Latest FAO Food Insecurity report suggests eradication of hunger goal within reach

As latest data show the number of hungry people has fallen under 800 million worldwide, UN officials has said that to eradicate hunger fully is a target within reach for the current generation.

World hunger has decreased from over 1 billion people in 1990-1992 to 795 million in 2014-2016, according to "The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015" (SOFI) report.

The prevalence of undernourishment at global level has declined by 45.5 percent from 18.6 percent to 10.9 percent in the same period, and from 23.3 percent to 12.9 percent in developing countries.

The report was unveiled in a joint press conference by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the World Food Program (WFP) on Wednesday.

The figures seemed to arouse optimism in UN officials.

"The near-achievement of the MDG hunger goals shows hunger can indeed be eradicated, and not only reduce, in our lifetime. We must be the Zero Hunger generation," FAO Director General Jose Graziano Da Silva said.

"This goal should be mainstreamed into all policy interventions and at the heart of the new Sustainable Development Agenda, which has to be established later this year," he added.

In addition to latest hunger data, the SOFI report delivered an assessment of the achievements made towards the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG-1), which was to halve the number of hungry population in the world by 2015.

A majority of the countries monitored by FAO were able to meet this goal, namely 72 out of 129 or 56 percent, and "for the developing regions as a whole, this target was missed by a small margin", the report stated.

Reducing the world hunger by 216 million people between 1990 and 2015 was all the more a striking achievement since the world population has grown by 1.9 billion in the same period, according to FAO.

The report also highlighted that changes in large populous countries, especially China and India, played a big part in the overall hunger reduction trend in developing regions.

China and India alone contributed to about four fifths of the decline of hungry people in the world, according to FAO Assistant Director-General for economic and social development Jomo K. Sundaram.

"The countries achieving the best progress were those showing the strongest political commitment to make hunger eradication a paramount development objective, made not only by governments but by the whole societies," Da Silva remarked at the press conference.

The most significant achievements were registered in East Asia, which saw the prevalence of undernourishment dropping from 23.2 percent in 1990 to 9.6 percent in 2015.

Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and some part of Africa also showed good progress, while South Asia achieved more modest results.

"This shows inclusive economic growth, agricultural investments and social protection, along with political stability makes the elimination of hunger possible," the report said.

Severe food insecurity was also close to being eradicated in North Africa, with the prevalence of undernourishment falling below 5 percent.

However, some critical weaknesses on the global hunger map still persist, FAO acknowledged.

Sub-Saharan Africa showed the highest prevalence of undernourishment in the world, with 23.2 percent of the population, or 220 million, not getting enough food. Nonetheless, it made a progress in terms of the proportion of hungry people considering the high growth rate of its population, FAO officials said.

Some 24 African countries currently face a food crisis, which is twice as many as in 1990, the report also stated.

South Asia was the sub-region bearing the heaviest burden in terms of number, with 281.4 million people currently estimated as undernourished.

Challenging global economic conditions, extreme weather and natural disasters, along with political instability were the major factors hampering the full achievement of food security in the world, according to the UN agencies.

Around one of every five undernourished people in the world currently lives in crisis environments marked by weak governance and acute vulnerability to death and disease, the report stated.

Hunger rates in countries facing protracted crises are more than three times higher than elsewhere.

The SOFI report suggested several factors would be crucial to really make eradication of hunger a possible target: namely, a more inclusive economic growth to reach the poorest and reduce inequality; an increase in the productivity of rural communities, and an expansion of social protection for smallholders and farming families to help them being more resilient to natural or man-made shocks.

The possible risks for developing countries associated to international trade liberalization should also be considered in the perspective of enhancing food security, officials said.

"I think we should think of food, and especially basic food, as something to be treated differently from other types of commodities," FAO Assistant Director-General Sundaram told Xinhua.

"Certain policies to enable small farmers in developing countries to become more resilient and increase food security should be taken into consideration," he said. Endit