Across the globe, soaring food prices - the highest since the mid-1970s - are forcing more and more of the world's poor and disadvantaged children to go hungry. An estimated 178 million children under the age of five are chronically malnourished; almost all of them in the developing world.

The rising cost of food will force many families to make difficult decisions on how to spend their money. Parents may have to cut back on what and how much food they can provide to their families, remove their children from school because they cannot afford both food and school fees, reduce spending on health, or sell key productive assets in order to cope with dire economic circumstances.

Moreover, children may be diverted from education to raise income by engaging in dangerous and exploitative activities, such as commercial sex work, begging, or domestic work. 

Younger children, especially those under the age of two, are the most vulnerable to the impacts of prolonged hunger including weight loss and high susceptibility to illness. Over time, hunger and undernutrition result in permanent negative effects on physical and cognitive growth, from which children never recover. At worst, malnutrition is a major contributor to about half of all deaths of children under five years old around the world.

Eradicating extreme poverty and helping communities prepare for drought, crop failure or economic instability requires leadership and policy changes at national and global levels. Our goal is to ensure sustainable food security for poor families.

Save the Children is prioritising its nutrition and livelihoods programmes in 22 countries. In the short term, we deliver emergency food or cash grants to save children's lives.

We also work with governments and donors to prevent children from going hungry, and to prompt rapid and effective responses to crises. In Angola, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Sierra Leone and South East Europe, we have improved local capacity to analyse budgets and lobby for greater government expenditure for children.

Save the Children is taking a leading role in tackling global hunger by advocating for policies that help households feed their children. For example, our lobbying helped to shift the 2008-2011 World Food Programme strategy from the delivery of food aid to broader food assistance, including cash grants and other safety nets. We are successfully influencing both the European Commission and the UK government to develop nutrition strategies. We are also a member of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, a coalition working to reform US foreign aid structures to support food security.

Your support enables us to continue making a significant difference to the lives of children around the world. Visit your national Save the Children organisation website and donate today.

Country Surveys: Global Food Crisis

Ethiopia
Middle East-Eurasia
Latin America-Caribbean
Asia

Read more about our programs

Hunger and Malnutrition Programs
Food Security Programs
Emergency Programs

Press Releases

Hungry For Change: An eight-step, costed plan of action to tackle global child hunger (16 November 2009)
Malnourished pregnant women in urgent need of aid in Sri Lankan camps (20 May 2009)
Save the Children Delivers Food to Families in Gaza Despite Violence (4 January 2009)
G8 to drop Africa aid pledge as rising food prices put children's lives at risk (4 July 2008)
Emergency $20 million appeal for the children of Ethiopia (June 2008)
Children at greater risk because of global food crisis (June 2008)
Global crisis in food prices increases vulnerability of children (April 2008)