FOR the first time, the four UN bodies — the FAO, Unicef, WFP and WHO — responsible for helping countries meet their food security goals got together to publish a report on hunger and malnutrition in the Asia-Pacific region. The findings are harrowing. Some 486m people in the region are undernourished. The figures relating to Pakistan are alarming — only 4pc of the country’s children are getting a “minimally acceptable diet”. While hunger is on the rise throughout the world, the war against hunger and malnutrition in Asia and the Pacific is particularly difficult to win, given the high population density in the region. The report also mentions the high rates of stunting in the region, as it reasserted the significance of adequate maternal nutrition and the timely introduction of a healthy assortment of food and protein in the diet.

In his victory speech, and then again in his first formal address to the nation, Prime Minister Imran Khan brought up Pakistan’s human development challenges as he talked of stunted growth, mentioning that 44pc of all children in the country are stunted, quoting figures from the National Nutrition Survey (2011). Stunted growth occurs when children are poor nourished, fall ill frequently, and have insufficient psychosocial stimulation in the first few years of their upbringing. According to another report by the Ministry of Planning Development and Reform, Pakistan loses $7.6bn each year due to malnutrition — that’s 3pc of the country’s total GDP. Like the previous government, the current government has vowed to make Pakistan a ‘zero-hunger’ country by 2030, as listed in the SDGs. Climate change and the frequent occurrences of natural disasters also impact the state of food security and nutrition, particularly in agrarian economies such as ours, affecting the livelihoods and food intake of many. A healthy population will lead to long-term economic prosperity, and human and environmental development. But given the high rates of poverty, the constant political instability, the lack of clear economic policies (so far) and the threats from climate change to agriculture and livelihood, it is not certain if we will see this become a reality in the next 12 years. While it is said that Pakistan, along with other South Asian countries, has witnessed some progress in reducing the number of undernourished, it has not been at the speed and scale desired.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2018