Nearly a Half-Billion in Asia-Pacific Still Going Hungry: UN
More than half of the 479 million in the region who are undernourished live in South Asia, where more than a third of all children suffer from chronic malnutrition, said the report written by the Food and Agriculture Organization, UNICEF, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization.
“Failing to ensure children are well nourished jeopardizes their future development, especially their cognitive abilities — a crucial handicap in the 21st century age of advanced technologies. Cognitive abilities cannot be traded or manufactured, so “Investing in the first 1,000 days (of a child’s life) is the most important investment you can make in future productivity,” Dr Michael Samson, Director of Research – Economic Policy Research Institute commented on the release of the report in Bangkok.
The most significant trend in the fight towards zero hunger in the Asia Pacific region over the past year is the growing integration of social protection with food security and nutrition initiatives. There are many other examples of programmes in Asia Pacific that blend social protection with food security and nutrition initiatives, notes Samson. “This trend follows a wave of global evidence demonstrating how providing social protection benefits builds the kinds of developmental synergies that multiply the nutrition impacts of health, education, livelihoods and food security interventions.”
The report discusses how to develop social protection programmes that accelerate progress in eradicating hunger and malnutrition. The report also focuses on making social protection programmes more nutrition-sensitive and shock-responsive by describing key lessons derived from experiences worldwide.