FAO.org

The combined effects of prolonged underinvestment in nutrition and in food and agriculture, together with the recent price instability and the economic downturn and exacerbated by the steady increase in the frequency and severity of natural disasters have led to increased hunger and poverty in developing countries, jeopardizing the progress achieved so far in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). FAO estimates that a total of 925 million people were undernourished in 2010 compared with 1.02 billion in 2009. Ten million children die before their fifth birthday every year, and that a third of these deaths are associated with undernutrition. One in three developing country children under the age of five (178 million children) are stunted due to chronic undernutrition and 148 million children are underweight. Micronutrient malnutrition or “hidden hunger” affects around 2 billion people (over 30% of the world population) with serious public health consequences.