One in nine people in the world is hungry – report

Residents of Mtsangamali Village in Ganze, Kilifi County, carry relief food donated to them by NGOs. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • The prevalence of undernourishment is particularly high in Africa, where more than 256 million people (21 per cent of the population) are affected.
  • Hunger is significantly worse in countries with agricultural systems that are highly sensitive to rainfall and temperature variability and severe drought.

The number of undernourished people facing chronic food deprivation has increased to nearly 821 million in 2017 from 804 million in 2016, a new UN report has shown. And while more than 150 million children are stunted, this is a nine per cent decline from 165 million in 2012. The report, however, notes that this number is still too high, and puts the goal of eradicating hunger by 2030 at risk of not being met.

According to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report released last week, a large proportion of the world’s population is also affected by micronutrient (vitamin and mineral) deficiencies such as iron deficiency anaemia in women. These deficiencies are referred to as “hidden hunger” because there may be no visible signs.

The prevalence of undernourishment is particularly high in Africa, where more than 256 million people (21 per cent of the population) are affected.

“If we are to achieve a world without hunger and malnutrition by 2030, it is imperative that we accelerate and scale up actions to strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity of food systems and people’s livelihoods in response to climate variability and extremes,” noted the report.

Hunger is significantly worse in countries with agricultural systems that are highly sensitive to rainfall and temperature variability and severe drought. These are countries where a high proportion of the population depends on agriculture and where the country does not have sufficient support measures to counter the fallout.

FOOD SECURITY

For almost 36 per cent of the countries that experienced a rise in undernourishment since 2005, this coincided with severe drought. Out of 27 countries with increasing prevalence of undernourishment occurring under severe drought stress conditions, most (19 countries) are in Africa. Crop and livestock sub-sectors incur the highest damages and losses in agriculture due to climate-related disasters.

The harm to agricultural production contributes to shortfalls in food availability, with knock-on effects causing food price hikes and income losses that reduce people’s access to food.

“Changes in climate are already undermining the production of major crops such as wheat, rice, and maize in tropical and temperate regions. Without building climate resilience, this is expected to worsen as temperatures increase and become more extreme,” the report notes.

Temperature anomalies over agricultural cropping areas continued to be higher than the long-term mean throughout 2011 to 2016, leading to more frequent spells of extreme heat in the last five years. The nature of rainfall seasons is also changing, with late or early start of rainy seasons and unequal distribution of rainfall within a season.

The report recommends implementation and scaling up interventions to guarantee access to nutritious foods and break the inter-generational cycle of malnutrition.

“Policies must pay special attention to the most vulnerable: infants, children under five, school-aged children, adolescent girls, and women,” the report noted.

At the same time, it recommended a sustainable shift towards nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems that can provide safe and high-quality food for all. The report also called for greater efforts to build climate resilience through policies that promote climate change adaptation and mitigation, and disaster risk reduction.