Social Sustainability
Undernourishment
Definition
Undernourishment is the condition of habitual consumption of insufficient dietary energy to maintain a normal, active, healthy life, estimated by the FAO's Prevalence of Undernourishment indicator from food balance sheets, consumption distributions and energy requirements. After decades of decline, the number of undernourished people rose again to around 730 million — roughly one in eleven people globally, one in five in Africa — driven by conflict, climate shocks and economic downturns (SOFI report series).
References
This reference provides supporting context for how “Undernourishment” is defined and used.
Source imported for editorial provenance.
Overview
How it is used
The indicator structures SDG 2 monitoring, humanitarian resource allocation, and the Right to Food's measurement framework.
Why it matters
Undernourishment is the most basic sustainability failure there is: a species that produces surplus food while hundreds of millions starve.