GLOBAL-HUNGER/ (FACTBOX):FACTBOX-Global hunger rises for first time in a decade - U.N. agencies
ROME, Sept 15 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Global hunger levels have risen for the first time in more than a decade, affecting 11 percent of the world's population, five U.N. agencies said on Friday.
Here are some key facts from their report:
- Last year the proportion of the world's population affected by hunger rose for the first time in more than a decade, to 11 percent - up from 10.6 percent in 2015. In 2005, the proportion was 14.2 percent.
- The number of hungry in 2016 was 815 million, up from 777 million in 2015. Numbers of hungry began to rise in 2014.
- The largest number live in Asia (520 million), followed by Africa (243 million), and Latin America and the Caribbean (42 million).
- Africa has the highest rates of hunger (20 percent), followed by Asia (11.7 percent) and Latin America and the Caribbean (6.6 percent)
- Some 155 million children aged under five are stunted (too short for their age), 52 million suffer from wasting, meaning their weight is too low for their height.
- An estimated 41 million children under five are overweight, a sign of malnutrition, that will increasingly affect the poor.
- People living in countries affected by protracted crises are nearly 2.5 times more likely to be undernourished than people elsewhere.
- 489 million hungry people, and 122 million children, live in countries affected by conflict.
- Climate change, conflict and the global economic slowdown are the main causes of the recent increase in hunger.
Source: The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 report, produced by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP) and World Health Organization (WHO).
(Reporting by Alex Whiting @Alexwhi, Editing by Ros Russell.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women's rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate)
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