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  • Publication | 2021

Asia and the Pacific – Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2021

Global Food and Nutrition Security

Key messages

  • By disrupting economic and livelihood activities, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a dramatic economic downturn in Asia and the Pacific and exacerbated hunger and food insecurity.

  • Economic downturns and contractions had a larger effect on the affordability of food than did increased food prices.

  • Progress in reducing undernourishment in Asia and the Pacific slowed during the past few years, and the number of undernourished increased substantially (17 percent) between 2019 and 2020.

  • In 2020, 375.8 million people in the region were undernourished, an increase of 53.9 million people over 2019. Most of these people (305.7 million) live in Southern Asia.

  • The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that 443.8 million people in the region suffered from severe food insecurity in 2020, while an additional 667.4 million suffered from moderate food insecurity.

  • Nearly 23 percent of children in the region are still stunted. Ten countries in the region have a “very high prevalence” of stunting according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria (>30 percent), while another eight are considered to have a “high prevalence” of stunting (20–30 percent). The share of children under five years of age affected by wasting in Asia and the Pacific was 9.9 percent in 2020, higher than the global average of 6.7 percent.

  • The overall percentage of overweight children in the region is lower than the global average of 5.7 percent, but the percentage increased from 4.2 percent to 5 percent between 2000 and 2020.

  • The prevalence of anaemia in women of reproductive age in Asia and the Pacific was 32.9 percent in 2019. This is approximately 1 percentage point lower than it was in 2000, indicating very slow progress during the past two decades.

  • The prevalence of adult obesity in the region (6.1 percent) is lower than the global prevalence of 13.1 percent, but adult obesity is rising across every country in the region.

  • The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in the region has been increasing in nearly all countries in the region. Most countries have also made progress since 2000 in reducing the prevalence of low birthweight. However, for many countries progress has been insufficient to meet the World Health Assembly (WHA) targets.