820 Million People are starving of hunger globally- Report

By Our Reporter

16^th July 2019

Global hunger is once again on the increase, with the number of hungry people standing at 820 million, according to the latest annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World.

The number of people that did not have enough to eat stood at 811 million people in the previous year leaving  more people starving and undernourished, mostly in Africa, and countries where economic growth is lagging.

Uganda is placed amongst East African countries that suffered an increase in food crisis by almost 20 per cent. It shows that the prevalence of undernourishment increased from 24.1 per cent in 2006 to 41 per cent in 2018.

This translates into an increase in the number of malnourished people from 6.9 million in 2006 to 17.6 million in 2018.

Factors responsible for the economic downturn include the rise in external government borrowing, increase in the rate of unemployment, lower investment and low consumer spending amongst others.

Other indicators assessed in the report include child wasting and stunting, child and adult obesity and the prevalence of anaemia among women of reproductive ages 15 – 49.

The President of International Funds for Agricultural Development Gilbert Houngbo says the main message in the report is that achieving Sustainable Development Goal number two; Zero Hunger and Sustainable Goal number one – Ending poverty is becoming challenging with each passing year.