821 Million People Suffered from Hunger and Malnutrition in 2018: United Nations

As with the development of science and technology, the number of people with hunger and malnutrition too is rising. According to a report recently released by the United Nations, more than 821 million people across the world are suffering from hunger, food security and malnutrition. This is the third year in a row that the number of hunger and malnutrition has risen.

UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other United Nations agencies including the World Health Organization produced the report as “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World”.  

After several decades of decline, malnutrition has begun to increase from the year 2015, mainly because of climate change and war. Reversing the trend of the 2030 target of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which aims to improve the living condition of people and the planet.

The trends thus prove, getting to a world where no one is suffering from hunger or malnutrition remains an ‘immense challenge’, the report said, noting the number of people without much food to eat had increased from 811 million in 2017.

David Beasley, head of the World Food Programme, one of the UN agencies involvements in the development of the report said, “We will not achieve zero hunger by 2030. That is a bad trend. Without food security we will never have peace and stability”.

Beasley said that the international media carry more talks about Brexit and Donald Trump than children dying of hunger. He also warned that the extremist groups were using hunger and control over food supplies as a weapon to divide communities and recruit new members for their evil missions.

The report said, “To safeguard food security and nutrition, it is critical to already have in place economic and social policies to counteract the effects of adverse economic cycles when they arrive, while avoiding cuts in essential services, such as healthcare and education, at all costs”.

Malnutrition remains widespread in Africa, where more than 20 percent of the population is affected by malnutrition and in Asia more than 12 percent of people experience malnutrition. In Latin America and the Caribbean, seven percent of people are affected by it.

The FAO also agrees that the current efforts are insufficient to meet the goal of the number of children whose growth would be prevented due to malnutrition by 2030.

Robin Willoughby, the head of food and climate policy at Oxfam GB, says women are worst hit because of the rise in hunger.

As he says, “A toxic brew of climate shocks, inequality and conflict is unraveling years of progress. If we are to meet the target of ending hunger by 2030, governments must urgently cut greenhouse emissions, provide more support for small-scale agriculture and increase efforts to end violent conflicts”.

Nearly 149 million children across the world at present are suffering from hunger-related growth delays. At the same time, the UN report also observes that obesity and excess weight because of excessive food are on the rise in many regions of the world, with adults and school-going children are particularly affected.