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Abstract
Despite significant progress achieved in the last two
decades, global hunger and malnutrition remain big
challenges. About 805 million people in the world
continue to suffer from chronic hunger and more than
2 billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies.
Moreover, overweight and obesity are on the rise in lowand
middle-income countries. Hunger and malnutrition
impose huge economic and social costs which can be felt
at individual, household, and societal levels. For example,
hunger and undernutrition cost the global economy US$1.4–2.1 trillion per
year, or 2–3% of global gross domestic product, according to the FAO.
The economic returns to eliminating hunger and malnutrition can also be
very high. Evidence from IFPRI-led research demonstrates that there are
substantial, lifetime economic benefits from reducing child undernutrition.
In India, for example, every dollar spent on interventions to reduce
stunting is estimated to generate about US$34 in economic returns. This
paper makes the economic case for investing in the elimination of global
hunger and malnutrition. It also focuses on the inefficiencies of policies
and practices that add to the burden of hunger and malnutrition: such as
under-investment in food security and nutrition; lack of social safety nets to
protect the poorest; unsustainable natural resource use in food production;
trade restrictions; and gender inequality in agriculture.