UN: Nearly a half-billion in Asia-Pacific still going hungry

Nearly a half-billion people in the Asia-Pacific are still malnourished and eliminating hunger by 2030 requires that millions escape food insecurity each month, according to a report released Wednesday by UN agencies.

Data compiled by the United Nations show slow progress and even backsliding in the areas of child wasting and stunting and other problems related to malnutrition.

Worsening inequality means that despite relatively fast economic growth, incomes in the region are not increasing fast enough to help ensure adequate, nutritional diets for hundreds of millions still living in poverty, it says.

The report urges that governments combine efforts to end poverty and with nutrition, health and education-oriented policies.

The UN's sustainable development goals for 2030 call for ending hunger and ensuring all people have adequate access to food all around the year.

We are not on track, said Kundhavi Kadiresan, the FAO's regional representative. Progress in reducing undernourishment has slowed a lot in the past few years."