Poverty, hunger and malnutrition around the world

More than one billion people in the world live on less than US$1 a day

2.7 billion struggle to survive on less than US$2 per day

More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day, including 300 million children

Every 3.6 seconds a person dies of starvation, and most of those who die are children under age of 5

Every year 6 million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday

The African continent, once a net exporter of food, imports one third of its grain

More than 40 per cent of Africans do not have the ability to obtain sufficient food on a daily basis

For African farmers, conventional fertilizers cost two to six times more than the world market price

Every day HIV/AIDS kills 6,000 people and infects another 8,200 people with the deadly virus

The HIV/AIDS pandemic, along with declining soil fertility and land degradation, have led to a 23 per cent decrease in food production per capita

Source: Millennium Project. (www.unmillenniumproject.org)

Feature Article of Tuesday, 30 August 2011, Written by Columnist: Ofosu-Appiah, Ben