Man-made conflict, climate change main drivers of global hunger, says UN

UNITED NATIONS, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations said Wednesday that the main drivers of hunger and malnutrition were man-made conflict and climate change and the protracted crises that followed.

Global hunger had escalated by 5 percent in 2016, said Mario Arvelo, Chair of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), while introducing CFS's report on the main decisions and policy recommendations.

CFS was established in 1974 as an intergovernmental body to serve as a forum in the United Nations System for review and follow-up of policies concerning world food security including production and physical and economic access to food.

Arvelo noted that the number of food insecure people was at 815 million in 2016, some 38 million more than in 2015.

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on Wednesday adopted three decisions and took up several reports, including two addressing food security and nutrition, as the organ concluded the first part of its coordination and management meetings of the 2018 session.

Arvelo told ECOSOC that CFS was deeply concerned that the 2017 report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition indicated that the international community was not on track to attain the relevant targets set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

"Unfortunately, I start with bad news," said Stineke Oenema, Coordinator of the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition, presenting that body's report.

Stating that one in three people today were malnourished and suffering from one or several forms of malnutrition, she stressed that all countries were affected and progress was not being made to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 on ending hunger.

Equally bad was the fact that malnutrition was not evenly distributed, she noted. Enditem