Addressing the Root Causes of Food Insecurity, Poverty, and Unsustainable Practices

Addressing the Root Causes of Food Insecurity, Poverty, and Unsustainable Practices

Food security, poverty, and unsustainable food systems are three deeply interconnected challenges that affect millions of people worldwide. Mounting debt, fragile food systems, and climate change continue to push vulnerable nations to the brink of survival. Addressing these issues requires understanding their root causes and implementing systemic solutions to build resilience and sustainable food systems.

Understanding the Root Causes

1. Fragile and Unsustainable Food Systems

Unsustainable food systems are considered one of the root causes of debt and hunger. According to IPES-Food, several interconnected factors result in the destabilization of the finances of low-income countries.

• Many nations depend on importing food, fertilizer, and energy in US dollars. This makes them vulnerable to fluctuations in currency, price shocks, and rising interest rates.
• Over decades, governments have handed over investments in food systems to corporate and creditor interests and have scaled back on social spending, according to the Third World Network. However, this results in erosion of state capacity, uneven development, and resources flowing out of nations in the south with low levels of economic and industrial development.
• Boom-bust commodity cycles refer to the sudden rise and fall of food prices. When prices rise, farmers and governments struggle to afford seeds, fertilizer, or imports. When prices crash, farmers don’t earn enough to keep producing. This uncertainty makes it hard to plan for the future and weakens overall food security.
• The current farming practices aren’t prepared for the changing weather, and droughts, floods, and storms often destroy crops, leaving farmers with little to harvest. Due to this, food supplies shrink, prices rise, and whole economies struggle to stay stable and survive.

African countries show this trend clearly. In recent decades, their reliance on food imports has tripled, and this has exposed them to the volatile global market. In turn, this has forced them to export lucrative cash crops (coffee and cotton) to pay off their debt, instead of feeding them to the local communities.

2. The Dilemma of Debt and Hunger

The unsustainable food system and the fragile foundation result in mounting debt and diminishing state capacity, which pushes even more people into poverty and hunger.

• In 2022, debt servicing costs for the world’s poorest countries surged by 35%, leaving many governments spending more on debt than on healthcare, according to IPES-Food and Al-Jazeera. At the same time, global food and fertilizer prices spiked sharply because of supply disruptions and the war in Ukraine, worsening food security worldwide.
• At the same time, 60% of low-income countries and 30% of middle-income countries were at high risk or already in debt distress. Among these, 21 countries had catastrophic levels of both debt and food security, according to Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
• Due to these reasons, governments are forced to choose between repaying creditors and feeding their people. Moreover, as the debt increases, countries lose the flexibility to invest in agricultural development, and food security remains an issue.

3. The Impact on Food Security

The consequences and results of these unsustainable systems are dire and long-lasting:

• Mounting debts prevent countries from building climate-resilient agriculture systems, leaving them vulnerable to repeated natural disasters such as floods, droughts, and global market disturbance. Based on the data from IPES-Food, millions of people remain dependent on unstable imports and emergency relief because of a lack of investments in resilient farming and local food systems.
• With the government spending less and less on agriculture and agricultural development, communities lose their resilience and independence and are dependent on imports or emergency relief. Also, local producers get sidelined because they don’t receive the support they need, and long-term food security suffers since the country can’t feed itself sustainably.
• The issue of food security and debt is so intertwined that it is threatening decades of progress in reducing hunger. According to IPES-Food, 349 million people face acute food security, and 49 million stand on the edge of famine, emphasizing the urgent need for systemic solutions to break this cycle.

Global Approach to Addressing These Problems

The IPES-Food report makes it clear that simply giving food boxes or hot meals won’t solve the intertwined crisis of food security, poverty, and unsustainable food systems. Tackling this problem requires an integrated approach that combines debt relief with the fundamental transformation of global food systems, according to IPES-Food.

• Debt relief won’t just reduce the financial pressure on governments. It would allow them to invest those resources into building climate-resilient agriculture, supporting smallholder farmers, and strengthening food assistance programs. This would make food for hunger initiatives more impactful in the long term.
• Wealth has flowed out of low-income countries for decades due to debt repayments, interest rates, and extractive trade practices. There needs to be mechanisms in place that return these resources so governments can reinvest in food security, education, and healthcare. In turn, this would reduce dependence on volatile imports and enable local producers to thrive.
• In global finance and food trade, decision-making is usually concentrated among a few powerful institutions and corporations. To ensure that reforms actually serve the interests of people who most need them, it is important to be more inclusive and enable democratic structures where the Global South and farmers can voice their concerns.

By addressing the root causes of food security, the solutions go beyond short-term and build the foundation of resilient and sustainable food systems.

RGW USA’s Food Security Programs in Action

Refugee Girls Worldwidehas been fighting food security in USA and beyond and playing their part in tackling the root causes of food security, poverty, and unsustainable food systems through direct and sustainable action. As a 100% charity model, RGW ensures that all donations are used entirely to impact food, healthcare, shelter, education, etc.

RGW USA’s work illustrates how frontline food assistance programs help address immediate food needs for hunger, while aligning with broader food security goals. RGW USA’s main goal is to provide resilient and sustainable aid for food security by supporting local sourcing (Malawi), dignified social markets in Turkiye, and providing regular food aid (Turkiye, Pakistan, Gaza). It serves as a grassroots partner to the systemic solutions that IPES-Food calls for, such as democratic governance and local empowerment.

Making a Difference

While the root causes of food insecurity, poverty, and unsustainable practices are global and complex issues, ordinary citizens can play their part by supporting RGW USA’s food security initiatives. You can help provide immediate relief through food assistance programs while also strengthening long-term resilience for vulnerable communities. Every contribution ensures food for hunger today, through emergency food packs, bulk food aid, or refugee family support, while empowering local producers and building sustainable systems in the future.

Address Food Security with RGW