Miller Magazine Issue: 128 August 2020

22 NEWS MILLER / August 2020 More people are going hungry, an annual study by the United Nations has found. Tens of millions have joined the ranks of the chronically undernourished over the past five years, and countries around the world continue to struggle with multiple forms of malnutrition. As more go hungry and malnutrition persists, achieving Zero Hunger by 2030 in doubt, UN report warns The latest edition of the State of Food Security and Nut- rition in the World, published on 13th July, estimates that almost 690 million people went hungry in 2019 - up by 10 million from 2018, and by nearly 60 million in five years. High costs and low affordability also mean billions cannot eat healthily or nutritiously. The hungry are most numerous in Asia, but expanding fastest in Africa. Across the planet, the report forecasts, the COVID-19 pandemic could tip over 130 million more people into chronic hun- ger by the end of 2020. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World is the most authoritative global study tracking progress towards ending hunger and malnutrition. It is produced jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricul- tural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Writing in the Foreword, the heads of the five agencies warn that "five years after the world committed to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, we are still off track to achieve this objective by 2030." THE HUNGER NUMBERS EXPLAINED In this edition, critical data updates for China and other populous countries have led to a substantial cut in estima- tes of the global number of hungry people, to the current 690 million. Nevertheless, there has been no change in the trend. Revising the entire hunger series back to the year 2000 yields the same conclusion: after steadily dimi- nishing for decades, chronic hunger slowly began to rise in 2014 and continues to do so. Asia remains home to the greatest number of under- nourished (381 million). Africa is second (250 million), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (48 million). The global prevalence of undernourishment - or overall percentage of hungry people - has changed little at 8.9 percent, but the absolute numbers have been rising sin-