This article is focused on the following UN Sustainable Development Goal:
How would it feel if you had insecure access to food? If you were unsure about when you were going to be able to eat next? Unfortunately, this situation is a reality for many Gambian citizens today, and is something that the government is trying its best to stop, as currently, Gambia is “facing more and more cases of hunger, and diseases related to malnutrition” (WFP 1). The Zero Hunger in Gambia movement is a movement made to stop this horrid trend of starvation and malnutrition among the Gambian people. This Movement was started by UN officer Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012. Since 2016, it has been a government goal to follow these goals, and it has also been a common topic on Gambian talk shows such as QTVGambia and GhanaTheGambia. These talk shows feature dozens of guests and activists who give excellent insight into this pressing issue. These people, and hundreds of thousands of others, want one thing and one thing only. They want to eliminate hunger in Gambia, and later, in all of West Africa. The Zero Hunger in Gambia movement proves that even in incredibly bad situations, it’s important to try to succeed.
Although the movement itself was started by a UN secretary general, and so far has been very important to Gambia, there was no singular person who started it, as is the case with lots of other movements. Although this movement has been around since 2012, it’s only recently that any discussion surrounding this movement has been allowed in The Gambia. This is because in 2016, a dictator known as Yayah Jammeh was voted out of office. According to political journalists at NDI, “the mere discussion of politics or the slightest criticism of the country’s leadership could result in arrest, forced disappearances or worse” (NDI 3). In 2021, presidential candidate Halifa Sallah pledged, “I will do whatever I can to end this awful hunger crisis in our country” (Sallah). Unfortunately, he was not elected. Instead, Adama Barrow was elected as president, with similar promises as Sallah, but he has not acted on them at all as of 2022. Later on, the World Food Program USA joined forces with The Gambian Government to help with the hunger situation there. While helping, the WFP found some shocking statistics that make it easier to understand why fixing the problem within The Gambia’s relatively small population is so difficult.
In the years since this movement was started, many Gambians have complained about their government not helping them in many ways, with lots of them saying that their government is more concerned about profit than about the wellbeing of the Gambian population, and lots of Gambians claiming that the government is "politically unstable" and "a mess." This just goes to show that the government needs to be more concerned about the needs of the general populous. When the government takes these pressing issues into more accountability, then there can be hope for hunger in the Gambia.
“Gambia’s poverty rate hovers at 48% while hunger has risen from 5% to 8% over the past five years. Those who are mainly dependent on farming are the most hungry, yet agriculture employs 46% of the population – up to 80% in rural areas” (WFP 2). This quote from the WFP explains that it’s not necessarily the government’s fault that the hunger crisis in The Gambia is so bad. That doesn't mean it can’t be helped, however. It just means that people need to start pushing politicians to keep their promises, and never let them forget that having a role in politics comes with responsibility to the people who elected them for that role.
Remember, change starts with you.
Wfp.org. 2022. Gambia | World Food Programme. [online] Available at: <https://www.wfp.org/countries/gambia> [Accessed 5 October 2022].
Ndi.org. 2022. A Shift in Gambian Political Culture: The Historic 2021 Presidential Debate. [online] Available at: <https://www.ndi.org/our-stories/shift-gambian-political-culture-historic-2021-presidential-debate> [Accessed 5 October 2022].
Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger | The United Nations in The Gambia. 2022. Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger. [online] Available at: <https://gambia.un.org/en/sdgs/2> [Accessed 6 October 2022].
World Food Program USA. 2022. Gambia, Africa - Poverty & Climate Change Causing Extreme Hunger. [online] Available at: <https://www.wfpusa.org/countries/gambia/#:~:text=Gambia's%20poverty%20rate%20hovers%20at,to%2080%25%20in%20rural%20areas.> [Accessed 6 October 2022].
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