Opinion: The World Sees Progress Against Undernutrition, but it’s Uneven

Nepal has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world. Over 41 percent of the country’s children suffer from chronic malnutrition, predominantly in rural areas. Credit: Naresh Newar/IPSBy Jomo Kwame SundaramROME, Mar 9 2015 (IPS)In 2014, an estimated 805 million people – one in nine people worldwide – were estimated to be chronically hungry. All but 14 million of the world’s hungry live in developing countries, i.e., 791 million are in developing countries, where the share of the hungry has declined by less than half – from 23.4 per cent (1990-1992) to 13.5 per cent (2012-2014).Progress unevenOverall progress has been highly uneven. Some countries and regions have seen only slow progress in reducing hunger, while the absolute number of hungry has even increased in several cases. Marked differences in reducing undernourishment have persisted across regions.Nutrition failures are due not only to insufficient food access, but also to poor health conditions and the high incidence of diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.There have been significant reductions in both the estimated share and number of undernourished in most countries in South-East Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean – where the target of halving the proportion of the hungry has been reached, or nearly reached.Progress in sub-Saharan Africa has been more limited, and the region now has the highest prevalence of undernourishment. West Asia has ...

Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - March 9, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Jomo Kwame Sundaram Tags: Aid Development & Aid Education Featured Food & Agriculture Global Global Governance Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse Population Poverty & MDGs TerraViva United Nations Wome Source Type: news