terms of the claimant. >> that is correct. we have seen that droughts have increased. we have seen extreme weather increases. we have seen numerous forms of climate catastrophe happen across the globe, mostly impacting women and mostly in the global south. local food markets, local food production has been heavily hit. when you bring in the ukraine crisis, we have seen how the lack of grain, the weight we use our produce, the fact that much

of it is produced purely for animal feed, it is exposing the vulnerabilities of it. the fact that one working breakout in eastern europe and have ripple effects all across the global south is shocking. we have been investing in development and other processes. however, the way we are doing it has made countries like kenya and countries in the horn of africa extremely dependent on the global north, which is -- has essentially meant they are not able to produce for their own markets. local food prices in these markets have been on the rise for a long time because much of the ground is being used to produce nonfood agricultural products that are being shipped out of the country. and leaving limited space for local food production. sohail: let's talk about one of

the issues in the report that has been highlighted. a dramatic jump in figures after 20 team. -- 2015. the proportion of people affected by hunger jumped after 2015. what was the driving force? what happened in 2015 that made a jump so quickly because we did not have a pandemic or the ukraine war. >> we had a serious crisis with food prices back in 2008. to some extent, at that time, there were a lot of issues and a lot of countries. but we never really came out of that problem.

we probably contain it through safety nets, through trade and also agriculture, which responded to the demand, and production increases. in effect, the famine was there, it did not really disappear. after we finished with that crisis period, we started collecting statistics and we saw that things are really terrible still. from 2015 onwards, we see accumulation of hunger and multiple crop failures happening. we have now almost three years of covid. the statistics tell us

afterwards what happened. we knew there would be a disaster. we knew many countries would not be able to cope with it. and the warnings were made. today, we realize the predictions were correct. many analysts are worried about the future being much worse than what was assumed before simply because this war and all the disruptions in trade. this is not something that is just prices. they will be eating less. all of these things will haunt us in a year or two. sohail: if we can look at it in more detail. we are talking about 927 million

people face food insecurity. we talked about the pandemic, people staying at home, production not been up to its potential. are we now talking about scaling up production to pre-pandemic levels? because there is the problem, the workforce is not there. at tibet, problems -- add to that, problems with the claimant. >> i think for many countries i am sure that is one of the issues, but fundamentally when we look at the food system, we have made it industrialized. we produce and use more land than we need to to feed the world's population.

it is the way we use food. we are wasting a great deal of the production. it is easy to fall into figures and markets. i want to bring get back also to the humanitarian side of things where you see families that would theoretically be able to produce their own food not able to because they do not have access to land. we see families pulling kids out of schools to try to make enough money to afford these new increased prices, which are astronomical. it is not as simple as think we need to increase production. it is about readjusting a system in such a way that it is sustainable and that it actually works. sohail: let me bring in another guest from nairobi.

good to have you with us. obviously, africa is always a focal point when we start talking about food insecurity and the reasons for it, be it drought or conflict. how has the problem been exacerbated these last few years? >> it has really gotten worse. because what we are witnessing across the continent is consecutive failures in terms of rain. we are seeing a situation where pastoral conditions do not rejuvenate quickly. in the past, the drought cycles used to be every 10 years or so. but what we are witnessing increasingly is that droughts are every two years. all of this has been exacerbated

by drivers like climate change. we are seeing cases of food insecurity driven by conflict. it has gotten worse in the last few years. sohail: you are very close to one of the conflict areas. we saw the issue of tigre in ethiopia these last few months. we have seen food insecurity in those areas. how much of a problem is conflict continuing to be? we see it in somalia, sudan. they are all contributing to people have to migrate to find food. it has been more difficult for governments. >> conflict is a big driver, but we should not forget the fact that climate change is also

significant. all of these are linked. you are seeing a situation where people are fighting over pasture. communities move from one area where there was no water to an area where they think there is more water and that causes conflict because of scarcity. that tells you it is not just conflict. the drivers something bigger. the driver is climate induced. it is something bigger. sohail: we can focus on that

now. in recent weeks, we have seen eastern india and northern bangladesh have lots of rain. the environment or climate change is being blamed, but it is an example of how quickly people's lives change within a matter of days and how it lasts. there are still areas flooded. it will take decades to get that into a recoverable position. >> the issue is climate change and all these weather situations is a serious problem and we know that. it is evident. but one thing we must all will -- also concentrate on is that it is not all about food supply. it is about livelihood and people being able to purchase food. that is the other problem that we have not been able to resolve. people's purchasing power is the

mission -- diminishing. one of the drivers was not so much that food was not available. even today, production has reached the covid levels for some of the major cereals. honestly, that is not the big problem today. the big problem is people cannot afford it even at the lower prices. prices are 30 or 40% at the international level higher. if they cannot afford to buy the food last year, how do we expect

them to buy this year or next year at current prices? this has to do with purchasing power. sohail: purchasing power is a really big issue. we are seeing a rise in food banks in places like the united kingdom, across the united states, across developed, urban, western countries. so you have the food crisis in africa and south asia where it is produced in the field and sold in local markets. and then you have the other extreme in developed countries where it is not available on the shelf. and people are resorting to food banks. >> if we are honest about this, we have seen in the quality rise globally for the last decade. even during the pandemic come up

when people have their purchasing power hit and their livelihoods disappear, and get super rich got even richer. and we honestly have a crisis center hands in terms of distributing those funds. in europe and the netherlands in particular, we have chosen to start taxing labor more then we tax production or businesses. so we need to reevaluate where and how we are distributing our wealth. which i think is fundamental to being able to access this food. we know that by shifting practices, that by including society into this food system, we can build a system, and we have seen the system work in certain places.

it increases all of those things. those things need to be included in that system. that cannot be treated as separate issues. sohail: in the not-too-distant future, we are seeing the g20 gather in indonesia. what would you like to see from the leaders of the economic world in terms of trying to deal with the issues that you are facing anger continent? -- on your continent? >> if i take you back, we are cemented significant erosion. one of the key messages i mentioned here is investment in resilient livelihoods. because climate change will be with us for a long time. we need to support communities

to ensure that we can have resilient livelihoods because the cycles of drought that i mentioned are becoming more severe. so if we do not invest in this, it will be catastrophic. on another point, as we are seeing a lot of hunger across the african continent, we have just launched a red alert as an organization. people are dying as we are speaking. they need humanitarian assistance now. sohail: the decision-makers will be in indonesia. what would you like to hear them say because you have been in these sorts of meetings and you know what they are thinking.

>> the thing is that in my previous job, i was searching all the g20 members to have a sincere discussion about food systems and leave politics out of debt. no other time then today we need that dialogue to really be serious. i think that politicians, russia's a member, you as a member, they really need to leave politics behind. we have an emergency and this emergency at least for the next few weeks and months is something that can be easily

sorted out as long as politicians agree to talk sincerely to one another about the issue and leave other things out of it. i really hope that g20 will be able to put this on the agenda and try to achieve it. if they do not, this will discredit g20. this is really important. i hope they make sure there are no export restrictions by any country, as those at least those who are members of the g20. sohail: we shall see what happens at the g20 in the days ahead. we have to end it there for this edition of inside story. i am sure we will revisit this subject in the future. for the moment, thank you very

much for joining me on this edition of the program. you can watch the program anytime by visiting our website at al jazeera.com. you can also join the conversation on twitter. our handle is at a.j.'s inside story. thank you for your time.

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