Most of them located in the Asia-Pacific region

The United Nations (UN) has found that an estimated three billion people across the world cannot afford a healthy diet, with most of them located in the Asia-Pacific region.

This finding is based on a new study released this week, jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization. The report showed that some 1.9 billion people in Asia-Pacific fall in this category of not being unable to afford a healthy diet.

At the same time, the UN study estimated that 14.5 million children under five were either overweight or obese in 2020. The study pointed to the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic and surging prices of fruits, vegetables and dairy products have aggravated the crisis for many people across the globe.

Of the 1.9 billion affected in the Asia-Pacific territory, 1.3 billion live in southern Asia, 230 million in eastern Asia, 325.5 million in south-east Asia and 0.5 million in the Oceania region. The report titled, Asia and the Pacific Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2020: Maternal and Child Diets at the Heart of Improving Nutrition highlighted that the region’s poor have been the worst affected by the onslaught of crises in 2020.

People forced to buy cheaper and less nutritious foods

In fact, the report argued that poor people have been forced to choose cheaper and less nutritious foods to eat. The UN report pointed to a link between the growing number of people being unable to afford a healthy diet and the progress on food security and nutrition being impacted negatively.

The progress on food security and nutrition is one of the key sustainable development goals (SDGs) for 2030. In 2019 more than 350 million people in Asia-Pacific were undernourished and about 74.5 million children under-five were stunted (too short for their age) and 31.5 million suffered from wasting (too thin for their height). 

UN data showed that the majority of these children (55.9 million stunted and 25.2 million wasted) live in southern Asia. At the same time, the new UN study found that the number of overweight and obesity children increased rapidly, especially in South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific.

The report noted that, “anemia in children under five remains a public health challenge in many countries across Asia and the Pacific, despite significant improvements in anemia status (more than 10 percentage points) in Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Nepal, Philippines and Vanuatu”.

The report also highlighted the changing face of malnutrition with highly processed and inexpensive foods readily available throughout Asia and the Pacific. The research team, “urged governments for a transformation of food systems in Asia and the Pacific region and to invest more in nutrition and food safety to promote healthy diets, as well as regulate sales and marketing of food for consumers, especially children”.

The study pointed to the need for action within the private sector, given the sector’s important role in the food system and its value chains for achieving healthy diets. The research team proposed an integrated systems approach, bringing together food, water and sanitation, health, social protection and education systems to address the underlying and contributing factors of diets sustainably.