World hunger has increased in the past year.
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- The United Nations stated that the number of hungry and malnourished people in the world has surged in the past year.
- The number of undernourished people accounts for about 10% of the world’s population.
- A report stated that the Covid-19 pandemic was partly responsible for this increase.
According to a multi-agency United Nations (UN) report released on Monday, the level of hunger and malnutrition in the world deteriorated sharply last year, and most of the increase may be due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the report, after five years of almost unchanged, the number of undernourished people increased to about 768 million last year, equivalent to 10% of the world’s population, an increase of about 118 million from 2019.
The report was written by United Nations agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). It is the first comprehensive assessment of food insecurity and nutrition since the emergence of the pandemic.
The UN agency said in a joint statement: “Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to expose the weaknesses of our food system, threatening lives and livelihoods. No part of the world is immune.”
The 2021 edition of “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” estimates that, according to current trends, nearly 660 million people will not be able to achieve the UN’s sustainable development goal of zero hunger by 2030.
This number is 30 million higher than in the absence of a pandemic.
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Arif Hussein, chief economist of the World Food Program, said: “Our biggest worry is coming true. It will take years or even decades to reverse such a high level of chronic hunger.”
This year, with upcoming summits such as the United Nations Food System Summit and the Nutrition for Growth Summit, the diplomatic momentum for addressing hunger and malnutrition has increased. But the report emphasizes that the challenges are huge.
The number of people without adequate food increased by 320 million last year to 2.37 billion-an increase in one year equivalent to the sum of the previous five years.
Of the 768 million undernourished people, 418 million are in Asia, 282 million are in Africa, and 60 million are in Latin America and the Caribbean. But in Africa, 21% of people are undernourished, more than double the rate in any other region.
After decades of decline, food insecurity has been on the rise since the mid-2010s, especially in countries affected by conflict, extreme weather, economic recession, or the fight against high inequality.
However, last year’s increase was equal to the sum of the previous five years.
