Giving Compass' Take:

• The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released its third annual report on the global food crises, finding that 113 million individuals lack food because of natural disasters and political conflict. 

• One of the recommendations from the report is to implement more programs that promote peace within struggling countries. How can global philanthropists respond to this? 

• Here are five reasons why you should care about the hunger crisis. 

Another study showing the correlation between world hunger and climate change is here.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released its third annual report on global food crises Tuesday. It found that more than 113 million people have experienced “acute hunger” across 53 countries in 2018, and conflict, climate disasters, and economic hardships are to blame.

Two-thirds of the people who are in danger of being exposed to famine live in war-torn countries, including Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, and Syria. And African countries were hit the hardest by conflict and natural disasters. Roughly 72 million people on the continent suffered acute hunger in 2018, FAO Emergencies Director Dominique Bourgeon told Agence France-Presse.

A single disaster could push people who are dependent on agriculture into famine, according to FAO’s report.

On one hand, the number of people who experienced acute hunger was down in 2018 compared to 2017 when 124 million people didn’t have enough to eat, according to the Thomas Reuters Foundation. Fewer droughts, flooding, erratic rains, and temperature rises helped lessen the global food crisis, but that’s not to say climate change isn’t still a threat.

In order to reduce world hunger, FAO is calling for a unified effort to end conflicts and promote peace. Graziano da Silva said more programs are needed to stabilize communities.

"To truly end hunger, we must attack the root causes: conflict, instability, the impact of climate shocks,” Graziano da Silva said in an FAO statement.

Read the full article about ending world hunger by Leah Rodriguez at Global Citizen.