International Hunger
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More than 840 million people in the world are
malnourished—799 million of them are from the developing world. More than
153 million of them are under the age of 5.
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6 million children under the age of 5 die every year as a result of
hunger.
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Of the 6.2 billion people in today's world, 1.2
billion live on less than $1 per day.
- The proportion of people living on less than $1 a day
has fallen from 29 percent to 23 percent in the past 10 years, although that
masks significant regional differences.
- East Asia has seen a drop from 28 percent to 14 percent.
- South Asia has seen a drop from 44 percent to 37 percent.
- Africa has seen a drop from 48 percent to only 47 percent.
- Malnutrition can severely affect a child's
intellectual development. Children who have stunted growth due to
malnutrition score significantly lower on math and language achievement
tests than do well-nourished children.
- Fifty-four countries do not produce enough
food to feed their populations, nor can they afford to import the necessary
commodities to make up the gap. Most of these countries are in sub-Saharan
Africa.
How Hunger affects Health
- In developing countries, 91 children out of 1,000 die
before their fifth birthday. By comparison, in the United States eight
children in 1,000 will die before turning five years old.
- Each day in the developing world, more than 30,000 children die from
mostly preventable and treatable causes such as diarrhea, acute respiratory
infections, measles or malaria. These diseases are far more deadly to
children who are malnourished, stunted or underweight.
- More than 2 million children each year have severe visual problems due to
lack of vitamin A.
- Preschool and school-age children who experience
severe hunger have higher levels of chronic illness, anxiety and depression,
and behavior problems than children with no hunger, according to a recent
study.
Source material:
State of Food Insecurity in the World 2002. Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y7352e/y7352e00.htm
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Human Development Report 2002, Deepening Democracy in
a Fragmented World, United Nations Development Programme.
http://www.undp.org/hdr2002/
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"Secretary-General Warns World Falling Short of
Millennium Summit Commitments," Press Release from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, October 1, 2002.
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/sg2079e.htm
back to facts
State of the World's Children 1998. UNICEF.
http://www.unicef.org/pubsgen/sowc98
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FAO database; numbers for the year 2000.
http://apps.fao.org/lim500/wrap.pl?FoodBalanceSheet&Domain=FoodBalanceSheet&Language=english
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Mapping of the Food Supply Gap 1998. Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
http://www.fao.org/
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State of the World's Children 2002: Goal 6. UNICEF.
http://www.unicef.org/pubsgen/sowc02/
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Statements of World Bank Vice President of Environment
and Socially Sustainable Development Network in Op-Ed piece. Cited from
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS
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State of the World Population 1999. UNFPA 1999
http://www.unfpa.org/publications/swp.htm
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Pediatrics, Vol. 110 No. 4, October 2002
http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/abstract/110/4/e41
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Information collated by Bread for the World
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