3.5: Global Perspectives

Nutrition Across the World

As we learned in the previous section, modern food systems are not sustainable, and many people do not have access to nutritious foods. Each country and culture in the world faces challenges to food security and sustainability. These challenges vary across countries depending on income level, as discussed below. However, many parts of the world share common issues, such as ensuring that sensitive groups like children have access to nutritious foods. Nutrition education, outreach, and services throughout the world aim to improve nutrition for everyone.

In 2015, United Nations member states adopted 17 sustainable development goals to improve the well-being and health of people and the planet. One of these goals is to eliminate world hunger by 2030. More specifically, this goal centers around reducing hunger by improving food security and sustainability and aims to ensure access to nutritious foods, end malnutrition, and increase food production and sustainability.¹ Unfortunately, there are many challenges in achieving this goal. In 2022, an estimated 30% of the world's population experienced moderate or severe food insecurity and almost 10% or nearly 750 million people were undernourished worldwide.²

Global Issues in Food Security

Income

Income and economic development are major factors affecting food security and nutrition. Countries throughout the world vary in their income, business activities, government organization, populations, and infrastructure, including access to clean water and waste management systems. The term developing country has been widely used to describe countries with lower economic and industrial activity. However, there is no universal definition or list of developing countries. According to the United Nations, least developed countries (LDCs) are low-income countries that have significant challenges to sustainable development, including limited infrastructure and resources.³ The World Bank uses similar measures to define countries as low-income countries, so these terms are often used interchangeably. Low-income countries are more sensitive to local and global changes, such as conflicts, natural disasters, or economic downturns. As such, they also face unique challenges in meeting the goal to eliminate hunger and reduce malnutrition.

Many low-income countries are found in sub-Saharan Africa, where approximately 60% of the population experiences moderate or severe food insecurity. In Europe and North America, only 8% of the population experiences moderate or severe food insecurity. Europe and North America have more high-income countries, or developed countries, that have more industry, infrastructure, and money. High-income countries have greater food access and availability than low-income countries, so fewer people go hungry.²

Urbanization

Urbanization, or an increase in the number of people living in cities, also has a major effect on food security throughout the world. As populations grow in urban areas, more people can purchase food at markets, and food is generally more accessible and available. Urban diets often have more variety, but there is also an increase in the consumption of pre-packaged, highly processed foods that are often less nutritious. Recent reports have found that rural areas far from cities have more food insecurity than urban areas in low-income countries. However, there is an opposite trend in high-income countries, and urban areas have slightly higher rates of food insecurity.² This may be due to the presence of food deserts and lower incomes present in urban areas of high-income countries.

Gender Gaps

Women across the globe are at higher risk of food insecurity. In 2021, the gender gap reached 3.8%, with 28.6% of women in the world being moderately or severely food insecure compared with 24.8% of men.² This difference in food security between men and women was observed in every continent in the world, but women in Africa and rural regions experienced the biggest increases in food insecurity over men.²

Overweight Malnutrition in Children

Although many people in the world face hunger and malnutrition such as stunting and wasting, there has been a global increase in overweight and obesity malnutrition. Children who are overweight are more likely to be overweight in adulthood, which is associated with diabetes and cardiovascular disease.⁴ According to UNICEF, an agency of the United Nations that focuses on the well-being of children, the proportion of overweight children increased from 1 in 10 to almost 1 in 5 between 2000 and 2016.⁵ Historically, overweight malnutrition was considered a problem only for high-income countries, but low-income countries are experiencing the fastest increases in the number of overweight children. In fact, the number of overweight children in Africa rose by 44% between 2000 and 2018. Overweight malnutrition is also linked to household income, and low-income children are more likely to be overweight in the United States and other high-income countries.⁵ This trend is likely due to increased consumption of foods that are high in calories, such as sugary drinks, prepackaged and highly processed foods, and less physical activity for many children throughout the world.

References

1. UN Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 2: Zero Hunger. un.org. Accessed July 22, 2023. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/.
2. FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, WHO.The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023: Urbanization, Agrifood Systems Transformation and Healthy Diets Across the Rural-Urban Continuum. Published 2023. Accessed July 21, 2023. https://www.fao.org/3/cc3017en/online/cc3017en.html.
3. Least Developed Countries (LDCs). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. un.org. Accessed July 22, 2023. https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/least-developed-country-category.html.
4. Micha R, ed. 2021 Global Nutrition Report: The State of Global Nutrition. Updated October 17, 2022. Accessed July 24, 2023. https://globalnutritionreport.org/documents/753/2021_Global_Nutrition_Report.pdf.
5. UNICEF. The State of the World's Children. 2019. Children, Food and Nutrition: Growing Well in a Changing World. Published October 2019. Accessed July 20, 2023. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3896035?ln=en.