More information about #HackAgainstHunger

Problem Roots

Food produced but not accessible

There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone, yet 815 million people go hungry. As reflected in Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2), one of the greatest challenges the world faces is how to ensure that a growing global population - projected to rise to around 10 billion by 2050 – has enough food to meet their nutritional needs. To feed another two billion people in 2050, food production will need to increase by 50 percent globally. Food security is a complex condition requiring a holistic approach to all forms of malnutrition, the productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, resilience of food production systems and the sustainable use of biodiversity and genetic resources (FAO SOFI, 2017).

Smallholders’ unequal access to land, water, knowledge, technology and markets

90% of the world's 570 million farms are owned by smallholders. However, these are often not considered as main players in the agricultural sector and investments in small-scale agriculture and technologies for the rural poor have been neglected. Their ability to benefit from the increasing demand in agricultural products is hampered by limited access to agricultural inputs, services, literacy, technologies, sometimes combined with poor infrastructure.

Conflict, natural disasters, food crises and climate change affect disproportionately food-insecure regions

They reduce food availability, disrupt access to food and healthcare and undermine social protection systems, pushing many affected people back into poverty and hunger, fuelling distressed migration and increasing the need for humanitarian aid. Approximately 25% of the damages caused by natural hazards and disasters affect agriculture, and the agricultural sector absorbs about 80% of damage and losses caused by drought (FAO, 2015). On average, the proportion of undernourished people living in low-income countries with a protracted crisis is between 2,5 and 3 times higher than in other low-income countries (FAO, 2017).

Negative Impact

Malnutrition

In addition to an increase in the proportion of the world’s population that suffers from chronic hunger (prevalence of undernourishment), the number of undernourished people on the planet has also increased to 815 million, up from 777 million in 2015. The food security situation visibly worsened in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, South Eastern and Western Asia. This was most notable in situations of conflict, in particular where the food security impacts of conflict were compounded by droughts of floods, linked in part to El Niño phenomenon and climate-related shocks.

Overweight among children under five is becoming more of a problem in most regions, while adult obesity continues to rise in all regions. Multiple forms of malnutrition therefore coexist, with countries experiencing simultaneously high rates of child undernutrition and adult obesity. (FAO SOFI, 2017)

Without proper nutrients, the brain is not able to develop properly. Hunger makes it difficult to concentrate on anything, especially for children. About 66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone. (World Food Program)

Migration

The number of international migrants during 2015 reached 244 million persons worldwide, 150 million of which were migrant workers and 21 million refugees. In 2015 65.3 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence and human rights violation. Of these, 40.8 million were internally displaced persons (IDPs), 21.3 million were refugees and 3.2 million were asylum seekers (UNHCR 2016). It is worth nothing that around 10% of all international migrants are actually refugees. Internal migration is even larger, reaching 763 million according to 2013 estimates. It is estimated that climate change could create up to 1 billion environmental migrants by 2050.

The migration flows can place additional pressures upon food supplies and our capacity to enhance environmentally sustainable agriculture in encumbered regions.

Reductions in food loss and waste, which account for about one-third of the global food supply, could help conserve resources and feed growing populations. In this context, it is necessary to transform food and agriculture systems shifting to more sustainable and diversified consumption and production patterns.

Natural hazards and other crises - droughts, floods, earthquakes, plant and animal diseases, pest infestation, market shocks, and conflicts - affect farmers’ lives, agro-food systems, agricultural production and productivity in regions all over the world. Climate change is projected to amplify many of these issues.

As declares the G7 Summit Communiqué

Need for Innovative Solutions

Multiple transformations of agricultural systems, rural economies and natural resources management will be needed if we would like to tackle the multiple challenges before us and realize the full potential of food and agriculture to ensure a secure and healthy future for all people and the entire planet.

Prosperous rural economies provide alternatives to rural people who see migration as their only chance of escaping poverty and hunger. It gives them other choices. Attaining a zero hunger and poverty-free world will depend on how rural areas develop in the coming years and how we support this paradigm shift in both thought and resources. (SOFA, 2017)

Let's build a future together, where rural poverty is eradicated and let's create a world where sustainability and resilience are the main drivers of our agricultural and food systems.

We Want You

We Want You to develop an innovative digital solution to enhance food security and end hunger in middle-and lower-income countries, that can preferably benefit the small holders and family farmers. Nevertheless, we also encourage other types of solutions/ideas that can take the form of the following examples.

Areas to Explore and Available Information

To give you some ideas, you can explore the various areas below. Note that this is not an exhaustive list.

Awareness raising

• Preventing risk of natural disasters and food chain crises
• Avoiding Food Loss and Waste
• Cropping and breeding best practices
• Increasing incomes receiving tailored information

Behaviour

• Taking best decisions based on advisory services
• Finding clean and plentiful water sources
• Creating agricultural and financial incentives to drive behaviour change
• Empowering women and youth

Open Datasets Available (examples)

You can find several open datasets below that can be used prior or during the #HackAgainstHunger:

• FAO Stat corporate database
• CountrySTAT
• Agricultural Information Management Standards
• Global Information and Early Warning System
• Early Warning Early Action / Global Risk Map
• Water Productivity Project
• Agriculture in Africa from World Bank
• Statistics at FAO
• Main databases

Timeline and Selection Process for #HackAgainstHunger/Geneva

Find more specific details under each #HackAgainstHunger agenda.

*Due to additional work around visa process for non-Swiss and EU participants, application deadlines are different for local and international applications.

Learn More About Hackathons

Hackathons, also known as hackfest or hack day, are great tools to bring diverse groups of people with different backgrounds together to collaborate on specific subjects. Every hackathon includes the following phases :

• A quick team building exercise to form or consolidate diverse teams.

• A preparation phase including topic exploration, own research and first brainstorming of ideas.

• Hacking time with the goal to build or draw a prototype.

• A wrap up including the classification of the results by experts, presentation of the outcome of past.

Any questions about
#HackAgainstHunger?