Regional Overview – East Asia

World Poverty & Hunger by the Numbers

In the early years of the 21st Century

*** ARCHIVES ***

The World Bank - Annual Report 2019

www.worldbank.org/en/about/annual-report/

[accessed 30 September 2020]

WORLD BANK FISCAL YEAR COMMITMENTS - The World Bank approved $5.3 billion for 49 operations in the region in fiscal 2019, including $4.0 billion in IBRD loans and $1.3 billion in IDA commitments.

 

EastAsia - Lending

 

'Lost food' project shows developing Asia how to tackle hunger

Chaukesi Ramadurai, Nikkei Asia, 12 May 2021

asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Tea-Leaves/Lost-food-project-shows-developing-Asia-how-to-tackle-hunger

[accessed 12 May 2021]

The Lost Food Project says that if global food waste were a country, it would be the world's third-largest greenhouse gas emitter. But the project's figures claim that it had rescued 1.6 million kg of food from landfill in Malaysia by December 2020, preventing just over 3 million kg of greenhouse gas emissions.

Statistics aside, apart from its impact on the environment, the project offers several lessons for developing Asia. One is how to feed the weakest and poorest members of developing societies, using existing resources that would be otherwise discarded. This became even more important during the coronavirus pandemic, when panic-buying and supply chain breakdowns caused scarcity in food markets.

"We had to be adaptable and agile, and find new ways to procure and distribute food to those who needed it the most," said Mooney. The crisis also gave rise to new opportunities such as sending second-grade vegetables to the local zoo.

Another important takeaway for developing Asian countries is the spotlight on addressing nutritional poverty among the poor, the elderly and the disabled. In many countries of the region, people in the lower income groups are not destitute. They have homes and can afford food -- but they tend to eat fast food, which is cheap and filling yet lacks nutrition. Even in a developed economy it can sometimes be cheaper to buy a cheeseburger than a wholesome salad.

That is perhaps where the food distributed by the Lost Food Project can make the most difference. The team says that malnourished and anemic children in charity schools that it supplies typically recover their health after a few months of eating fresh food.

COVID-19 Slowing Cambodia’s Fight Against Hunger

Athira Nortajuddin, The Asean Post, 9 February 2021

theaseanpost.com/article/covid-19-slowing-cambodias-fight-against-hunger

[accessed 9 February 2021]

A more recent joint-report released by UN agencies – the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the WFP, and the World Health Organization (WHO), stated that the pandemic is threatening access to a healthy diet for nearly two billion people in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

Asean Post

 

 

 

Newly released data show refugee numbers in 2021 are the highest ever: An update

Emi Suzuki, World Bank, 20 June 2022

blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/newly-released-data-show-refugee-numbers-2021-are-highest-ever-update?cid=ECR_E_NewsletterWeekly_EN_EXT&deliveryName=DM146625

[accessed 24 June 2022]

 

number-of-refugees-by-origin-2010-2021

 

Pandemic to create millions of 'new poor' in East Asia: World Bank

Kristie Pladson, Deutsche Welle DW-WORLD.DE, 29 September 2020

p.dw.com/p/3jA0p

[accessed 4 July 2022]

A 'new poor' emerges -- Prior to the pandemic, 33 million people in EAP [East Asia & Pacific] countries had been expected to escape poverty in 2020, based on the upper-middle-income class poverty line of $5.50 (€4.70) a day.

But the latest GDP forecasts and other indicators now show the number of poor going up by 38 million. In other words, along with 33 million people remaining in poverty who, without the pandemic, would have escaped, another 5 million will fall into poverty who otherwise would not have.

"COVID-19 is not only hitting the poor the hardest, it is creating 'new poor,'" Victoria Kwakwa, vice president for East Asia and the Pacific at the World Bank, said in a press release. "The region is confronted with an unprecedented set of challenges, and governments are facing tough choices."

The World Bank insights reinforce forecasts published just two weeks by Asian Development Bank, which predicted that Asian economies will contract this year for the first time in six decades.

 

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