Every 9th Person Faced Undernourishment Worldwide In 2017 - UN Report

The number of people suffering from undernourishment worldwide increased by 17 million to 821 million in 2017, which means that one in every nine people was inadequately fed last year, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations said on Tuesday.

ROME (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2018) The number of people suffering from undernourishment worldwide increased by 17 million to 821 million in 2017, which means that one in every nine people was inadequately fed last year, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"The absolute number of people in the world affected by undernourishment, or chronic food deprivation, is now estimated to have increased from around 804 million in 2016 to nearly 821 million in 2017. The situation is worsening in South America and most regions of Africa; likewise, the decreasing trend in undernourishment that characterized Asia until recently seems to be slowing down significantly," the FAO said in its report "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018."

Almost 151 million children under five years, which is around 22 percent of the global population, suffered from stunting in 2017, while over 50 million children under five years were affected by wasting � having low weight for their height � and faced the risk of morbidity and mortality, according to the report.

The agency's latest estimates showed that the number of undernourished people had been growing for the past two years and may have reached 10.9 percent last year.

The FAO listed persistent instability in war zones and adverse climate events as the main reasons behind the rising number of people affected by hunger.

The report also noted a continuing increase in anemia among women and obesity among adults worldwide.

"One in three women of reproductive age is anaemic and more than one in eight adults - or more than 672 million - is obese. The problem of obesity is most significant in North America, but it is worrying that even Africa and Asia, which still show the lowest rates of obesity, are also experiencing an upward trend," the report pointed out.

Notably, the adult obesity rate grew from 11.7 percent in 2012 to 13.2 percent in 2016 worldwide.

"In 2017, childhood overweight affected over 38 million children under five years of age, with Africa and Asia representing 25 percent and 46 percent of the global total, respectively," the report noted.

International organizations have been seeking to end food insecurity and undernourishment in various regions of the world.

In 2012, the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, set six global targets to counter maternal, infant and young child malnutrition to be achieved by 2025.

The 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals, a global agenda aimed at improving the humanitarian and environment situation across the world, listed halting all forms of malnutrition by 2030, including achieving the 2025 targets, as goals.