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UNISEF Report on Undernourishment
Why is it in the news?
- According to a grim United Nations assessment of childhood nutrition released. a third of the world's nearly 700 million under five year olds are undernourished or overweight.
- It is UNISEF's first State of the World's Children report since 1999 to focus on food and nutrition.
More Findings of the Report
- Convergence: Problems that once existed at opposite ends of the wealth spectrum have today converged in poor and middle-income countries.
- Cost: Malnutrition's cost to the global economy is estimated at $3.5 trillion every year.
- Short for Age:(1) Despite a drop in stunting in poor countries, 149 million children aged four or younger are today still too short for their age.(2) The condition impairs both brain and body development.
- Wasting: About 50 million children around the world are afflicted by wasting, a chronic and debilitating thinness also resulting from poverty.
- Hidden Hunger: Half of youngsters across the globe under five are not getting essential vitamins and minerals.
- Excess weight: The problem of overweight has surged across the developing world over the last three decades.
- Triple Burden:(1) The triple burden - undernutrition, a lack of crucial micronutrients and obesity - is increasingly found in the same country, sometimes in the same neighbourhood, and often in the same household.(2) A mother who is overweight or obese can have children who are stunted or wasted.
- Source
The Hindu.