March 22 is World Water Day and the tea industry should take note. According to the United Nations (UN), the day is about accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis.
The United Nations said:
“Dysfunction throughout the water cycle undermines progress on all major global issues, from health to hunger, gender equality to jobs, education to industry, and disasters to peace.
"In 2015, the world committed to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 as part of the 2030 Agenda – the promise that everyone would have safely managed water and sanitation by 2030. Right now, we are seriously off-track.
"Billions of people and countless schools, businesses, healthcare centers, farms, and factories are being held back because their human rights to water and sanitation still need to be fulfilled.
"There is an urgent need to accelerate change – to go beyond ‘business as usual.’ The latest data show that governments must work on average four times faster to meet SDG 6 on time, but this is not a situation that any single actor or group can solve. Water affects everyone, so we need everyone to take action.”
A New 2023 Report Sheds Light on the Humanitarian Support for WASH Programs
A new report from Action Against Hunger revealed that fewer than 30 percent of appeals for humanitarian support for water, sanitation and hygiene (or WASH) related programs were met in 2022, leaving an average funding gap of 70.3 percent. Released one day before World Water Day, the analysis looked at available data for 41 countries that used the UN humanitarian system to request humanitarian assistance for WASH programs in 2022 and highlights the connection between decreased water funding and growing hunger.
"Two billion people around the world lack access to safely managed drinking water and 4.2 billion lack adequate sanitation,” said Dr. Charles Owubah, CEO of Action Against Hunger. “These are fundamental human rights that are critical to reducing hunger and promoting health, which are the cornerstones of individual development and economic growth.”
The Action Against Hunger study, The World's Water Funding Crisis: How Donors Are Missing the Mark, found that in 2022, no WASH appeals were fully funded for 13 countries experiencing “crisis” levels of hunger, even though dirty water contributes to more than 1.5 million deaths each year (per the UN), many from malnutrition linked to water-borne disease. To fully fund WASH-related appeals through the UN humanitarian system, it would take an additional $2.6 billion, according to Action Against Hunger. For context, Americans will bet twice that much on March Madness this year.
“When people think about hunger, water is not always part of that conversation,” said Jean Lapegue, Senior WASH adviser, Action Against Hunger. “But a lot of our work is focused on managing and improving access to clean water. Not only is it essential to grow and prepare food, but it also prevents the spread of disease. Twenty-seven percent of deaths of children younger than five are directly related to preventable water-borne diseases.”
Bizuneh Assefa, Action Against Hunger's WASH specialist for the Horn and Eastern Africa, shared, “We know how to overcome the water challenges that we face every day, but we need adequate funding to do it. I have seen firsthand the transformative impact that water, sanitation and hygiene – or WASH – programs can have in the fight against hunger. By investing in WASH, we can reduce hunger, promote health and gender equity, and mitigate the impacts of climate change.”
When looking at funding for countries dealing with crisis levels of hunger (or worse), Action Against Hunger found a 53 percent gap in funding for hunger programs, a 62 percent gap in WASH funding, and a 55 percent gap in health funding. The analysis considered both the overall funding levels of WASH programs in 2022 as well as funding for countries that experienced “crisis” levels of hunger in 2021. This approach focused on the need in 2021 and the response in 2022 across the following countries: Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Pakistan, Somalia, and Sudan.
The new report is the result of Action Against Hunger's analysis of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Humanitarian Response Plan funding data, as well as the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) Population Tracking Tool.
Action Against Hunger is leading a global movement to end hunger in our lifetimes. It innovates solutions, advocates for change, and reaches more than 24 million people every year with proven hunger prevention and treatment programs. As a nonprofit that works across 50 countries, its 8,300 dedicated staff members partner with communities to address the root causes of hunger, including climate change, conflict, and chronic inequality. It strives to create a world free from hunger, for everyone, for good.
To learn more about Action Against Hunger, visit ActionAgainstHunger.org.
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World Tea Conference + Expo, March 27-29, 2023
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