Urban malnutrition affects hundreds of millions of people in Asia’s expanding cities – and the problem will get worse
- Urban food policy must take into account transport, infrastructure, housing, education, and water and sanitation for greater impact, UN report notes
- China and India are expected to account for more than a fourth of the projected growth in the global urban population by 2050
Hundreds of millions of children and adults in Asia’s rapidly expanding cities are undernourished, and will remain so without “inclusive, sustainable and nutrition-sensitive” urban planning, United Nations officials said on Friday.
The Asia-Pacific region has the world’s highest rate of urbanisation, while also being home to more than half the world’s 821 million undernourished people, four UN agencies said in a report released in Bangkok.
“Progress in reducing undernourishment has slowed tremendously,” said the regional heads of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). “As migration from rural to urban areas continues apace, particularly involving poorer families, urban malnutrition is a challenge facing many countries.”
World hunger rose in 2017 for a third consecutive year due to conflict and climate change, jeopardising a global goal to end the scourge by 2030, the United Nations said in an earlier report.
At the same time, more than one in eight adults is now obese, with the Asia-Pacific region recording the fastest growing prevalence of childhood obesity, fuelled by easier access to processed foods rich in salt, fat and sugar.