1 in 9 People In The World Is Going Hungry Due To Covid-19

One in nine people in the world are going hungry, with the coronavirus pandemic worsening already existing hunger trends this year, according to the United Nations report released on Monday.

The increased rate of expensive nutritious foods has spiked undernutrition leading to growing rates of obesity among adults and children as economic slowdowns and climate change shocks push more people into hunger.

“After decades of a long decline, the number of people suffering from hunger has been slowly increasing since 2014,” said the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World annual report.

According to the UN report nearly 690 million people, or 8.9 percent of people around the globe, are hungry, for not only need of enough food, but nutritious food to keep their health at its best.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit hard in nations with widespread poverty, could cause another 83 to 132 million people to become undernourished this year according to the UN report.

Global hunger trends had already been worsening before coronavirus, however, its spike that has increased poverty and reduced people’s ability to afford nutritious food. In all regions, adult obesity is on the rise, with healthy diets of fruits, vegetables, and protein-rich foods unaffordable to some 3 billion people.

Low-income countries rely on starchy staples like cereals and tubers that can cost 60 percent less than healthy diets but lack necessary proteins and key vitamins and minerals to reduce infections and ward off disease.

COVID-19 has raised food prices especially the healthy food due to a variety of factories shutting down due to lack of raw materials, this has raised the increase in food storage making hunger in most homes inevitable.

About a quarter of Africa’s population could go hungry by 2030 from 19.1 percent today, already twice the world average if COVID-19 continues to spike the levels of poverty and economic declines.

Compiled By Nsunjo Erica