Archive for category: Hunger

10 Shocking World Hunger Statistics

World_hunger_statistics
A recent collaboration among the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, or IFAD, and the World Food Programme  yielded a publication titled, “The State of Food Insecurity in the World.” This document analyzes the current statistics regarding the number and location of the world’s hungry and these ten statistics reflect the most updated state of the world’s hungry populations.

1. There are 795 million people around the world who are undernourished, down by 167 million in the last decade.

According to the publication, 780 million people out of the 795 million are located in underdeveloped regions, namely Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, two areas in which severe hunger is most prevalent.

2. WFP estimates that $3.2 billion is needed each year to feed all 66 million hungry school-age children.

Hunger is one of the leading causes of death in developing countries, particularly in young children under the age of 5. Increasing the U.S. foreign aid budget could drastically improve the lives of millions of hungry children.

3. About 1.3 billion tons of food, roughly one-third of all food produced, is wasted.

When all of this food is not consumed, the one in eight people in the world who go hungry every day are stripped of the chance to get a life-saving meal.

4. This year, 29 countries have achieved the World Food Summit’s goal to halve the number of undernourished people in their populations.

The countries who reached this goal: Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Gabon, Georgia, Ghana, Guyana, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Oman, Peru, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Venezuela and Vietnam.

5. More than 80 percent of the world’s most food-insecure people live in countries prone to natural disasters with high levels of environmental degradation.

Areas that are likely to have hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other destructive events are consequently more prone to collapsed cities, destroyed farmlands and polluted water sources. These consequences directly impact the availability of food in these regions.

6. A total of 72 developing countries out of 129, or more than half the countries monitored, have reached the Millennium Development Goal 1c hunger target.

The MDG relating to hunger takes into account both the prevalence of undernourishment in the specified country, as well as the proportion of underweight children under the age of 5. According to the FAO report, “In many countries that have failed to reach the international hunger targets, natural and human-induced disasters or political instability have resulted in protracted crises with increased vulnerability and food insecurity of large parts of the population. In such contexts, measures to protect vulnerable population groups and improve livelihoods have been difficult to implement or [are] ineffective.”

7. Western Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are the only two regions in the world where the number of hungry people has increased since the 1990 study by the WFP, according to “The State of Food Insecurity in the World.”

In Western Asia, there were eight million people undernourished in 1990, and this number has increased to 19 million this year. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of undernourished people has increased from 176 million in 1990 to 220 million in 2015.

8. Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45 percent) of deaths in children under 5, or 3.1 million children each year.

It is estimated that nearly 8,000 of these deaths are tied to hunger. Approximately one child dies every 10 seconds.

9. Nearly one in every five people survive on less than $1.25 a day.

Approximately 80 percent of this small amount is used to buy food for an entire family. This leaves very little room for buying other necessities such as health care, clothes and shelter.

10. The main cause of hunger is poverty.

According to The Hunger Project, “Poverty, food prices and hunger are inextricably linked. Poverty causes hunger. Not every poor person is hungry, but almost all hungry people are poor. Millions live with hunger and malnourishment because they simply cannot afford to buy enough food, cannot afford nutritious foods or cannot afford the farming supplies they need to grow enough good food of their own. Hunger can be viewed as a dimension of extreme poverty. It is often called the most severe and critical manifestation of poverty.”

– Hanna Darroll

Sources: Food and Agricultural Organization, World Food Programme 1, World Food Programme 2, World Food Programme 3, 30 Hour Famine, The Hunger Project
Photo: Cross Catholic Field Blog

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Hunger in Guinea-Bissau

guinea-bissau
Hunger and malnutrition are significant concerns in the country of Guinea-Bissau that can be attributed to several factors including food insecurity, poor health and sanitation, limited access to water and low literacy rates.

According to a report released by the World Food Programme, only seven percent of people living in Guinea-Bissau are food secure. The report also revealed that 93 percent of the rural population in the country is food insecure as a result of cashew prices. In addition, an estimated 15,000 children suffer from malnutrition across Guinea-Bissau.

Due to Guinea-Bissau’s political instability and socioeconomic uncertainty, the country’s food security remains compromised. Poverty rates have increased from 65 percent in previous years to 75 percent and although the country has ample natural resources, a substantial amount of rainfall and good soil, Guinea-Bissau is still dealing with the political disruption that makes it susceptible to poverty.

