UN report: Hunger grows with the pandemic

811 million people were malnourished last year. This dramatic figure emerges from the World Food Report of the United Nations presented on Monday, so it comprises about a tenth of the global population. Reality has again moved further away from the UN goal of the 2030 Agenda of defeating hunger everywhere by that year, a trend of the past few years. The report now states that the corona pandemic has probably contributed significantly to the worsening of the situation. The pandemic exposes weaknesses in the food systems that threaten the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe, the authors write. But climate change is also noticeable as a factor in the nutritional situation.

In 2020, the proportion of those who were unable to eat adequately throughout the year rose as sharply as in the previous five years: 2.3 billion people were affected, almost a third of the world’s population. No less than 9.9 percent of the world’s population went hungry, an increase of 1.5 percentage points compared to 2019. Hunger has increased the most in Africa, where the malnutrition rate was 21 percent, which is twice as high everywhere else.

“Our worst fears are about to come true,” said the chief economist of the World Food Program (WFP), Arif Husain. It will take years, “if not decades”, to turn the situation around with such a high proportion of chronically widespread hunger. Better and faster cooperation is now needed at all levels, nationally, regionally and globally. “The price of inaction is simply too high for everyone,” said Husain.

Regarding the impact of the changed global climate, Gernot Laganda, head of the WFP programs to reduce climate and disaster risks, said the consequences of climate change “are drivers of hunger like never before. And although they contribute little to climate change, societies in developing countries are the strongest exposed and at least prepared for ever faster threats that accompany him “.

“Save the lost generation before it’s too late”

The food organization FAO, the aid fund Ifad, the children’s aid organization Unicef, the WFP and the World Health Organization contributed to the information in the report. The numbers supplied are particularly shocking for children: more than 149 million toddlers under five years of age showed stunted growth and were too small for their age. More than 45 million children were too thin – but also almost 39 million were overweight. Last year, when schools closed during the pandemic, 370 million children lost their meals at school meals. “Every fifth child worldwide,” warned WFP Director David Beasley on the occasion of the report, “is impaired”. That means that hunger destroys their future opportunities. The world must act to “save this lost generation before it is too late”.