Measuring the Cost of Ending Hunger Expert Meeting

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Cornell University convened a meeting of donors and experts to discuss the methodology used in the report Ending Hunger: what would it cost? and how it can help build consensus for the most effective interventions to end hunger, including through a special journal issue. 

The report employs a first-of-its kind model that combines macro-economic data with household surveys. We found that it will cost on average an extra USD 11 billion of public money per year from 2016 to 2030 to largely end hunger, part of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2). USD 4 billion of the additional spending needs to come from donors. The remaining USD 7 billion will come from poor countries themselves.Since the launch of the report in November 2016, there has been broad interest from academics, economic modellers and donors, to understand how the model works. There have also been calls for more robust evidence and greater consensus on the most effective interventions to achieve SDG2.

The goal of this workshop was to explain the IFPRI-IISD methodology and discuss how it can be used to contribute to more robust evidence on the most effective interventions. The meeting started with a detailed presentation of the methodology; it’s strengths, limits, and how it can be used for future modeling efforts. The second day focused on the pathway to building consensus among academics, modellers and donors through a special journal issue on the most effective interventions to achieve SDG2.