The number of chronically hungry people in the world is rising and the Asian financial crisis threatens to frustrate attempts to alleviate suffering, a UN report said yesterday.
The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in its annual report that the number of severely undernourished people in developing countries rose to 828 million in 1994-1996 from 822 million in 1990-1992.
The overall percentage of malnourished people as a part of the world population inched down to 19 per cent from 20 per cent over the same period, but that slight improvement was nevertheless too small to compensate for population growth.
"Recent trends give no room for complacency, as progress in some regions has been more than offset by a deterioration in others," the FAO said.
The UN organisation hosted a World Food Summit in 1996 that aimed to halve the number of hungry people by 2015.
The FAO director-general, Mr Jacques Diouf, said constant vigilance was required to maintain momentum towards the food summit goal.
"Even the most enlightened and determined efforts to eradicate hunger can be frustrated by events that are beyond the control of the policy-makers," he said.
"This has been demonstrated by . . . the financial crisis that initially affected east and south-east Asia and the El Nino phenomenon. The financial crises are a matter for concern as they threaten to increase in scope and depth."
Mr Diouf pointed to Russia and Latin America as serious victims of the financial turbulence which has sent shock waves through economies worldwide and has hurt efforts to ensure there is enough food for all.
The FAO report found that the biggest absolute numbers of undernourished people were in Asia - 258 million in east and south-east Asia and 254 million in south Asia in 1994-1996.
The largest proportion of undernourished people was in sub-Saharan Africa at 39 per cent, it said.
The report did not mention Hurricane Mitch, which last month killed an estimated 11,000 people, mainly in Honduras and Nicaragua, ruined huge swathes of crops and caused billions of dollars in damage, setting the region back years economically.
But the FAO noted that the El Nino phenomenon had pushed up the number of countries now facing food emergencies to 40 from 29 in mid-1997.
Further ahead, overcrowded cities posed a big problem, the report said. It warned that by 2005 more than half of the world's population would live in cities and food insecurity would increasingly become an urban problem.
Meanwhile, in London, a report commissioned by the British government said the gap between the health of rich and poor people is growing. The author of the report, former chief medical officer Sir Donald Acheson, said: "One of our most important recommendations is that the government should reduce income inequalities further and produce more money for the least well off.
"We recommend further reductions in poverty for women in child-bearing age, expectant mothers, young children, and older people should be made by increasing benefits in cash or in kind to them," he said.
"What is required is a sustained effort over at least 10 years," he added.
The report also recommends distributing fruit and other sources of vitamins in the schools as well as raising tobacco prices.