It has been more than a decade since the heads of states gathered for the World Food Summit at the invitation of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and made the famous Rome declaration on food security in 1996. The event was an important milestone as the declaration reaffirmed the people?s right for access to safe, nutritious and adequate food and also the fundamental right to be free from hunger. More importantly, it targeted a sizable improvement in food security by reducing the number of persons without adequate food from 800 million to half by 2015. The Rome declaration also provided the conceptual basis of food security, which is defined as a scenario when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
But, unfortunately, the scenario has not improved significantly since then and the numbers of undernourished people around the globe has continued to grow from 841.9 million in 1990-92 to touch 848 million in 2003-05. The only consolation is that the ratio of undernourished in the total population has steadily declined from 16% in 1990-92 to 13% by 2003-05.
However, the scenario in the Asia-Pacific region is more inspiring with the higher growth in the economies pushing down even the absolute number of undernourished persons from 582.4 million in 1990-92 to 541.9 million in 2003-05, with the ratio of the undernourished also shrinking from 20% to 16% during the period.
But most of the gains were restricted to East Asia, South East Asia and West Asia. Trends continue to deteriorate in South and Central Asia. The countries where the scenario has deteriorated include North Korea, Indonesia, Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Tajikistan. And the scenario has been stagnant in other countries of the region like Laos, Philippines, Nepal and Turkmenistan.
Let?s look at the trends in East Asia, which has made the highest gains in the whole of Asia with the share of undernourished population going down by close to a third from 183.5 million in 1990-92 to 131.8 million in 2003-05. Most of the gains were accounted by China where the size of the undernourished population went down from 178 million to 122.7 million during the period. No figures are available on South Korea. The information on Mongolia and North Korea shows that the number of undernourished people went up in both countries. While it went up by around 10% to 0.8 million in Mongolia, it shot up by 80% to 7.6 million in North Korea.
The gains in South East Asia, where the number of undernourished persons went down by 20% to 86.9 million by 2003-05, are more evenly distributed. Of the eight countries for which data is available, the number of undernourished persons increased only in one, while it remained stagnant in two. Indonesia, the lone exception, saw the number of undernourished people go up by around 10% to 37.1 million between 1990-92 and 2003-05. The countries where the absolute size of the undernourished remained stable during the period include Laos (1.1 million) and Philippines (13.3 million).
Surprisingly, the country with the highest success in reducing the size of the undernourished population was Myanmar, where their number went down by more than half to 8.8 million. The other major gainer was Vietnam, where the number of undernourished reduced by 40% to 11.5 million. Thailand made substantial gains by reducing the extent of undernourishment by a third to 10.9 million. The gains made by Cambodia were more limited with the size of the undernourished going down by one-tenth to 3.6 million.
South Asia, where the undernourished population increased by around one-tenth to 313.6 million over the 15-year period, gives a sharply contrasting picture. While the number of the undernourished population went up in India and Pakistan, it declined in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and remained stagnant in Nepal.
The highest increase of under nourishment in South Asia was in Pakistan, where it went up by 40% between 1990-92 and 2003-05 to 35 million. Though the increase in India was a relatively lower 10%, the size was a huge 230.5 million by 2003-05. Sri Lanka made the highest gains with the number of undernourished going down by 10% to 4 million, while the more limited gains made in Bangladesh pushed down the numbers to 40.1 million. Nepal, where the scenario remained largely unchanged, had 4 million undernourished in 2003-05.
The trends in Central and West Asia are mixed. The number of undernourished went up by a sizable 60% to 6.5 million in Central Asia, whereas it declined by an equally impressive 60% in West Asia. The bulk of the increase in Central Asia was contributed by countries like Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, while it remained stable in Turkmenistan and declined in Kyrgyzstan.
The gains in West Asia were extensive as all three nations in the region posted an impressive reduction in the levels of undernourishment. The highest gains were registered by Georgia, where the size of the undernourished went down 80% to 0.6 million. Armenia was next with the affected numbers going down by 40% to 0.6 million. The last country, Azerbaijan, saw the size of the undernourished going down by half to 0.5 million during the period.