Some 13.7 million Filipinos will likely become undernourished by 2016, according to a report released by the United Nations’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The FAO said undernourished Filipinos account for 13.5 percent of the country’s population. This, however, means that the country was only able to reduce 17.9 percent of the undernourished population since 1990.
The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), signed in 2000, used baseline data from 1990 to measure a country’s performance in attaining the goals.
“For the country to achieve social equity and sustainable development, hunger must be completely eradicated,” FAO Representative in the Philippines, José Luis Fernandez said.
The UN unit also said around 19 percent of Filipinos live on only $1.25 a day. This has contributed to the nutrition problem in the country.
However, the FAO said, the Philippines has made significant progress in improving food production by earmarking P86.1 billion, or $1.9 billion, for the Agricultural Development Program in 2015.
The funding is being used to boost rice production and improve irrigation and drainage areas in the top 33 rice-producing provinces.
The program also strengthens credit services, increases research and development, and funds the construction of farm-to-market roads.
Further, around P6.02 billion, or $133 million, has been budgeted for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, a 28-percent increase, mainly for the construction of 252 fish landings.
Notwithstanding, according to the regional report, challenges still remain in addressing malnutrition caused by short-term inadequacy of food intake, with 33.6 percent of children under five stunted.
“The FAO remains strongly committed to support the Philippine government in its fight against hunger and malnutrition and in making economic growth inclusive and beneficial to the vulnerable segments of the population, particularly in the farming communities,” Fernandez said.
The report said the Asia Pacific, as a whole, has achieved the MDG hunger target (MDG-1c) of halving the proportion of undernourished people in 2015. However, there are still 490 million people in the region, or two-thirds of the world’s population, who suffer from chronic hunger.
While the report confirmed that the Asia and Pacific region has made some great strides in food security, achieving the largest reduction in the absolute number of undernourished people (236 million) and almost all countries now having adequate food supplies to meet people’s average dietary needs, the region is sadly still home to almost 62 percent of the world’s undernourished.
Besides the calorie consumption deficit, the problem of undernutrition is also manifested in high rates of stunting in children below five years of age, while various micronutrient deficiencies prevail among people of all ages.
At the same time, the number of people who are overweight or obese is rapidly increasing in the region, especially in Southwest Pacific Island countries and middle-income countries of Asia. The report concluded that slow progress of many countries in the region was due to the rise of inequality and slow growth in agriculture, which continues to employ the poorest people and affords lower wages than industries or services.
Employment and livelihood security is also undermined by threats of natural disasters. More often than not, those with limited resources and vulnerable livelihoods bear the brunt of natural disasters brought by changing climate conditions.
The MDGs are a set of eight goals, 22 quantitative targets and more than 60 specific indicators meant to serve as a focus for international and national development policy.
The goals are eight specific, measurable and time-bound goals anchored on eradicating poverty by 2015. These goals are to end extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; and reduce child mortality.
Other goals are to improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development.