A large aspect of the country’s economy can be found in the agricultural sector, which 85 percent of the population relies upon. The population of 1.6 million not only relies on agriculture as a main source of income but also as a main source of nutrition. Cashews account for 98 percent of the country’s revenues, while other crops such as rice are grown for sustenance.

In the past several years alone, food insecurity in Guinea-Bissau has increased as a result of strikes and political upheaval, both have devastated the cashew nut season and compromised the country’s main source of income. This disruption not only affected revenues, but it also limited access to food and further burdened households in rural areas.

In past years Guinea-Bissau had not been making a political commitment to combating hunger in the country; however, recently the country along with several other organizations including WFP have partnered up in an effort to reduce hunger.

“Thanks to the work we do with our partners on emergency preparedness, support to family farmers, nutritional assistance – particularly in a child’s first 1,000 days – and building the resilience of communities to withstand shocks, millions of people are now better able to focus on building a future free of hunger for themselves and the next generation,” said WFP Executive Ertharin Cousin.

WFP and the government of Guinea-Bissau have launched several initiatives in hopes of alleviating hunger and combating malnutrition in the country. The initiatives aim to provide immediate food aid, operate school meal programs and aid small-scale farmers. WFP is currently providing meals to 86,000 schoolchildren and handing out rations as a means to increase attendance among girls. As part of the initiative, an estimated 36,000 women and children have received resources to combat malnutrition.

“Every year, we witness hunger’s devastating effect on families, communities and whole economies,” Cousin says. “But despite horrific crises engulfing entire regions, we are making real progress in the fight to sustainably and durably end hunger and chronic malnutrition.”

– Nada Sewidan

Sources: World Food Programme, International Food Policy Research Institute
Photo: DNS Tvind

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Hunger in Lao PDR

Lao_PDR
Since 1990, hunger in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, or PDR, has dropped from 34.5 percent to 20.1 percent in 2014. Though this decline of over 14 percent is promising, Lao PDR remains one of the world’s hardest hit countries by poverty. Citizens, mostly in northern and rural provinces, suffer from malnutrition, stunting and what the International Food Policy Research Institute, or IFPRI, calls “hidden hunger.”

Child nutrition is significantly lacking in Lao PDR. Forty-four percent of children are stunted due to poor diets that are lacking in key nutrients, including vitamin A, iodine, healthy fats and protein. As a result, over 40 percent of children in Lao PDR are anemic. The problem of “hidden hunger,” or a pronounced deficiency of key nutrients in childhood, has long term effects on the brain and the physical development of a child.

Lao PDR has the second highest rate of poverty in Southeast Asia, after Timor-Leste and continues to deal with gaps in its economics and wealth distribution. According to the IFPRI, Lao PDR ranks 61 out of 76 countries facing extreme hunger, with the country ranking at 76 being the most affected. Poverty and extreme hunger remains alarming in rural regions of the country, where access to healthcare and adequate nutrition remains scarce.

For example, in the province of Houaphan, 50.5 percent of the population faces extreme poverty. Those who live in this province often depend on agriculture to work and eat; however, the region is susceptible to natural disasters and wavering weather conditions, causing productivity to be low.

Recognizing the impact of climate and environmental factors on the nutrition of individuals, the government of Lao PDR launched the National Nutrition Strategy, aimed at addressing the causes of malnutrition, hunger and economic disparity. In conjunction with the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Administration, this strategy will tackle hunger at its most basic causes.

The FAO said, “To address the immediate causes (at the individual level), the focus will be on improving nutrient intake and reducing infectious diseases that affect the biological utilization of food.”

As the completion of the Millennium Development Goals quickly approaches, Lao PDR is still not quite on track when it comes to meeting them. Resources are needed to complete these goals and not enough are being provided to Lao PDR that will improve overall development.

Lao PDR depends largely on agriculture and farming, yet those regions are affected by poverty and lack the resources to contribute to the nation’s economic stability. It is in the nation’s best interest that the government develop those programs that focus on educating rural families on sustainable farming practices and how to effectively maintain agriculture and livestock in the face of climate change, so that poverty will give way to sustainability.

