20101011
reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty-nine countries show alarming levels of hunger and more than a billion people were hungry in 2009, according to a new report on global hunger.

World leaders are far from a 1990 goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015, according to the annual Global Hunger Index published by the International Food Policy Research Institute and other aid groups.

"The index for hunger in the world remains at a level characterized as 'serious,'" the report states. "Most of the countries with 'alarming' GHI scores are in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia."

The report identifies children as particularly vulnerable.

Countries with high hunger levels must address child nutrition during the first 1,000 days after conception, including prenatal nutrition and nutrition education programs for pregnant women, said Marie Ruel, head of the group's poverty, health and nutrition division.

"In order to improve child nutrition, programs and policies have to focus on the window of opportunity," Ruel said. "Early childhood undernutrition perpetuates poverty from one generation to another."

SOME IMPROVEMENT

The percentage of undernourished people fell from 20 percent in 1990-92 to 16 percent in 2004-06. The United Nations believes the number of hungry people may have fallen from 1 billion in 2009 to 925 million this year.