The United Nations (UN) warns of the consequences of increasing hunger in the world.
In a report released this Wednesday (6), the entity points out that between 702 and 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021. The number has grown by about 150 million since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic – another 103 million of people between 2019 and 2020 and 46 million more in 2021.
After remaining relatively unchanged since 2015, the prevalence of malnutrition jumped from 8.0 to 9.3% from 2019 to 2020 and increased at a slower pace in 2021 to 9.8%. Projections are that around 670 million people will still face hunger in 2030 – 8% of the world’s population, the same as in 2015, when the 2030 Agenda was launched.
According to the UN, the scenario reflects exacerbated inequalities between and within countries due to an uneven pattern of economic recovery and unrecovered income losses among those most affected by the pandemic.
The report notes that after rising sharply in 2020, the global prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity remained largely unchanged in 2021, but severe food insecurity has increased, reflecting a deteriorating situation for people already facing serious hardship.
About 2.3 billion people worldwide were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021, and 11.7% of the global population faced severe food insecurity.
Globally, in 2020, an estimated 22% of children under the age of five were stunted, 6.7% were malnourished and 5.7% were overweight. Children in rural settings and poorer families whose mothers had not received formal education were more vulnerable to stunting and extreme thinness. Children in urban areas and wealthier families were at greater risk of being overweight.
Globally, in 2019, nearly one in three women aged 15 to 49 (571 million) were affected by anemia, with no progress since 2012. Anemia affects more women in rural settings, in poorer households and who have not received formal education.
Steady progress has been made in exclusive breastfeeding, with 43.8% of babies under six months of age exclusively breastfed worldwide in 2020, up from 37.1% in 2012, but improvement must be accelerated to reach the 2030 target. Babies residing in rural areas, in poorer households, female and whose mothers have not received formal education are more likely to be breastfed.
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The report points out that almost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020. The index is 112 million more than in 2019, reflecting the inflation in consumer food prices resulting from the economic impacts of the pandemic and the measures taken to contain it.
The UN argues that recent setbacks indicate that policies are no longer generating returns in reducing hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. Experts say governments with a fragile economy also face fiscal constraints to transform agrifood systems.
“Global support for food and agriculture amounted to nearly US$630 billion a year on average between 2013 and 2018. Most of this is targeted at individual farmers through trade and market policies and fiscal subsidies largely linked to production or the unrestricted use of variable production inputs. Not only does much of this support distort the market, it does not reach many farmers, harms the environment and does not promote the production of nutritious food,” the report says.
According to the survey, support for agricultural production is mainly focused on staple foods, dairy products and other foods rich in animal-based proteins, especially in high- and upper-middle-income countries. Rice, sugar and meats of various types are the most encouraged foods around the world, while fruits and vegetables are least supported in general.
The UN points out that commercial and market interventions can act as trade barriers for nutritious foods, undermining the availability and affordability of healthy diets.
“In many countries, tax subsidies have increased the availability and reduced the price of staple foods and their derivatives, discouraging and making it relatively more expensive to consume unsubsidized or less subsidized products, such as fruits, vegetables and pulses,” the document says.
The report recommends redirecting public support towards increasing the availability of nutritious food for the consumer. The measure can contribute to making healthy diets less expensive and more accessible around the world, a necessary – albeit insufficient – condition for healthy diets to be consumed.
Source: CNN Brasil