– Candice Hughes

Sources: FAO, International Food Policy Research Institute, UNDP, WFP
Photo: Flickr

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Hunger v. Obesity: Which Problem is Bigger?

In 2010, the Global Burden of Disease published a study that pointed to obesity as a more widespread health problem than world hunger. The study stated that about 30 percent of the global population was overweight or obese and that the latter caused approximately 5 percent of all deaths.

The problem of transitioning from widespread hunger to widespread obesity tends to occur in island countries termed ‘banana republics’, or those known for their direct economical dependence on trade relations with developed nations. Said dependence leads to a massive overconsumption of processed foods imported from the West and soaring rates of obesity.

A poster child for this phenomenon is Nauru: a Pacific island whose people were starving until a U.K. company discovered the country’s potential for phosphate mining. What followed the invariable economic boom was a precipitous rise in average weights as fast food largely replaced the Nauruans’ fresh fish and tropical fruits. Today, approximately 94 percent of Nauru’s population is overweight.

Unfortunately, banning fast foods will not solve the problem. Companies such as Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds have such tremendous political and economic clout that illegalizing their products would mean eliminating thousands of (barely) paid jobs and “food” products that nonetheless quell starvation.

Powerful as they are though, their products make it possible for a person to be obese and undernourished simultaneously. No impoverished individual is going to look at the nutritional labels on food, however deceptive they may be, if she is holding her first meal in a week.

The saddest part is that so-called banana republics cannot afford to buy their own food. Between the menaces of deforestation, immoral trading practices, and perpetuated poverty, their people are increasingly dependent upon foreign aid for unhealthy imports and foodstuffs each year.

If the current rate holds, nearly half of the world’s adult population will weigh in above a healthy range by 2030. The number will rise most prominently in industrialized regions compared to rural; already that trend has taken ahold of India and China.

What lies at the heart of the epidemic is widespread addiction to a substance of which large swaths of peoples’ ancestors were once deprived. It takes several generations, if ever, for their descendants’ brains to catch up to the sudden abundance. Until then, they subconsciously perceive the unhealthy food as a rare, invaluable delicacy and gorge down as much of it as possible.

Education is not enough to stop the obesity epidemic because emotion will always trump logic. The first step to solving the problem does not lie with educators or the educated; it lies with policy-makers.

It is policy-makers who are capable of manipulating the market such that island nations’ exports fetch a higher price on the market so that their people do not have to resort exclusively to fast food. If they have no other feasible options given their budgets, education would be completely useless.

Because people choose which foods to consume based on emotion, educators need to employ compassion. Psychology studies have shown that people are less likely to make unhealthy food choices when their self-esteem is intact. Eating is a social activity, so it is important to also share meals with supportive individuals. Lastly, healthier foods also tend to have more natural ingredients. If there are three or more unpronounceable, unrecognizable ingredients on the nutrition label, don’t buy that product.

– Leah Zazofsky

Sources: ASAHI, Flagler Live, Psychology Today
Photo: Challenged Kids International

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History of World Hunger

history of hungerThe presence of chronic hunger and the highest rates of obesity is one of the greatest paradoxes of our time. According to a study done at Ohio State University, “It is part of a single global food crisis, with economic, geopolitical, and environmental dimensions. It is perhaps the starkest, most basic way in which global inequality is manifest.” While world hunger is proliferated by unequal resource distribution, the mechanisms of interconnected societies offer viable tools to alleviate suffering.

A myriad of non-governmental actors exist today to combat world hunger, including the World Food Program, Action Against Hunger, Doctors Without Borders and the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees. While these international mechanisms have developed to meet recent needs, world hunger has existed throughout the course of human history.

 

World Hunger: Tale as Old as Time

 

There have been a variety of food systems over time. For a large portion of history, humans hunted or grew food for their own consumption, and food traveled only short distances from source to stomach. This does not mean, however, that long distance food exchanges were not present. From spice trades to acquiring “exotic” foods from colonies, a “mercantile food system” was present from 1500-1750. This was replaced by the “settler-colonial” regime during the nineteenth century in which white settler colonies traded luxury and basic foods and goods in return for European manufactured goods. The “productivist” food regime emerged after World War II which was characterized by food industries and the re-emergence of European and American agricultural protectionism. The idea that the entire world can experience a “food crisis” was coupled with the idea that one can foment a world free from hunger.

