SDG2: Zero Hunger
Why it matters
SDG 2 aims to end hunger and to achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. However, the number of people facing hunger and food insecurity has been on the rise since 2015, with the pandemic, conflict, climate change and growing inequalities exacerbating the situation. Projections show that by 2030, approximately 670 million people will still be facing hunger, equivalent to 8% of the world’s population, the same percentage as in 2015.[4]
The industry’s contribution
Mobile technology contributes to SDG 2 through improvements to agricultural practices, nutritional knowledge and household food security. This is supported by rising rural mobile penetration, which reached 59% at the end of 2022 (an increase of 220 million people since 2015).
Mobile financial services also play a key role in supporting SDG 2. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of mobile money among smallholder farmers, supported by moves from mobile operators and governments to waive fees, raise transaction limits and digitise agricultural subsidy schemes for inputs.[5]
Despite progress in these areas, there was a decline in the SDG 2 mobile impact score in 2022. This can be primarily attributed to a reduction in the number of people utilising mobile devices for tasks such as monitoring their health and accessing online government services. While mobile usage across these activities remained higher than pre-pandemic levels, the resumption of in-person engagements is likely having an impact on user behaviour. The impact of the cost-of-living crisis also likely impeded usage.
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Maximising mobile’s impact by 2030
Enabling greater mobile money adoption will be important to scale the mobile industry’s impact on SDG 2. However, the mobile money industry is facing several regulatory challenges that need to be addressed to increase mobile’s impact on the SDGs. Some countries have introduced taxes on mobile money transactions and fees that do not align with their financial inclusion objectives. Fraud also remains an industry-wide issue. Regulators can help mobile money providers overcome this through capacity building and supporting initiatives to improve consumer awareness.
The GSMA will continue to monitor the regulatory environment across countries to assist MMPs, regulators and policymakers in the development of enabling regulation.[6]
Case Studies
Child Growth Monitor
Welthungerhilfe’s Child Growth Monitor is a mobile app-based tool for the measurement and detection of malnutrition in children. The vision is that every child can grow up free from hunger.
Orange and SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) scale up digital agriculture advisory service
Smallholder farmers are an integral part of our food system, producing more than 30% of food globally. However, they remain financially excluded and increasingly vulnerable to changing climate patterns that affect their yields. Digital advisory services can help smallholder farmers overcome these challenges, drawing on a variety of sources to support agricultural decision-making.
Garbal is a digital advisory service for pastoralists and smallholder farmers launched by SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) in partnership with Orange.
It was launched in Mali in 2017, followed by Burkina Faso in 2019. Delivered through USSD and a call centre, Garbal is a digital-only service offering data on market prices, pasture quality and herd concentrations. It also provides information on techniques and practices for farming and livestock production, in addition to geo-satellite data on biomass availability, agro-meteorological information and weather forecasts. Garbal users pay a modest fee to access the service via SMS, airtime and mobile data. During the Covid-19 pandemic, existing partnerships between digital advisory providers, governments and development agencies deepened to support farmers in new ways. The organisations behind the Garbal service were already collaborating closely with the respective governments in Mali and Burkina Faso to design and define content, but in the early stages of the pandemic, they worked together to push health-related advice to farmers. This established Garbal as a channel for communicating messages of public interest to the pastoralists subscribed to the service. For example, after the recent decision in Benin to end cross-border movement of livestock, Garbal was used to keep pastoralists informed of movement restrictions and conditions.
To date, Garbal has received over 300,000 calls.[7] There was an uptick in activity in the first year of the pandemic and the number of calls received by its call centre increased further in 2021 (a 32% increase year on year).[8] Covid-related enquiries fell by 60% in 2021, indicating that pastoralists and smallholder farmers saw the value of the service beyond a source of information related to Covid-19. Overall, the service offers farmers and pastoralists more predictability and allows them to make decisions accurately with instant access to reliable information.
