According to the United Nations, in 2017 there were around 821 million people worldwide who have too little food and are starving. It concerns about one in nine people on the globe. “Hunger in the world is rising every third year in a row and is returning to the level of ten years ago,” says Katelijne Suetens of Broederlijk Delen.
Various UN organizations put together the report ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World’. In 2016, the UN still counted 804 million people who are chronically hungry. One year later, in 2017, the counter already stood at 821 million people, including 151 million children under the age of five. Conflicts, economic contraction and climate are the known causes. More heat, droughts and floods are also contributing hunger.
“For the second year in a row we have to read that the number of people with hunger has increased. The figures confirm the trend that was used last year. In 2017, 821 million people were chronically malnourished, more than 17 million in 2016 and it means a return to the level of ten years ago”, says Katelijne Suetens, member of the Coalition against Hunger, the network of development organizations active in the fight against hunger and malnutrition.
Africa
Africa is the most affected, with 21 percent of the population that is undernourished. In Asia, it is 11.4 percent, in Latin America and the Caribbean at 6.1 percent and Oceania 7 percent.
There is concern about a deterioration in South America, with increasing hunger in Venezuela, hit by a severe crisis, and several Central American countries that are increasingly experiencing drought. Worst is the situation in conflict countries such as Yemen (35 percent).
Also, in Europe
The UN comes to 2.1 percent of the population for Europe and North America, in Europe Albania and Serbia are the outliers with 5.5 and 5.6 percent of the population suffering from hunger. In the field of health, the proportion of children with growth retardation decreases from 25 to 22 percent, according to the UN report. On the other hand, more than one in eight citizens of the world is obese.
