The United Nations, UN, has called on countries to invest in the future of food security as hunger continues to endanger 820 million lives worldwide.
As food production and distribution systems are failing worldwide due to COVID-19, the UN has said some 144 million children under five years are stunted due to acute hunger, while the organisation has also predicted that some 49 million extra people may fall into extreme poverty this year due to the COVID-19 crisis.
“Unless immediate action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food emergency that could have long term impacts on hundreds of millions of children and adults,” the UN has said.
Through its newly-launched food security policy, the UN has said countries must mobilise to save lives and livelihoods, focusing attention where the hunger risk is most acute; countries must strengthen social protection systems for nutrition; and invest in the future by building a more inclusive and sustainable world.
“Let us provide more inclusive access to healthy and nutritious food so we can eradicate hunger. And let us rebalance the relationship between food systems and the natural environment by transforming them to work better with nature and for the climate,” the UN recommended.
“If we do these things and more, as indicated by the brief we are launching today, we can avoid some of the worst impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and nutrition and we can do so in a way that supports the green transition that we need to make,” UN Chief Antonio Guterres said.
