41 countries face triple threat of malnutrition, anaemia and obesity, FAO reports

The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s 2018 Global Nutrition Report will warn that an increasing number of people face the combined threat of malnutrition, anaemia and obesity.

Earlier this month, at the Crawford Fund’s annual conference in Canberra, the report findings were previewed to reveal that 41 countries are facing significant nutrition challenges in all three categories. This is a major increase of 41% from 2017, when 29 countries faced the triple burden.

The 2017 Global Nutrition Report detailed the health crisis, which is particularly prominent in the Asia Pacific region. Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, and Bhutan were named as approaching crisis level.

Around the world 155 million children under 5 are stunted and malnutrition costs the world $3.5 trillion each year. In comparison, 3.4 million people die each year due to overweight and obesity.

Jessica Fanzo, Senior Nutrition Officer at FAO, presented the 2018 findings commenting:

“With the impact of climate change, undernutrition will grow”

“There will be more children falling into the chronic undernourishment category in a business-as-usual situation, with Africa being the most affected. So, it will be a reversal of all the gains we have made”

The Global Nutrition Report is released annually and monitors global progress on nutrition and health, Jessico Fanzo added:

“Sometimes it is hard for us to find messaging each year — we’re still off-track, there’s still no progress being made. But I think sustaining that yearly reporting is important because we do get new figures from countries each year that adds to the information base”

The report will reveal a slow progress in achieving nutrition goals, with an overall decline in stunting.

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Image credit: FAO