The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World

BUILDING CLIMATE RESILIENCE FOR FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION

In September 2017, we jointly launched The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, marking the beginning of a new era in monitoring progress towards achieving a world without hunger and malnutrition, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This report monitors progress towards the targets of ending both hunger (SDG Target 2.1) and all forms of malnutrition (SDG Target 2.2), and provides an analysis of the underlying causes and drivers of observed trends. While the prevalence of undernourishment is at the forefront of monitoring hunger, the prevalence of severe food insecurity – based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) – was introduced last year to provide an estimate of the proportion of the population facing serious constraints on their ability to obtain safe, nutritious and sufficient food.

The report also tracks progress on a set of indicators used to monitor World Health Assembly global targets for nutrition and diet-related non-communicable diseases, three of which are also indicators of SDG2 targets.

The challenges we face are indeed significant. Of great concern is the finding last year that, after a prolonged decline, the most recent estimates showed global hunger had increased in 2016. Last year we observed that the failure to reduce world hunger is closely associated with the increase in conflict and violence in several parts of the world, and that efforts to fight hunger must go hand in hand with those to sustain peace. New evidence in this year’s report corroborates the rise in world hunger, thus demanding an even greater call to action. Furthermore, while we must sow the seeds of peace in order to achieve food security, improve nutrition and “leave no one behind”, we also need to redouble efforts to build climate resilience for food security and nutrition.

In 2017, the number of undernourished people is estimated to have reached 821 million – around one person out of every nine in the world. Undernourishment and severe food insecurity appear to be increasing in almost all subregions of Africa, as well as in South America, whereas the undernourishment situation is stable in most regions of Asia.

A more encouraging finding last year was that the rising trend in undernourishment had not yet been reflected in rates of child stunting; this continues to be the case this year. Nonetheless, we are concerned that in 2017, nearly 151 million children under five have stunted growth, while the lives of over

50 million children in the world continue to be threatened by wasting. Such children are at a higher risk of mortality and poor health, growth and development. A multisectoral approach is needed to reduce the burden of stunting and wasting, and to appropriately treat wasting to reduce childhood morbidity and mortality.

View full report here or download in link below

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