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With the special initiative "One World Without Hunger" (SEWOH), the German government has set an example. Dirk Schattschneider, Commissioner for the Special Initiative at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on achievements to date, lessons learned and the future of SEWOH.

With its special initiative for “ONE WORLD – no Hunger”, the German federal government issued a clear statement of intention. Soon commonly known as “SEWOH”, the initiative provided the opportunity to react flexibly within budgeting regulations and make an extensive contribution to fulfilling SDG 2. The political calendar provided various occasions to engage the international community through Germany’s G7 and G20 presidencies. The fact that the number of people suffering from hunger has increased since then does not undermine SEWOH’s efforts. Instead, it underpins the call to further intensify efforts on the national, European and global levels. The calendar still offers good vantage points. Great expectations rest on the United Nations Food Systems Summit, and in 2022 Germany will again take over the G7 presidency.

The special initiative One World no hunger (SEWOH) is one donor nation's attempt to decisively push forward the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2). Observations and conclusions from the accompanying discourse.

In the summer of 2019, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), raised the alarm on the growing number of people going hungry. A “World Food Systems Summit” (UNFSS) in the autumn of 2021 intends to draw the necessary public attention to the issue of combatting hunger and increasing sustainability and provide fresh impetus for transforming the entire food system. In 2014, Germany’s Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Gerd Müller, launched a remarkable experiment: SEWOH, the Special Initiative ONEWORLD No Hunger. The idea was to drastically advance UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) with a sector approach initially driven by a single donor nation. Germany has invested around 1.5 billion euros annually towards achieving the UN goal, becoming the world’s second-largest donor in the fields of food security, rural development and agriculture. The initiative has explored new possibilities, yet it also had to face its limits. Vastly exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, it had to realise the vulnerabilities of global food security.  

To feed the world's population in 2050, "the fine art of governance" is required, according to Jan Grossarth. With the help of the SEWOH partners, he has shed light on what this art includes and what challenges it encounters.

There has been some modest progress everywhere and in many thousands of local projects. But what if this won’t be enough in view of the global challenge? According to UN forecasts, Africa’s population is set to double by 2050, reaching over two billion people. Yet food imports on the continent are already exceeding exports, so it is not providing enough food for itself. Climate forecasts are predicting that in some African (and Asian) regions average temperatures will rise by 3 degrees or more. Moreover, deserts are spreading, with the prospect that development cooperation will be ineffective if it merely distributes resources under the watering can principle.