2023 has been a poor year for many people. The images of the devastating earthquake in Türkiye and Syria at the beginning of the year are certainly still fresh in our minds. There were also severe floods in East Africa and Libya and major earthquakes in Morocco, Afghanistan, and Nepal.
And those were just the natural disasters. We have also seen prolonged armed conflicts, particularly in the Sahel, Ethiopia, Sudan and, most recently, of course, in Israel and Gaza. All of this is almost unbearable for the people affected, leading to more and more hunger in these regions.
After devastating floods, people urgently need support.
More than 735 million people remain hungry. Hunger is also directly linked to the effects of climate change, such as the severe drought in East Africa, and the later floods. Similar droughts have hit many countries, including southern Madagascar and Afghanistan.
We hardly work in a country that has not experienced some kind of crisis this year. WHH has responded with acute emergency aid, a smooth transition to long-term cooperation, and a focus on new, innovative strategies and instruments.
For example, we have expanded the Skill up! program to other countries, including Burundi, Mali and the Central African Republic. The program provides training to disadvantaged young people. This does not always include full vocational training, but also education courses. We design it to enable young people to enter the job market and eventually earn a living.
Job opportunities and a better life for trainees, trainers and their families.
Together with our partners, we have trained some 25,000 people over the past five years, 70% of whom are now employed. This success is why we continue to expand Skill Up!.
In the Nutrition Smart CommUNITY program, we work with partner organizations and communities to analyze the root causes of hunger. We started this program in India and have since expanded it to Nepal, Bangladesh and several African countries, including Ethiopia, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Burundi. We start at the village level: What is the problem preventing people from securing their access to food? It could be that women do not have access to land. It could be a need for more seeds or water for people and animals or irrigation. It could also be a lack of knowledge, such as how to detect malnutrition at an early stage.
The effects of climate change are a central cause of hunger, malnutrition, and poverty.
Politicians and civil society must always seek dialogue, build trust, and identify and avoid conflict early on. I was at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai in December – there was an arduous struggle for agreement and a related joint statement. In the end, a compromise emerged, which may not be ideal, but at least for the first time, there is a commitment to completely end fossil fuel use in the future.
For the first time, 159 countries signed a joint declaration on the importance of sustainable agriculture, resilient food systems and climate action. This declaration gives hope that governments will recognize the clear link between hunger and climate change.
Outlook: What will be most important in the coming year?
If we look at current developments, 2024 will also be a challenging year for development cooperation. We are facing cuts in government development budgets in Germany and many other countries. These cuts are wrong, and we hope the government will reverse them in the 2025 budget.
Looking to the future, we, as development actors, need to be better at measuring the impact of our work to show what we have achieved. After all, our work contributes to food security on the ground, reducing hunger, and stabilizing societies, some of which are at risk of violent conflict. Our goal must always be to contribute to peace.
There are good examples of this. In the border region between Kenya and Uganda, for example, the scarcity of resources has led to repeated attacks and violent clashes between groups of cattle herders. WHH is helping to stabilize the situation by trying to improve the quality of grazing land and drinking water for livestock and by bringing these groups together in dialogue. In this way, we have repeatedly succeeded in creating understanding and avoiding major conflicts.
Finally, on behalf of WHH, I would like to thank all donors, supporters and institutional sponsors for their support. It was only with your help that we were able to help 18.8 million people around the world in one year. In times of increasing crises, our joint commitment is especially important. It gives us confidence that positive change is possible – but only if we work together.
