COMBAT HUNGER IN ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

Nearly half a billion people in Asia are hungry and lack access to adequate nourishing food, including in the region’s largest cities, according to four specialised agencies of the United Nations, and the matter needs to be addressed earnestly by the international community. The report, Asia and the Paciic Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), highlights a number of converging challenges that threaten to undermine the Sustainable Development Goal to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030 (SDG 2).

The implication is that the reduction in the number of hungry and malnourished people, including children, has come to a virtual standstill in many parts of Asia and the Paciic.

Malnutrition covers a broad spectrum and affects people of all ages - ranging from severe undernutrition to overweight and obesity — but children in particular, continue to bear the burden.

In this region, 79 million children, or one child in every four below the age of ive, is said to suffer from stunting and 34 million children are wasting, 12 million of whom suffer from severe acute malnutrition with drastically increased risk of death.

While some progress has been made towards a reduction of stunting, there has been little improvement in wasting during the past decade.

Achieving zero hunger by 2030 is one of the UN’S Sustainable Development Goals adopted by member states in 2015. UN oficials had earlier cautioned that world hunger rose in 2017 for a third consecutive year due to conlict and climate change, jeopardising the global goal.

The rising numbers living in slums exacerbate the challenge. About one-third of the urban population is in slums with limited access to welfare beneits and safety nets, which impacts on their food security, nutrition and livelihoods.

Climate variability and extremes are already undermining food production in some regions and if action to mitigate disaster risk reduction and preparedness is not taken the situation will only get worse.

It should never be forgotten that hunger is the world’s most solvable challenge. Not a single person on earth should go to bed hungry because of deprivation.

The war against hunger is truly mankind’s war of liberation, once stated John F. Kennedy. One only hopes good sense prevails and corrective measures are taken jointly by world leaders to tackle the serious scourge.