With the world still in the grip of COVID-19, a new report by the United Nations states that global hunger is on the rise after steadily declining for the past few decades. The report is certainly an eye-opener during these pandemic times as several countries are unable to save a large chunk of their vulnerable citizens from the Virus.
The report states that there were 630 million undernourished people in the world in 2014 the figure has raised by 60 million to 690 million, an increase of 9.5 %. The population undernourished accounts for 8.9% of the total population of the world. According to the report almost 381 million undernourished people were found in Asia followed by Africa with 250 million.
The report also said that food insecurity was also on the rise with over 750 million people being affected by it around the globe and with the impact of COVID-19 yet to ascertain the figure will only rise from here. A primary assessment of the pandemic has ascertained that anywhere between 83 to 132 million people will be added to the undernourished category and though conditions will improve next year the number of undernourished will still be higher than what could have been in a world without a pandemic.
The report states that if these conditions persist the UN goal for eliminating hunger by 2030 could remain unfulfilled.
The report states that the economic losses could be stark with countries expected to lose anywhere between 4%-9% to 10 % of their GDP to the ongoing pandemic. This is certainly a challenge for countries like India which have raised the demand for food security for a long period with the conference at Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan expected to be a clash of countries. The conference was cancelled due to COVID-19 but whenever they meet again the flares are sure to come up.
