Undernourishment in Bangladesh static at 26m: UN

The number of undernourished people in Bangladesh hovers around 26 million in most recent years despite improvement in the state of hunger since 1990. A UN report titled “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015” has reflected on the Bangladesh situation.

The report, however, observed that the number of the world’s chronically undernourished has dropped below the 800 million mark as an increasing number of countries hit their Millennium Development Goal (MDG ) targets on hunger.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme jointly published the State of Food Insecurity report on Wednesday.

In Bangladesh, the proportion of undernourished people in total population in 2014-16 is at 16.4 percent, said the report citing FAO hunger map 2015.

In 2014-16, the number of undernourished people stands at 26.3 million compared to 26.5 millions in 2010-12. The number was 27.7 millions in 2000-02 and 24.3 million in 2005-07. The country had 36.0 millions hungry people in 1990-92.

In the global hunger index 2014, Bangladesh was placed 57^th, only one position up from the previous year’s ranking.

According to the State of Food Insecurity report, the number of hungry declined to 795 million – 216 million fewer than in the 1990 – 1992 biennium and nearly 100 million fewer than in 2012.

In the developing regions, the prevalence of undernourishment – which measures the proportion of people who are unable to consume enough food for an active and healthy life – has declined to 12.9 percent of the population, down from 23.3 percent a quarter of a century ago.

“The near-achievement of the MDG hunger targets shows us that we can indeed eliminate the scourge of hunger in our lifetime,” said FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva.

“We must be the Zero Hunger generation. That goal should be mainstreamed into all policy interventions and at the heart of the new sustainable development agenda to be established this year,” he added.

A majority – 72 out of 129 – of the countries monitored by FAO have achieved the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the prevalence of undernourishment by 2015, with developing regions as a whole missing the target by a small margin.