Hunger Report 2018: The Jobs Challenge - Working to End Hunger by 2030

Ending global hunger and extreme poverty is within our grasp. Incomes are rising even in countries once thought to be facing insurmountable challenges, showing that progress is possible anywhere when barriers are removed. A global consensus has now formed that 2030 is an ambitious but attainable target date.

In the United States, the preferred way of ending hunger is by ensuring that everyone who wants a job can get one and that it pays a sufficient wage. The bare minimum that defines a “decent” job is a sufficient wage, which should provide families with the means to put food on the table. For those who are raising children, a decent job should allow them to balance their responsibilities as an employee and parent.

Decent jobs are also the best way to end hunger and extreme poverty in developing countries. The zero-sum narrative holds that prosperity in another part of the world must come at the expense of workers in the United States. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Better policies can make the difference. We can reclaim the American Dream for all in our country, and we can share that powerful dream with our neighbors who are striving for more than a subsistence life. This is the jobs challenge that the 2018 Hunger Report addresses.