This paper, written by Dr Miriam Omolo, with support from DI’s Boniface Owino, provides a detailed analysis of the government of Kenya’s budget for the 2019/20 financial year, and analyses how it might impact the poorest people.

This research is part of a process of evidence generation to help protect and improve the food systems of the urban poor in the city of Bandung, in a period of rapid urbanisation and modernisation. It focuses on the role of street food vendors and informal food providers, who have a contested place in the city’s growth.

Hunger is on the rise again in the world after a decade of decline. Hunger not only cruelly affects the well-being of people, it also undermines national development prospects of any kind. It erodes human productivity and exists in direct contradiction to the human right to adequate food. But hunger is a scourge that can be eradicated.

About 2.3 million people during the lean season, between October 2019 and March 2020, are estimated to be facing IPC Phase 3 or worse food security situation.

The world is off-track to meet most of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets linked to hunger, food security and nutrition, according to a FAO report. The report paints a grim picture.

An estimated 820 million people did not have enough to eat in 2018, up from 811 million in the previous year, which is the third year of increase in a row.

The food price crisis of 2007–08 had devastating impacts for the world’s poorest people, especially for smallholder farmers and in particular for women, who face discrimination and a heavy burden of household responsibility.

According to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) 2019 Synthesis Report on the State of Food and Nutrition Security and Vulnerability in Southern Africa, 41.2 million people in 13 countries are estimated to be food insecure in the 2019/20 year.