TRENDS IN SELECTED UNDERLYING DETERMINANTS
Food supply The UN’s standard indicator of food insecurity is the FAO’s measure of “undernourishment.” FAO calculates the prevalence of undernourishment by combining data on food supply with a number of assumptions to estimate the proportion of a popu- lation that falls below a minimum dietary energy requirement. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2014 (FAO 2014b) reports a headline global number of 805 million undernour- ished. Nearly all regions have shown progress in reducing the
FIGURE 6.1 UNDERNOURISHMENT TRENDS BY SUBREGION
Western Africa Southern Asia South-Eastern Asia Eastern Asia Eastern Africa Caribbean
30 29 36 31 23 11 31 11 27 16 24 10
% OF UNDERNOURISHED PEOPLE 1991
2014 Source: Authors, based on data from FAO (2014a).
Note: FAO data were recalculated using UN regional classifications, when data were available for ≥50 percent of the population in the subregion. The corresponding figures for 1991 and 2014 using FAO regional classification and names are Caribbean: 27% and 20%; Sub-Saharan Africa: 33% and 24%; Eastern Asia: 23% and 11%; South-Eastern Asia: 31% and 10%; Southern Asia: 24% and 16%.
FIGURE 6.2 UNDERNOURISHMENT AND OVERACQUISITION TRENDS BY REGION Africa Asia
Latin America and the Caribbean
Oceania
share of undernourished people since 1990–1992, but at very different rates (Figure 6.1). In Africa, however, in contrast to other regions, the number of undernourished is rising because of increasing population (FAO 2014b).
In addition to measuring undernourishment, FAO recently developed an estimate of “overacquisition”: the proportion of a population lying above a maximum dietary energy requirement.3 (FAO does not call the indicator “overnourishment” because one cannot assume that there is no food waste at the upper end of the calorie distribution.)
Figure 6.2 shows both undernourishment and overacquisition for UN regions and defines the re- sidual population within each region as consistent with a healthy food supply—neither undernour- ished nor overacquiring. In all regions, the share of the undernourished population is declining while the share of the overacquiring population is in- creasing in an offsetting way, leaving constant the share of population with a healthy food supply.
Despite declines in undernourishment, the food supply does not seem to be getting health- ier, at least in terms of calories. Researchers need to do more work to determine the usefulness of the overacquisition indicator, but these initial results, if valid, are worrying.
It is not possible to construct these graphs
for Northern America and Europe because FAO does not publish undernourishment estimates for these regions. However, comparing estimates of overacquisition for Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States with those for selected countries in Africa, Asia, and South America
56
55
55
55
54
63
61
59
65
64
65
64
65
62
61
63
14 30
15 30
20 25
22 24
17 30
14 23
20 19
24 17
14 21
16 20
20 15
23 14
23 12
29 9
30 9
27 10
NEITHER UNDERNOURISHMENT NOR OVERACQUISITION
UNDERNOURISHMENT
OVERACQUISITION
Source: Undernourishment data are from FAO (2014a). Overacquisition data are unpublished data from FAO. See Technical Note 3 at
www.globalnutritionreport.org for details.
Note: Overacquisition data are for 1991, 2000, 2010, and 2013. Overacquisition is defined as the percentage of a population acquiring calories above a level consis- tent with the 95th percentile of body mass index in a healthy population and a physical activity level coefficient of 2.10.
ACTIONS & ACCOUNTABILITY TO ACCELERATE THE WORLD’S PROGRESS ON NUTRITION 39
1991 2000 2010 2012
1991 2000 2010 2012
1991 2000 2010 2012
1991 2000 2010 2012
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