A neoliberal food regime has developed since the 1980s. Characterized by multinational and corporate power, this system has promoted a “global diet” that is high in sugars and fats at the expense of traditional or local diets. This trend in food is caused in part by globalization, and creates an intricate relationship between the individual and multinational corporations, local and distant farms and the environment.

Chronic hunger and food security are inherently connected. Citizens of the most industrial places on the planet still experience hunger on a massive scale. According to the vice president of the Poverty and Prosperity Program of the Center for American Progress: “people making trade-offs between food that’s filling but not nutritious…(this) may actually contribute to obesity.” Regarding larger scale suffering, extreme causes of world hunger include poverty, powerlessness, armed conflict, environmental overload and discrimination.

While hunger is understood differently across time, space and culture, it is important to alleviate this problem of chronic hunger. One must investigate sustainable solutions to the root causes of the problem, and these long-term solutions should be implemented by local peoples.

– Neti Gupta

Sources: Freedom from Hunger, National Geographic, Ohio State University
Photo: Flickr

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Malnutrition in Kazakhstan Region

malnutrition in kazakhstan
Malnutrition in Kazakhstan? In the heart of Central Asia, a region known for issues with health, Kazakhstan stands as a possible success story in the well being of its people. With child malnutrition rates below five percent, lower than the Central Asian average and well below the rates for some of its neighbors, the Kazakh government and aid organizations working in the country have made improvements in malnutrition efforts worthy of praise.

Born in the post-Soviet world, Kazakhstan is still a relatively new state. Made up of ethnic Kazakhs as well as a large population of ethnic Russians, Kazakhstan is the largest country to come out of the USSR other than Russia itself. It dwarfs its neighbors of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, spanning across almost three million square miles of continent but remaining landlocked. It is the biggest economy in Central Asia and is currently going through an economic diversification process that the government hopes will stabilize and lengthen growth.

Almost all indicators of malnutrition have improved in Kazakhstan in the last decade. From 2004 to 2014, the prevalence of food inadequacy declined from 10.1 percent to 5.9 percent. The percent of children who are stunted declined from 17.5 percent in 2006 to 13.1 percent just four years later.

The prevalence of anaemia in children, which is characterized by fatigue and decreased work output, decreased from 35.4 percent in 2004 to 30 percent in 2011. However, the overall presence of undernourishment had almost no change from 2004 to 2007, leaving 800,000 people vulnerable to undernourishment.

Central Asia as a region has an ongoing battle with undernourishment and malnutrition. Common demarcations of this are anaemia, which is a decrease in the amount of red blood cells in the blood, iodine deficiency, iron deficiency and Vitamin A deficiency.

Kazakhstan preformed well in all of these categories. Iodine deficiency, which was a huge problem after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has been almost completely eradicated in Kazakhstan by iodizing all salt consumed in the country. Anaemia levels are lower in the country than in most of its neighbors. Regional averages for iron deficiencies and vitamin A deficiencies hover around 50-60 percent for women and children.

While by no means in the clear with malnutrition, especially for children, Kazakhstan has continued to improve in most indicators. It is working towards a more stable, diversified economy that will hopefully keep food prices low and unchanging.

– Caitlin Huber

Sources: CIA,  Knoema,  IRIN
Photo: Inter Press Service News Agency

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Violence Exacerbating Malnutrition in CAR

malnutrition in CAR
Last year, clashes in the Central African Republic, or CAR, between Christian and Islamic militants claimed the lives 2,116 civilians. The CAR is fast becoming home to a ghastly humanitarian crisis, in which violence is exacerbating malnutrition.

In the capital city of Bangui, the number of children facing life-threatening malnutrition has tripled since violence began escalating in December of 2013. Their situation is being complicated by the brutal course that the conflict has taken.

Action Against Hunger collected over 1,000 case studies of parents of malnourished children in the CAR between July 2013 and March 2014, and found that 75 percent presented symptoms of PTSD.

