U.N. finds rise in hunger in developing countries

ROME — The number of hungry people in developing countries rose during the second half of the 1990s despite a concerted campaign against hunger in the world, the United Nations said Nov. 25.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in its report on “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003” that the total number of the hungry in the developing world dropped by 37 million in the first half of the 1990s, then rose by 18 million in the second half of the decade.

“FAO’s latest estimates signal a setback in the war against hunger,” the report said. Nations represented at the World Food Summit organized by FAO in 1996 pledged to reduce the number of undernourished people worldwide by half by 2015. According to FAO estimates, 842 million were undernourished in 1999–2001, the most recent years for which the figures are available. They included 10 million in the industrialized countries, 34 million in countries in transition and 798 million in developing countries.