The year 2015 marks the end of the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDG) monitoring period, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released a report last week that hunger continues to decline, as indicated by measurements of undernourishment and low body weight in children under five.
About 795 million people are undernourished globally, down 167 million over the last decade, and 216 million less than in 1990–92. The decline is more pronounced in developing regions, despite significant population growth. In recent years, progress has been hindered by slower and less inclusive economic growth as well as political instability in some developing regions, such as Central Africa and western Asia.
The report looks not only at the progress in numbers, but ahead to the solutions needed to continue those downward trends, including work in agriculture, social assistance, education, economic development and other areas. The Christian Science Monitor:
In urging holistic efforts to combat hunger, the FAO report is consistent with a growing trend in the development community that looks at extreme poverty as a multidimensional concept that includes the need for food security, as well as access to housing, basic health services, and education.
“If we truly wish to create a world free from poverty and hunger … we must work to create a transformation in our rural communities so they provide decent jobs, decent conditions, and decent opportunities,” Kanayo F. Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, said in a press statement.
National Public Radio’s “On Point” will discuss the topic tomorrow, June 3. For more on that, plus links to additional reading, click here.
The UN report can be downloaded as a pdf here.
Posted by Cara Ellen Modisett