PTSD can significantly impair a mother’s ability to nurse a child. Nurses in health centers around Bangui have reported that some traumatized mothers become convinced that they cannot produce milk. Others simply do not respond to their child’s needs—some have even attempted suicide and infanticide. PTSD in children can also play a role in malnourishment, as traumatized children may refuse to eat.

The conflict in the Central African Republic is not only causing malnutrition—it is also exporting it.

Over the past year, conflict in Nigeria and the Central African Republic has displaced some 1.2 million people. These migrants typically seek refuge in neighboring countries like Chad, Niger and Cameroon, further straining the resources of countries already dealing with rampant malnourishment.

On Feb. 12, the U.N. requested $2 billion in aid for people across Africa’s Sahel belt—a semi-arid strip of land south of the Sahara Desert that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.

“The violence and conflict has a devastating effect, it is casting a shadow across the region,” said Robert Piper, U.N. regional humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel.

– Parker Carroll

Sources: Eyewitness News, The Guardian 1,  The Guardian 2,   The Guardian 3
Photo: Africa Up Close

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What Causes Hunger in Africa

What causes hunger in Africa? To be certain, Africa is by no means a single entity. The second largest continent on Earth, Africa is an enormous landmass that is home to a wide variety of landscapes, cultures and people.

That said, the continent is also home to much of the world’s hunger, spread across several of the world’s poorest countries. Approximately 30 million people in Africa face the effects of severe food insecurity, including malnutrition, starvation and poverty.

Ending hunger not just in Africa but wherever it occurs is crucial to solving impoverishment and, accordingly, is a leading priority for many humanitarian organizations.

 

Causes of Hunger in Africa

 

1. Lack of Infrastructure

Many of the African countries in which there is widespread hunger are countries in which there is also plenty of food. Agriculture is the leading economic industry in several of the hungriest African nations including Niger, Ethiopia and Somalia.

The issue is not that there is a lack of food, the issue is that there are are often no reliable pathways for getting that food from the fields into that hands of the people who need it the most. Many hungry countries lack accessible rural roads on which food could be transported into the countryside.

Where it does not already exist, building the infrastructure necessary for distributing food is essential to ending hunger in Africa.

2. Poverty

Poverty is a cause of hunger in Africa as well as an effect. Nearly a third of individuals living in sub-Saharan Africa are “undernourished,” and 41 percent of people in that same area live on less than U.S. $1 daily. That’s no coincidence; high rates of poverty are correlated with high rates of hunger because acquiring adequate food provisions requires ample resources, not only financial but social as practical as well.

3. Gender Inequality

According to one of the most successful hunger-focused humanitarian organizations, The Hunger Project, gender inequality is a major driving force behind hunger because food tends to go further in the hands of women. When women have adequate food supplies, they as well as their families experience better health and social outcomes than when men have sole control of food rations.

However, in many African nations experiencing hunger crises, though women do the majority of agricultural work, they do not control their own access to food. Addressing gender inequality where it occurs in Africa will be central to eradicating hunger.

4. AIDS

AIDS is especially prevalent in southern Africa (Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe), where approximately six million people are estimated to live with the condition. Not only does AIDS render these individuals too sick to do any sort of agricultural work (which, if farming is their livelihood, can throw them into poverty), it can also render them to sick to leave their homes to acquire food for themselves and their families.

– Elise L. Riley

Sources: Save the Children, The Hunger Project, World Food Programme
Photo: Ceasefire Magazine

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Uzbekistan’s Progress in Eradicating Hunger

uzbekistan food security
This year, the Global Hunger Index (GHI) ranks Uzbekistan at 5.7 percent for its undernourished population from 2011 to 2013.

More than 800 million people suffer from hunger and the GHI examines 120 of the low-income countries that account for the vast majority of global undernourishment.

In the last 14 years, Uzbekistan has shown a steady improvement in eradicating hunger, with a decline from 3.6 million to 1.7 million of the country’s population facing food insecurity.

However, the country is still in need of renewed political commitment to achieving food security in order to continue making progress against hunger, which not only stunts physical, intellectual and even economic growth but can also lead to death.

Yuriko Shoji, the recently appointed Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Sub-regional Coordinator for Central Asia and country representative for Uzbekistan, spoke on the topic at a launch event at Tashkent State Agrarian University.

