Essay on Food Security in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Today, the Congo is an undeveloped, poor, and corrupt country. The life expectancy is around 43 years due to the lack of protection and unhealthy living conditions. According to The World Bank, around 64 percent of the whole population is living in poverty. In fact, it is the seventh poorest country in the world, just below Madagascar, as well as being the third least developed country under Cape Verde (Nations Online). This is because “The Republic of the Congo still struggles with their economy due to its historical inability to form on its own” (Mckinley). After the Congo was finally able to gain independence from Belgium, they were unable to keep strong markets. This inevitably led to an increase of poverty. Additionally, a country’s GDP (gross domestic product) per capita can determine how well a country is doing economically. The GDP per capita is calculated by dividing total gross domestic product by the total population in the country. Today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has a GDP per capita of 484.21 USD. This is relatively low compared to other countries; for example, the United States of America’s GDP per capita is around 53,041.98 USD (World Bank). After Belgium granted the Congolese independence, years of being under Belgian control resulted in an inhibition to develop. The African country “were not yet ready for independence”(Scheyven). Their monarchy was inexperienced, which caused an

Food is a necessary part of ever individual’s daily life. Without food, the body cannot function properly, resulting in poor health, exhaustion, and even death by starvation. Therefore, food insecurity continues to be an international global epidemic. The journal article by Harrigan suggests that the citizens of the Sub-Saharan African country of Malawia are in further poverty due to their lack of food and agricultural resources. The newspaper article from the Guardian tells the real life story of African citizens struggling to farm and find food due to the crop shortages that have spanned Africa for the past two years. This is a current global issue, and the journal and news article prove that there is much to be done in order to help restore

Uganda is a hot year round country with an agricultural production, developing world rather than industrial. Africa’s climate change involves with some of the most frequent and severe challenges such as health resources are under heavy pressure. Three factors that deal with issues related to the food or agriculture in the developing world of Africa are poverty, environment, and health.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has always been an extremely poor country. They rank as the poorest country in the world but have a high number of natural resources (“World Without Genocide”). The Congo has an unemployment rate of around ninety-five percent, more than half of the Congo people do not have access to clean water, and their mortality rates among children is highest of any country in world (“Congo Voice”). Their economic situation made it even harder for the

Poverty plays a huge role in how much a country gets to eat. Here in the United States, five percent of households experienced very low food security, according to the organization of Feeding America. Although that number should really be zero, it as actually relatively low compared to countries like Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries. One of the biggest issues in this country is food insecurity, leaving 33 percent of the population without a guarantee of food. Another example can be given by the organization World Information Transfer. They said that Ethiopia has been food deficient since at least the year of

There is an account from a Congolese refugee who witnessed the atrocities of the Force Publique - Leopold’s army, made up of European soldiers and forced Congolese. He recounted that, “Women had to give up cultivating the fields and gardens… we could get no more rubber.” TFP gave Congolese men an ultimatum of collecting a certain amount of rubber, or else they could be beaten, get their hands cut off live, or even shot. All of those caused more poverty to befall the people of Congo in the long run, as the already-low wages could not be collected while the person was recovering from their abuse. Furthermore, according to the World Bank, “the poverty rate remains high in the DRC. The country is among the poorest countries in the world and was ranked 176 out of 187 countries on the Human Development in 2015.” To express this differently, over half a century later, Congo is still an acutely poor nation. This is a direct result of the over-harvesting of rubber, charcoal, and farms that Leopold ordered under his dictatorship. If the natural resources were allowed to be collected at a healthy rate, they would still be available for Congo to trade with other countries. That would, without a doubt, cause the economy to be raised significantly higher. Thus, the end result of poverty in modern-day Congo in is fully a consequence of Leopold’s relentless exhausting of the land decades

Haiti is a small Caribbean country with serious hunger problem for many years. Even in 1980s, Haiti had advanced agriculture and hunger problem was far from this country. However, the local wars and conflicts happened in 1990s changed this. Agriculture was disturbed and hunger problem became more and more serious. It has been the key problem of Haitian development so Haitian government and international society have taken lots of measures to improve this situation. The major international supports were from the US and some EU countries. Plenty of data and reports show that hunger population in Haiti has been reduced a lot. Haiti will be most likely to achieve the Millennium Development Goal pronounced in 2000 by 2015.

