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How tax dodging feeds world hunger

The scandal of world hunger could soon be ended if the revenues that developing countries lose through tax dodging were available to them to invest in agricultural development, says a new report from Christian Aid.

One in eight of the world’s population goes to bed hungry, with progress disappointing towards the global goal of halving world hunger by 2015.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recently cited US$50.2bn per annum, on top of existing funding, as the cost of creating a ‘world free from hunger’ by 2025.

Christian Aid’s report 'Who Pays the Price? Hunger: The Hidden Cost of Tax Evasion' says that amount, and more, would be raised every year if governments ended tax haven secrecy and curtailed profit-shifting and tax dodging by multinationals in poor countries.

Report author Alex Prats said: ‘Malnutrition and related causes lead to the death of 2.3 million children every year. In the developing world, it is the underlying cause of the deaths of 35 per cent of all children under the age of five.

‘At the Millennium Summit in 2000, and later in 2009 at the World Summit on Food Security, political leaders agreed to halve hunger by the year 2015.

‘But despite the promises made, progress has been disappointing. In Africa, the number of hungry people has actually increased by 36 per cent over the period 1990-2012, from 175 to 239 million people.

‘If developing countries were able to increase their tax revenues and make effective use of the financial resources available, poverty and hunger could be eradicated. One of the main reasons they can’t is because of tax dodging.’


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