2017 State of Food Security and Nutrition Report Published

After a decade of progress made to cut the number of undernourished people on Earth, global hunger appears to be rising again, according to the 2017 State of Food Security and Nutrition report published by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on Sep. 15.

The primary driver of growing hunger is the increase of conflicts around the world, many of which have been compounded by climate change, the report shows.

Among the 815 million undernourished people—representing more than one in 10 people alive today—more than 489 million live in parts of the world afflicted by armed conflicts. Many of these are regions that have suffered years of violence, including the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes of Africa, and the parts of the Middle East affected by the Syrian War. Countries outside these regions that have faced similar ongoing conflict include South Sudan, Yemen, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.

What’s worrying is that some of these conflicts have been made worse because of increased droughts and floods linked to the El Niño phenomenon and climate-related shocks.

Additional source: https://qz.com/1080844/the-chart-that-shows-why-we-should-be-worried-about-the-worlds-food-problem/