World hunger rises for the first time in a decade

Global hunger levels have risen for the first time in more than a decade, now affecting 11 per cent of the world's population, as conflict, climate change and economic woes bite harder, the UN said on Friday.

In 2016, about 815 million people were hungry - which is 38 million more than in 2015.

This is the first time in more then a decade that the proportion of the global population going hungry has risen since the number of hungry began to rise in 2014.

According to the report, about 489 million of the hungry are living in countries affected by conflict.

Over the past decade, conflicts have risen dramatically in number and become more complex and intractable in nature, the heads of five UN agencies said in The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 report.

This has set off alarm bells we cannot afford to ignore: we will not end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 unless we address all the factors that undermine food security and nutrition, they said.

Famine struck parts of South Sudan earlier this year, and there is a high risk that it could return there - and develop in other countries affected by conflict: northeast Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, the agencies said.

The agencies called for new ways of working to achieve the goal of ending hunger and malnutrition by 2030.

It's not only about meeting need, but also ending the need and addressing the root causes of hunger, Zlatan Milisic, from the UN's World Food Program, said.

We have a lot of research ... which says food insecurity doesn't directly lead to conflict, but it is a very powerful trigger ... (and) food security has been as seen as a contributor to maintaining peace, Milisic said.

The proportion of children stunted by hunger fell to 22.9 per cent in 2016, from 29.5 per cent in 2005.

Now, about 155 million children under five years old are affected. Stunting can undermine children's physical and mental development.

The number of stunted children - short for their age - fell by 40 per cent between 1990 and 2015.

The UN says progress hinges around improving diets for women and children, improving the status of women in society, and lowering poverty levels.

A worrying trend is the rise of child obesity, with an estimated 41 million children around the world now overweight.

Asia has the largest number of hungry people - 520 million - and sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of hungry, affecting 20 per cent of the population.

Reuters