As more hunger and malnutrition persist, hunger is suspected by 2030, warns UN report

Rome – More people are starving, according to an annual United Nations survey. Tens of millions have joined the ranks of the chronically malnourished in the last five years, and countries around the world continue to struggle with multiple forms of malnutrition.

The latest edition of National Security and Foodstuffs in the world, published today, estimates that almost 690 million people are hungry in 2019 – which is 10 million more than in 2018, and almost 60 million in five years. High costs and low affordability also mean that billions cannot eat healthy or nutritious. Hungry are most numerous in Asia, but spread most rapidly in Africa. Across the planet, the report predicts, the COVID-19 pandemic could plunge more than 130 million people into chronic famine by the end of 2020. (Outbreaks of acute famine in the context of a pandemic may increase with increasing numbers).

The state of food safety and nutrition is the world’s most authoritative study that tracks progress toward stopping hunger and malnutrition. The products are shared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Program (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Writing in the preface, the leaders of the five agencies warn that “five years after the world committed itself to ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, we are still not going to achieve that goal by 2030.”

They published hunger numbers

In this issue, critical data updates for China and other populated countries have led to a significant reduction in estimates of the global number of hungry people to the current 690 million. However, the trend has not changed. A revision of the entire famine series up to 2000 brings the same conclusion: after steadily declining for decades, chronic hunger slowly began to rise in 2014 and continues to do so.

Asia remains home to the largest number of malnourished (381 million). In second place is Africa (250 million), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (48 million). The global prevalence of malnutrition – or the overall percentage of hungry people – has changed little, 8.9 percent, but the absolute number has been rising since 2014. This means that hunger has grown in line with the global population in the last five years.

This in turn hides large regional differences: Africa is the most severely affected region in percentages and is increasingly becoming accurate, as 19.1 percent of people are malnourished. This is more than double rate in Asia (8.3 percent) and in Latin America and the Caribbean (7.4 percent). About current trends, author By 2030, Africa will be home to more than half of the world’s chronic famines.

The toll is for a pandemic

As it progresses in the fight against hunger, the COVID-19 pandemic increases vulnerabilities and inadequacies of global food systems – are understood as all activities and processes that affect food production, distribution and consumption. Although it is too early to assess full impact locks and other protection measures, the report assesses at least one more 83 million people, and perhaps as many as 132 million, may starve in 2020 economic recession triggered by COVID 19.iii Failure casts further doubt on achievement goal 2 of sustainable development (Zero hunger).

Unhealthy diet, food insecurity and malnutrition

Overcoming hunger and malnutrition in all its forms (including malnutrition, micronutrients deficiency, overweight and obesity) is more than providing enough food to survive: what people eat – and especially what children eat – they also need to be nutritious. The key hurdle though is high cost of nutrients and low availability of healthy food for a huge number of families.

The report provides evidence that a healthy diet costs well over $ 1.90 a day, internationally poverty line. It puts the price of even the most expensive healthy diet at five times the price of full stomachs only with starch. Dairy products, rich in nutrients, fruits, vegetables and foods rich in protein (plant and animal resources) are the most expensive food groups globally.

The latest estimates say that by shining 3 billion people or more cannot afford a healthy diet. IN sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, this is the case for 57 percent of the population – though not the region, including North America and Europe, has not been spared. Partly as a result, the race to the end malnutrition appears to be at risk. According to the report, in 2019 between a quarter and a third children under the age of five (191 million) were stunned or lost — too short or too thin. 38 more a million under the age of five was too hard. Meanwhile, obesity has become global among adults a pandemic per se.

Call to action

The report argues that once sustainability considerations are taken into account, the global transition to healthy Diet would help to check the return to hunger while at the same time bringing huge savings. calculates that such a shift would allow for the health costs associated with an unhealthy diet, which it is estimated they could reach $ 1.330 billion per year in 2030, which would be almost fully offset; while social costs are related to nutrition greenhouse gas emissions, estimated at $ 1.7 trillion, could be cut by three quarters The report calls for the transformation of food systems to reduce the cost of nutrients and

increase the accessibility of a healthy diet. Although concrete solutions will vary from country to country country, and even within them, the overall answers lie through interventions on whole foods supply chain, in the food environment and in the political economy that shapes trade, publicly expenditure and investment policies. The study calls on governments to include nutrition in their diet their approaches to agriculture; work to reduce factors that increase costs in production, storage,

transport, distribution and storage of food – including reduction of inefficiency and loss of food and losing; support local small producers to grow and sell more nutritious foods and provide them access to markets; give priority to the nutrition of children as the category with the greatest need; stimulating behavior change through education and communication; and incorporate nutrition into national social protection investment systems and strategies.

The heads of the five UN agencies behind the state of food security and nutrition in the world declare their commitment to support this significant shift by ensuring that it takes place “in a sustainable way for humans and the planet. “

Media contacts on interview requests (several languages ​​included):

FAO – Andre VORNIC, +39 345 870 6985, [email protected]

IFAD – Antonia PARADELA, +34 605 398 109, [email protected]

UNICEF – Sabrina SIDHU, +1 917 476 1537, [email protected]

WFP – Martin PENNER, +39 345 614 2074, [email protected]

TKO – Fadela CHAIB, +41 79 475 5556, [email protected]

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and for FAO – Qu Dongyu, Director General; for IFAD – Gilbert F. Houngbo, President; for UNICEF – Henrietta H. Fore, CEO; for WFP – David Beasley, CEO; for WHO – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, General Manager.

ii Updates are available for a key parameter that measures inequality in food consumption within societies made for 13 countries with a total population approaching 2.5 billion people: Bangladesh, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Sudan and Thailand. In particular, the size of the Chinese population has had the greatest impact on global numbers.

iv. The report analyzes the “hidden costs” of unhealthy eating and the possibilities of models that include four alternatives

diet: flexitar, peskatarska, vegetarian and vegan. It also recognizes the carbon of some poorer countries

emissions could initially be increased to enable them to achieve their dietary goals. (The opposite is true for the rich

country).