{"id":6332,"date":"2020-07-14T09:57:08","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T13:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/?p=6332"},"modified":"2021-04-07T12:33:39","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T16:33:39","slug":"as-more-go-hungry-and-malnutrition-persists-achieving-zero-hunger-by-2030-in-doubt-un-report-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/14\/as-more-go-hungry-and-malnutrition-persists-achieving-zero-hunger-by-2030-in-doubt-un-report-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"As More Go Hungry And Malnutrition Persists, Achieving Zero Hunger By 2030 In Doubt, UN Report Warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WHO) Rome \u2013 More people are going hungry, an annual study by the United Nations has found. Tens of millions have joined\u00a0 the ranks of the chronically undernourished over the past five years, and countries around the world continue to struggle with multiple forms of malnutrition.<\/p>\n

The latest edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, published today, estimates that almost 690 million people went hungry in 2019 \u2013 up by 10 million from 2018, and by nearly 60 million in five years. High costs and low affordability also mean billions cannot eat healthily or nutritiously. The hungry are most numerous in Asia, but expanding fastest in Africa. Across the planet, the report forecasts, the COVID-19 pandemic could tip over 130 million more people into chronic hunger by the end of 2020. (Flare-ups of acute hunger in the pandemic context may see this number escalate further at times.)<\/p>\n

The\u00a0State of Food Security and Nutrition<\/em>\u00a0in the World is the most authoritative global study tracking progress towards ending hunger and malnutrition. It is produced jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD), the United Nations Children\u2019s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).<\/div>\n

Writing in the foreword, the heads of the five agencies warn that \u201cfive years after the world committed to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, we are still off track to achieve this objective by 2030″.<\/p>\n

The hunger numbers explained<\/p>\n

In this edition, critical data updates for China and other populous countriesii have led to a substantial cut in estimates of the global number of hungry people, to the current 690 million. Nevertheless, there has been no change in the trend. Revising the entire hunger series back to the year 2000 yields the same conclusion: after steadily diminishing for decades, chronic hunger slowly began to rise in 2014 and continues to do so.<\/p>\n

Asia remains home to the greatest number of undernourished (381 million). Africa is second (250 million), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (48 million). The global prevalence of undernourishment \u2013 or overall percentage of hungry people \u2013 has changed little at 8.9 percent, but the absolute numbers have been rising since 2014. This means that over the last five years, hunger has grown in step with the global population.<\/p>\n

This, in turn, hides great regional disparities: in percentage terms, Africa is the hardest hit region and becoming more so, with 19.1 percent of its people undernourished. This is more than double the\u00a0rate in Asia (8.3 percent) and in Latin America and the Caribbean (7.4 percent). On current trends, by\u00a02030, Africa will be home to more than half of the world\u2019s chronically hungry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The pandemic\u2019s toll<\/h3>\n

As progress in fighting hunger stalls, the COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying the vulnerabilities and\u00a0inadequacies of global food systems \u2013 understood as all the activities and processes affecting the\u00a0production, distribution and consumption of food. While it is too soon to assess the full impact of\u00a0the lockdowns and other containment measures, the report estimates that at a minimum, another\u00a083 million people, and possibly as many as 132 million, may go hungry in 2020 as a result of the\u00a0economic recession triggered by COVID-19.iii The setback throws into further doubt the achievement\u00a0of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unhealthy diets, food insecurity and malnutrition<\/h3>\n

Overcoming hunger and malnutrition in all its forms (including undernutrition, micronutrient\u00a0deficiencies, overweight and obesity) is about more than securing enough food to survive: what\u00a0people eat \u2013 and especially what children eat \u2013 must also be nutritious. Yet a key obstacle is the\u00a0high cost of nutritious foods and the low affordability of healthy diets for vast numbers of families.<\/p>\n

The report presents evidence that a healthy diet costs far more than US$ 1.90\/day, the international\u00a0poverty threshold. It puts the price of even the least expensive healthy diet at five times the price of\u00a0filling stomachs with starch only. Nutrient-rich dairy, fruits, vegetables and protein-rich foods (plant\u00a0and animal-sourced) are the most expensive food groups globally.<\/p>\n

