Hunger and Malnutrition

In 2017, it is estimated that 821 million people were suffering from hunger,¹ 124 million suffer from acute hunger.² Additionally, a third of women worldwide are anaemic, affecting the lives of both them and their children.³ Seven and a half percent of all children around the world under the age of five are classified as wasting — a low weight to height ratio. Approximately 875,000 deaths were attributed to wasting in 2013.⁴ In 2017, the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) reached 10.9 percent.⁵ In Africa alone, the PoU is 21 percent, and in South America, the PoU is 5.0 percent.⁶ Though the world is equipped with enough food for its population one third of people are malnourished.⁷ Ninety eight percent of the world’s undernourished population lives in developing nations.⁸ Asia has over 515 million hungry people, Sub-Saharan Africa has 236.5 million and Latin America has 32.3 million.⁹ 60 percent of the world’s hungry population is comprised of women.¹⁰ One hundred sixty one million people worldwide today use untreated surface water, and 150 million of those live in rural areas.¹¹ Around a third of the world’s food is lost or wasted annually — 1.3 billion tons — including 35 percent of all fish and seafood, and 45 percent of fruits and vegetables produced for human consumption.¹²