Troubling setback in effort to reduce world hunger
Climate-related shocks disastrous to agriculture and conflict have exacerbated food insecurity and malnutrition problems worldwide. In 2016, these and other factors led to a sharp increase in the number of chronically undernourished people in the world, according to the recently released State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, an annual publication of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (F.A.O). Coming on the heels of a decade-long decline in the number of hungry people, there was concern this may signal a reversal of the recent trend.
In 2016, 815 million people, or 11% of the global population, were chronically undernourished. That’s up from 777 million in 2015, but still down from about 900 million in 2000, according to the report. Most hungry people lived in Asia (520 million), Africa (243 million) and Latin America (42 million).
Most undernourished people (489 million) live in regions struggling with conflict, violence and governance fragility. This is no coincidence, the F.A.O. said, which noted all 19 countries classified as experiencing a prolonged food crisis also are experiencing conflict and violence. Hunger and undernutrition were consistently and significantly the worst in areas where there have been lengthy conflicts and weak institutional capacity combined with destructive climate-related shocks, such as drought and flooding.
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