New York, NY (BBN)– Although the number of hungry people in the world has fallen below 1 billion thanks to renewed economic growth, it remains “unacceptably” high, two United Nations agencies said on Tuesday.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced in a new report that 925 million people will suffer chronic hunger, down nearly 100 million from 1.02 billion in 2009.
Among its findings will be that two thirds of the world’s hungry live in just seven countries: Bangladesh, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and Pakistan.
“But with a child dying every six seconds because of undernourishment-related problems, hunger remains the world’s largest tragedy and scandal,” FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said in a statement.
He warned that the continued high level of global hunger hampers the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the eight globally-agreed anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.
Additionally, recent increases in food prices, if they persist, could further impede efforts to curb the number of hungry people in the world.
Next week, world leaders will gather at UN Headquarters in New York to assess progress made in achieving the MDGs.
This year’s hunger figure marked a nearly10 per cent decline from the 2009 level, with the reduction concentrated in Asia, where 80 million fewer people are estimated to be going hungry this year.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the drop was much lower at 12 million, with one out of every three people in the region still undernourished.
Next month, FAO and WFP will release their joint flagship report, “The State of Food Insecurity in the World.”
BBN/SI/AD-15Sept10-10:17 am (BST)