Focusing on a specific place gives us the opportunity to try and find a solution that will be feasible enough to try to end world hunger. So we decided to focus on the Central African Republic because it is the hungriest of all countries. Over the last three years the country has been caught in the worst political and humanitarian crisis of it’s history. According to Africa Hunger and Poverty Fact, as of May 2014 more than 600,000 people have been internally displaced and 1.6 million people are classified as food insecure. In 2014, sixty percent of households reported having exhausted their food stocks by December 2013, and ninety percent said they consumed just one meal a day. Africa faces serious environmental

The Eastern Congo is considered a weak state because of the corruption, poverty and war. The Eastern Congo has a large amount of natural resources which should be an asset to the country, but war and rebel groups are feuding over these resources. The corruption and feud over these resources weakens that state. The Eastern Congo has a large amount of farmland that is not utilized and could be used to feed most of Africa, but conflict and control deter the people from utilizing the farmland[1]. The argument over these resources is ultimately affecting the civilians. Many of these disputes have existed for decades. I was astonished to hear that there have been 5.4 million deaths since 1994 in Eastern Congo, most of which are civilians and less

The last but not the least, high food prices make the situation even worse. According to FAO ' s data, the population of undernourishment increased by 75 million, which is higher than it in 2003 to 2005. The scientists analyzed it is caused by the rising food price (FAO, 2008). Additionally, in some countries in African, South American and Asia where average income is very low, to achieve the food security is almost impossible. For instance, Afghanistan is one of the most food-insecure countries. In Afghanistan, with 80% of the population living in rural place, the agricultural industry is most significant to this country. However, the households in Afghanistan still need to spend over 60 percent of their budgets on food. In 2008, it can be easily found in the chart, the wheat flour price experienced a sharp increase from 15 per kg to 45 per kg, which greatly increased the burden of the inhabitants (D’Souza, 2011). When the flour price rises, the local people will certainly spend more percentage of their incomes on wheat flour rather than some high-quality vegetables and meat. Unreasonable diet structure can directly contribute to lacking nutrition and influence their healthy. As a result, a vicious circle is created and makes the

According to a report from the World Bank in 2015, the Congo is “among the poorest countries in the world.” In contrast, a Congolese refugee of the Casement Report released in 1904 informed of the brutality their family were subject to by Belgian soldiers. They recounted that “We had to go further and further into the forest… without food… we starved….leopards killed some of us… and others got lost or died from exposure and starvation… soldiers said: ‘Go! You are only beasts yourselves.’” Additionally, another refugee from the same report disclosed that troops would “often kill the Congolese for the sake of rubber. Once, a soldier, pointing to a basket, said… ‘look, only two hands! That’s nothing… I brought the white man 160 hands.” The hands the soldier was referring to were those of the Congolese workers who labored in dangerous forests to find rubber. Indigenous people were denied sustenance, had their hands cut off for amusement, or were shot, at the whims of Belgian soldiers. The meager wages paid to the Congolese could not be collected while the worker was recovering from injury, which forced greater poverty to befall the people of Congo in the long run. When the injury was permanent, such as a severed limb, families lost the little income they had. As a result, many starved to death. This poverty was then handed down to further generations, creating a ripple effect that can still be felt today. Over half a century later, Congo is an acutely poor nation. This is the culmination of violence the Congolese faced during colonization. Without the cruelness of the Belgian colonists, families would have enough money to buy proper nutrition for themselves, and many more people would survive. Therefore, the end result of poverty in modern-day Congo is a direct consequence of the savagery inflicted upon the indigenous people during

Today all over the world,there are people who haven’t eaten in days,weeks,and maybe even months.Many food organizations are working to fix it,but the countless number of Africans who live homeless.”In 2012, 501 million people, or 47% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, lived on $1.90 a day or less, a principal factor in causing widespread hunger.” World hunger has been a problem for a long time now. I feel it can be stopped by donations farming and many more food related things.

In postwar Sierra Leone, and amongst the many developmental challenges, food insecurity has been impeding rural development which continues to pose problems on the livelihood of the rural population which is predominantly peasant farmers. Many observers including those from the western area and foreigners always ask questions that why the rural has sufficient green and arable land which can produce them more food but failing to utilize it to grow them more.? Suspicions have been rife that land tenure might have been the impeding the production of food for food sufficiency and security. Therefore this study will further contribute in investigating the effect of the land tenure in rural Sierra Leone and will proffer recommendations that will

One of their major problems has to do with poverty and unemployment. In America, the unemployment rate is 5.5 percent. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the percentage of people without a job is 53 percent, which means one out of two people would be without a job. As of 2006, 63.7 percent of families experience poverty, and most of them live in rural areas, where it is hardest to get a job. The country’s majority of jobs include agricultural jobs, yet in Congo it is very hard to harvest and keep agriculture successful. The country also suffers greatly from HIV/AIDS, in which 5.4 percent of the people who live there are tested positive with this deadly disease. As a result of overcrowding in primary cities, malnutrition is also a major problem in the Congo. “In 2006, more than a third of children under five in rural areas [in the Congo] suffered from malnutrition.” (Rural) In the Democratic Republic of the Congo many girls marry young and have plenty of kids, and if they can’t provide for them then most of those children sadly suffer from malnutrition or other deadly

population, however, one in nine are food insecure. Food security, defined by the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security is “the condition in which all people, at all times, have physical, economic and social access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs for an active and healthy life.” Developing countries are most at risk of food insecurity with Sub-Saharan Africa having the highest prevalence of hunger.