scholarly journals Chronicle of the Causes of Famine in the World during 1840–2019 and their Risks

Author(s):  
Soma Funahashi ◽  
Misato Okaneya ◽  
Taikan Oki

Abstract Famine still exists in this world, hindering the achievement of sustainable development goal 2: zero hunger. The history and mechanism of famine have been broadly studied; however, few studies have focused on quantitative and long-term analysis of the general characteristics of famine. This study aims to analyze the factors influencing famine and estimate its risk. We developed a famine database and estimated the probability of the occurrence of famine through logistic regression with physical and social factors. Herein, we identified a few factors that are strongly related to the occurrence of famine and found that soil water and gross domestic product per capita are the most influential. By extrapolating the logistic regression to a future scenario, we revealed that although the number of countries with high famine risk would decrease, some countries in sub-Saharan Africa would remain at high famine risk for a while.

Economies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Huy Quang Doan

This paper looks at how trade liberalization and institutional quality influence real income. Previous evidence has provided mixed results, and we find that indicators representing trade liberalization have been very weak. By using strongly balanced panel data of 45 Sub-Saharan African countries covering the last 34 years (1980–2013), along with numerous advanced econometric instruments (random effect, fixed effect, system-generalized method of moments, pooled mean group) and composite trade indicators (KOF indicators), this paper determines the impact of trade liberalization, social factors and political globalization on real income per capita in both static and dynamic settings. The paper also considers short-term and long-term effects. The study confirms that free trade has a significant positive impact on the growth of real income per capita in static and dynamic settings. However, it also finds that countries must pay in the short-term to gain more significantly in the long-term. Further, we point out that social factors, especially information flows, can have significant but varying influences on real income under different scenarios and that political globalization both challenges and gives opportunities for improving living standards. We also find that institutional quality is a key factor for economic development in any situation.


Author(s):  
Prudence Atukunda ◽  
Wenche Barth Eide ◽  
Kristin R. Kardel ◽  
Per Ole Iversen ◽  
Ane C. Westerberg

Background: The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 (‘Zero Hunger’) aims to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Thus, a range of different strategies are needed to facilitate the achievement of SDG 2 to overcome challenges and enable synergies between various SDG targets. Objective: The aim of this review is to highlight Africa’s progress toward SDG 2, including targets, strategies, synergies and challenges. Methods: We scrutinized published research articles in peer-reviewed journals, UN reports and in-country Africa reports (between 2015 and 2020) that were relevant to the current topic. Results: Several hunger indicators are showing slow progress or even deterioration in Africa. The prevalence of undernourishment in the general population was 19.1% in 2019 and is expected to increase to 25.7% by 2030. Improvements in child stunting in several regions in Africa are slow, especially in sub-Saharan Africa where about 34% of under-fives were stunted in 2012 and 31% in 2019. In Eastern Africa, stunting prevalence decreased from 38% in 2012 to 34% in 2019. Major drivers of hunger are poor governance and state fragility, war and conflicts, increasing inequality, weak economic development, climate change, biodegradation – and now lately the Covid 19 pandemic – factors that all increase food insecurity. Conclusion: Africa is off track to reach SDG – ‘Zero Hunger’ – by 2030. Current efforts and progress are insufficient. Africa must champion the SDG agenda on a national, regional and global level to facilitate synergies to unlock the potential for reaching ‘Zero Hunger’ throughout the continent.


Author(s):  
Karel Tomšík ◽  
Luboš Smutka

The paper examines the development of economies in the sub-Saharan region. It aims to identify particular development trends specific to the region. That means identifying changes which have occurred in the past five decades in following areas: development of the GDP value ​​and structure, growth in the value of foreign trade, demographic growth, and changes in the value of GDP per capita. The results of the analysis show very constrained economic power of sub-Saharan region. Not only weak economy of the region but also a significant population growth is a problem. Increasing production and trade does not contribute effectively to elimination of high level of poverty and malnutrition which remains a long-term problem of the sub-Saharan region. In real terms, the GDP per capita was growing by less than 1 % in the period 1961–2010. Sub-Saharan region is highly dependent on cooperation with other world regions in its effort to increase economic growth and to improve the economic situation of own population. The GDP growth is thus very sensitive to GDP development in Europe and North America. Concerning the foreign trade, development of sub-Saharan trade is dependent on regions of the Southern and Eastern Asia, and Europe.


Author(s):  
Boubacar Diallo ◽  
Fulbert Tchana Tchana ◽  
Albert G. Zeufack

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sándor Szabó ◽  
Irene Pinedo Pascua ◽  
Daniel Puig ◽  
Magda Moner-Girona ◽  
Mario Negre ◽  
...  

AbstractLack of access to modern forms of energy hampers efforts to reduce poverty. The provision of electricity to off-grid communities is therefore a long-standing developmental goal. Yet, many off-grid electrification projects neglect mid- and long-term operation and maintenance costs. When this is the case, electricity services are unlikely to be affordable to the communities that are the project’s primary target. Here we show that, compared with diesel-powered electricity generation systems, solar photovoltaic systems are more affordable to no less than 36% of the unelectrified populations in East Asia, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. We do so by developing geo-referenced estimates of affordability at a high level of resolution (1 km2). The analysis illustrates the differences in affordability that may be found at the subnational level, which underscores that electrification investments should be informed by subnational data.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2169
Author(s):  
Pauline Macharia ◽  
Nzula Kitaka ◽  
Paul Yillia ◽  
Norbert Kreuzinger

This study examined the current state of water demand and associated energy input for water supply against a projected increase in water demand in sub-Saharan Africa. Three plausible scenarios, namely, Current State Extends (CSE), Current State Improves (CSI) and Current State Deteriorates (CSD) were developed and applied using nine quantifiable indicators for water demand projections and the associated impact on energy input for water supply for five Water Service Providers (WSPs) in Kenya to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach based on real data in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, the daily per capita water-use in the service area of four of the five WSPs was below minimum daily requirement of 50 L/p/d. Further, non-revenue water losses were up to three times higher than the regulated benchmark (range 26–63%). Calculations showed a leakage reduction potential of up to 70% and energy savings of up to 12 MWh/a. The projected water demand is expected to increase by at least twelve times the current demand to achieve universal coverage and an average daily per capita consumption of 120 L/p/d for the urban population by 2030. Consequently, the energy input could increase almost twelve-folds with the CSI scenario or up to fifty-folds with the CSE scenario for WSPs where desalination or additional groundwater abstraction is proposed. The approach used can be applied for other WSPs which are experiencing a similar evolution of their water supply and demand drivers in sub-Saharan Africa. WSPs in the sub-region should explore aggressive strategies to jointly address persistent water losses and associated energy input. This would reduce the current water supply-demand gap and minimize the energy input that will be associated with exploring additional water sources that are typically energy intensive.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6503
Author(s):  
Yu Peng ◽  
Hubert Hirwa ◽  
Qiuying Zhang ◽  
Guoqin Wang ◽  
Fadong Li

Given the impact of COVID-19 and the desert locust plague, the Ethiopian food security issue has once again received widespread attention. Its food crisis requires comprehensive and systematic research to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger. This review discusses the current situation and the causes of food security in Ethiopia. We focus on the challenges in the food security assessment field. The article lists seven typical causes of food insecurity and three roots of food security in Ethiopia. Long-term food security assessment and a comprehensive understanding and manageability for food security causes are considered as the main existing research challenges. Climate-resilient management, water management, and long-term ecosystem network monitoring and data mining are suggested as potential roadmap for future research.


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