On World Food Day, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) marked their partnership with the Government of Myanmar and reaffirmed their commitment to reducing hunger, according to a press release on October 16.
“Thanks to Government efforts supported by FAO and WFP, significant progress has been achieved in fighting undernutrition in Myanmar in recent years. In 1990, 62 percent of the population was undernourished, compared to just 14 percent today, which means that Myanmar achieved the Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger by 2015,” according to the press release.
This year, Myanmar is one of many countries that agreed at the UN in New York to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals – a comprehensive list of 17 ambitious targets to end poverty and inequality by the year 2030. These include Global Goal 2 – Zero Hunger: “To end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.” In 2015, Myanmar launched a new National Multi-Sectoral Action Plan for Food and Nutrition Security (2016-2026), which will serve as a platform for the coordination of efforts to achieve zero hunger and strengthen food and nutrition security governance in the country.
But despite these achievements, there is still much work to be done. More than 26 percent of the population, or 13 million people, live below the poverty line in Myanmar, and close to three million people are considered food poor, spending a high percentage of their limited income on food. One in three children are chronically malnourished, which has consequences for their physical and mental development for a lifetime, the FAO and WFP report.