Not only is hunger terrible in the present – it also never bodes well for the future. The effects of poor nutrition and malnourishment are particularly severe for children and adolescents. When these do not result in death, they massively impact their physical and mental development.

With the 2030 Agenda, the international community set itself the goal of ending hunger. We are far – much too far – removed from achieving this goal. Since 2015, we have made hardly any progress towards alleviating hunger. More and more crises and conflicts are becoming famines and food crises, as well – with devastating consequences for the civilian population.

That is why it is especially important that Germany continues to provide rapid and effective aid in emergencies and crises, and that it does so via an integrated approach. The basic prerequisite for this is humanitarian access, which the German Government works to bring about in every crisis – these days, of course, particularly in Gaza.

For many years, Germany has been the second-largest donor to the United Nations’ World Food Programme, in addition to providing food aid through other organisations and NGOs. Last year alone, the German Government made available some 5 billion euro for food security efforts. In the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, for example, where many regions are very hard to access due to the volatile security situation, German aid helps provide food security for countless numbers of people. In this way, we are both living up to our responsibility as a prosperous society that values human dignity above all else and acting in line with our political interests.