• The Food and Agriculture Organization report shows chronic hunger has increased by 10 million people in one year and up by nearly 60 million people in five years.
• Almost 690 million people went hungry in 2019.
Image: JOSEPH KANGOGO
The Covid-19 pandemic could lead to over 100 million people going hungry globally, a UN report shows.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report shows chronic hunger has increased by 10 million people in one year and up by nearly 60 million people in five years.
Titled "The State of the Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2020" the report showed that almost 690 million people went hungry in 2019.
The highest numbers were in Asia by 381 million and rose fastest in Africa by 250 million.
The report was released on Monday by FAO and other UN agencies including the International Fund for Agricultural Development, World Food Programme, Unicef and World Health Organization.
In 2019, economic slowdowns and downturns undercut efforts to end world hunger, the report showed.
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic, desert locust outbreaks in Eastern Africa have dimmed economic prospects and the situation may get worse if not rectified.
“If these trends continue, more than 840 million people will be hungry by 2030 with Africa overtaking Asia as the region affected most,” the report indicated. Two billion people do not have access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food.
In Kenya, more than 200,000 people are hunger-stricken in Baringo county as a result of drought, floods and insecurity.
Some families in the county go for days without food, while others survive on wild vegetables, fruits, meat and milk.
Governor Stanley Kiptis said on July 3 that the food donated by his administration is too little to feed the entire hungry population. He urged donors, humanitarian agencies and well-wishers to intervene.
World Vision-Kenya Lokis-based area development programme coordinator Geoffrey Mwaura said the hunger situation is almost getting out of hand.
In 2019, 144 million children under the age of five were stunted while 45 million were wasted.
“We are not on course to meet the 2030 target for child stunting, low birth weight and exclusive breastfeeding."
According to Unicef, balanced diets in infants and young children was low in the majority of the regions, with less than 40 per cent of meeting minimum levels in seven out of the eleven sub-regions.
The prevalence of children eating foods from at least five out of eight food groups is on average 1.7 times higher among children living in urban households than in rural ones. The same rate applies among those living in the richest households compared to the poorest.
The UN report pointed out that countries are also facing the growing burden of obesity linked to poor quality diet. Some 676 million adults are obese, equivalent to 13 per cent of the world’s population.
“Three billion people cannot afford healthy diets around 57 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan and southern Asia cannot afford nutritious food. Current dietary patterns are also taking a heavy toll in terms of health costs and the environment,” the report reads.
To achieve a world free from hunger and malnutrition by 2030, countries must transform food systems and increase the affordability of healthy diets, the report recommends.