The latest estimates are that a staggering 3 billion people or more cannot afford a healthy diet. In\u00a0sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, this is the case for 57 percent of the population \u2013 though no\u00a0region, including North America and Europe, is spared. Partly as a result, the race to end\u00a0malnutrition appears compromised. According to the report, in 2019, between a quarter and a third\u00a0of children under five (191 million) were stunted or wasted \u2013 too short or too thin. Another 38\u00a0million under-fives were overweight. Among adults, meanwhile, obesity has become a global\u00a0pandemic in its own right.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A call to action<\/p>\n

The report argues that once sustainability considerations are factored in, a global switch to healthy\u00a0diets would help check the backslide into hunger while delivering enormous savings. It calculates\u00a0that such a shift would allow the health costs associated with unhealthy diets, estimated to reach\u00a0US$ 1.3 trillion a year in 2030, to be almost entirely offset; while the diet-related social cost of\u00a0greenhouse gas emissions, estimated at US$ 1.7 trillion, could be cut by up to three-quarters.iv\u00a0The report urges a transformation of food systems to reduce the cost of nutritious foods and<\/p>\n

increase the affordability of healthy diets. While the specific solutions will differ from country to\u00a0country, and even within them, the overall answers lie with interventions along the entire food\u00a0supply chain, in the food environment, and in the political economy that shapes trade, public\u00a0expenditure and investment policies. The study calls on governments to mainstream nutrition in\u00a0their approaches to agriculture; work to cut cost-escalating factors in the production, storage,<\/div>\n
transport, distribution and marketing of food \u2013 including by reducing inefficiencies and food loss and\u00a0waste; support local small-scale producers to grow and sell more nutritious foods, and secure their\u00a0access to markets; prioritize children\u2019s nutrition as the category in greatest need; foster behaviour\u00a0change through education and communication; and embed nutrition in national social protection\u00a0systems and investment strategies.<\/div>\n

The heads of the five UN agencies behind the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World\u00a0declare their commitment to support this momentous shift, ensuring that it unfolds \u201cin a sustainable\u00a0way, for people and the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Media contacts for interview requests (several languages are covered):<\/div>\n
FAO \u2013 Andre VORNIC, +39 345 870 6985, andre.vornic@fao.org<\/div>\n
IFAD \u2013 Antonia PARADELA, +34 605 398 109, a.paradelatorices@ifad.org<\/div>\n
UNICEF \u2013 Sabrina SIDHU, +1 917 476 1537, ssidhu@unicef.org<\/div>\n
WFP \u2013 Martin PENNER, +39 345 614 2074, martin.penner@wfp.org<\/div>\n
WHO \u2013 Fadela CHAIB, +41 79 475 5556, chaibf@who.int<\/div>\n

—————————————-<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

i For FAO \u2013 Qu Dongyu, Director-General; for IFAD \u2013 Gilbert F. Houngbo, President; for UNICEF \u2013 Henrietta H.\u00a0Fore, Executive Director; for WFP \u2013 David Beasley, Executive Director; for WHO \u2013 Tedros Adhanom\u00a0Ghebreyesus, Director-General.<\/p>\n

ii Updates to a key parameter, which measures inequality in food consumption within societies, have been\u00a0made for 13 countries whose combined population approaches 2.5 billion people: Bangladesh, China,\u00a0Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Sudan and Thailand. The\u00a0size of China\u2019s population, in particular, has had the single largest impact on global numbers.<\/div>\n
\n

iii This range corresponds to the most recent expectations of a 4.9 to 10 percent drop in global GDP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

iv The report analyses the \u201chidden costs\u201d of unhealthy diets and models options involving four alternative<\/div>\n
diets: flexitarian, pescatarian, vegetarian and vegan. It also acknowledges that some poorer countries\u2019 carbon<\/div>\n
emissions may initially need to rise to allow them to reach nutrition targets. (The opposite is true of richer<\/div>\n

countries.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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