The number of adolescent girls and pregnant and breastfeeding women suffering from acute malnutrition has risen from 5.5 million to 6.9 million since 2020, an increase of 25%, in the 12 countries most affected by the global food and nutrition crisis.
Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen represent the epicenter of a
global nutrition crisis
that has been exacerbated by war in Ukraine and drought, conflict and instability underway in some countries.
More than a billion adolescent girls and women suffer from undernourishment (including underweight and short stature), essential micronutrient deficiencies and anemia, with devastating consequences for their lives and well-being.
These are some of the data contained in the
UNICEF's new report 'Undernourished and Forgotten: A Global Nutrition Crisis for Adolescent Girls and Women'
released on International Women's Day finds that ongoing crises, "exacerbated by persistent gender inequality, are exacerbating a nutritional crisis among adolescent girls and women that had already shown little improvement over the past two decades".
"The global hunger crisis is driving millions of mothers and their children into starvation and severe malnutrition," said Unicef Director General Catherine Russell. "Without urgent action by the international community, the consequences could be protracted for generations to come".
Globally 51 million children under 2, according to Unicef, suffer from chronic malnutrition, i.e. they are too short for their age due to malnutrition.
Of those, about half are affected during pregnancy and the first six months of life, the 500-day period in which a baby is completely dependent on its mother's nutrition, according to a new analysis in the report.
South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa remain the epicenter of the nutrition crisis among adolescent women and girls, with 2 in 3 adolescent girls and women globally underweight and 3 in 5 adolescent girls and women with anemia.
Global crises continue to disproportionately compromise women's access to nutritious food.
In 2021,