“Despite good progress made in the past two decades and an increasingly favorable environment, the full potential of agriculture – and food security for everyone – have yet to be achieved,” said Shoji. “With renewed political commitment, and good practice that can be shared with the world, food security of each and every household is within reach.”

Shoji highlighted the key requirements for overcoming the limitations to prioritize food security and nutrition issues. The event served as a platform for discussing global hunger and malnutrition.

Uzbekistan’s positive trend to combat malnutrition serves Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 of halving the proportion of undernourished people by next year. It’s a goal that is within reach if Uzbekistan and other developing countries continue making political efforts toward food security.

According to the FAO, 63 developing countries have reached the MDG target and six more are on track to reach it by 2015.

Though Uzbekistan has seen significant progress in hunger, the country must continue to set the path for others that remain chronically undernourished in order to meet next year’s MDG target.

– Chelsee Yee

Sources: The Guardian, UN, Data Wrapper
Photo: EurasiaNet

Hunger in Bhutan

hunger in bhutanThe small kingdom of Bhutan, a landlocked country in South Asia (between China and India), exists in an area of extreme climate—earthquakes, floods, landslides and fires—and a terrain that limits its agricultural self-sufficiency and isolates its rural population. Consequently, it depends on imports for approximately half of its food. 

Background

The United Nations Children’s Fund reported that Bhutan reached Low-Middle-Income status in 2007, and in 2023 graduated from the Least Developed Country group. Still, 2022 saw multidimensional poverty at 17.8%, with over 61% of the poor in rural areas and children disproportionately poor (20.7%). Issues include access to health, quality and inclusiveness of social services, neonatal mortality, child protection, gender equality and women’s empowerment and youth unemployment. 

Malnutrition and hunger in Bhutan are nothing new for the country or its policymakers. In November 2023, it was reported to UNICEF that malnutrition continued to be a public health concern in Bhutan. Both UNICEF and the World Food Programme refer to Bhutan’s “triple burden” of malnutrition: undernutrition, overnutrition (overweight and obesity) and micronutrient deficiencies. 

UNICEF notes that 23% of children under 5 suffer from undernutrition with stunting. In addition, adolescent girls and women experience micronutrient deficiencies and 45% of the population is not able to afford a healthy diet. WFP notes that 86% of Bhutanese are not eating enough fruits and vegetables.

School Feeding Programs

UNICEF and WFP have partnered with several Bhutan ministries—Education and Skills Development (MoESD), Health (MoH) and Agriculture and Livestock (MoAL) to address these deficiencies through national school feeding and nutrition policies and strategies. UNICEF, WFP and the Ministry of Health revised the 2020-2030 National Health Policy and developed a five-year action plan through 2025. WFP has worked with the MoESD to draft a National School Feeding Strategy and a social behavior change strategy. 

School nutrition strategies include:

  • connecting schools and farmers to provide nutritious diverse foods for school meals (with the added benefit of supporting almost 3,000 small farmers, 60% of whom are women)
  • developing standards for school kitchens and supporting new construction
  • introducing fuel-efficient equipment
  • utilizing menu planners
  • training kitchen staff

Research in 2022 on dietary behavior led to the implementation in 15 schools of a strategy and action plan to promote nutritious diets. Social media, school curricula and children’s TV were all employed as various media advocacy campaigns were launched. Collaboration with the Tarayana Foundation supported grassroots outreach and advocacy programs in 16 rural communities.

WFP also worked with the government to increase food fortification in schools, monastic institutions and gradually in the wider community. 

Breastfeeding Support

UNICEF’s focus also includes attention to pregnant women, new mothers and babies and young toddlers. Breastfeeding, feeding practices, nurturing care and other means of supporting the best nutrition growth and development are emphasized. In addition to addressing anemia, low birth weight and stunting, UNICEF advocates for restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy foods and breastmilk substitutes. 

The UNICEF and WFP partnerships have targeted objectives that specifically relate to the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger. Bhutan still has work to do to achieve this goal but is making progress. While stunting in children under 5 continues to be a major challenge, wasting in children under 5 is now considered a lesser challenge, and the prevalence of obesity is decreasing. 

– Staff Reports

Photo: Flickr
Updated: July 28, 2024