Hunger and Malnutrition Amidst Plenty What Must be Done

Hunger and Malnutrition Amidst Plenty What Must be Done  

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) both the % of poor and their actual numbers may in fact increase. 

The number of malnourished in the world during 2000/2002 was 852 million, about 815 million of them in the developing countries. About 61% of the malnourished were in Asia, 24% in SSA, and the rest in Latin America and elsewhere. About 33% of the population in SSA, 16% in Asia and Pacific, 10% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 10% in Near East and North Africa were malnourished in 2000/02 [1]. 

The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Number 1, that used 1990/92 as its base line, wished for halving global hunger and poverty by 2015. In 1990/92, 

Reducing the number of malnourished from about 824 million in 1990/92 to 412 million by 2015 must take into consideration an additional issue. World population would have increased by another 2 billion people during 1990 and 2015. So, even if we were able to reduce the number of malnourished to about 400 million, about 600 million people in developing countries will still suffer from hunger in 2015. To reach the goal of reducing the number of hungry and malnourished to about 400 million in 2015, the proportion of undernourished must be reduced not by half but by two-thirds. 

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