[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"question:28:en-US":3},{"metadata":4,"sys":15,"fields":35},{"tags":5,"concepts":14},[6,11],{"sys":7},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":10},"Link","Tag","global",{"sys":12},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":13},"hunger",[],{"space":16,"id":20,"type":21,"createdAt":22,"updatedAt":23,"environment":24,"publishedVersion":28,"revision":29,"contentType":30,"locale":34},{"sys":17},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"Space","ghhpjogyw4x7","b49813ade9d7bf7d0872c9a50aab02a3","Entry","2021-11-11T07:06:35.651Z","2024-09-03T08:34:17.623Z",{"sys":25},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},"master","Environment",42,12,{"sys":31},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":33},"ContentType","question","en-US",{"globalId":36,"answers":37,"answersAsImages":56,"wrongPercentage":93,"name":94,"questionText":95,"statistics":96,"veryWrongStatistics":98,"correctSentence":100,"youWereWrong":101,"youWereRight":102,"dataSourceShortText":103,"dataSourceLinkLongText":104,"extendedAnswerText":105,"headingVeryWrong":106,"youWereVeryWrong":107,"headingWrong":106},"28",[38,59,76],{"metadata":39,"sys":42,"fields":54},{"tags":40,"concepts":41},[],[],{"space":43,"id":45,"type":21,"createdAt":46,"updatedAt":47,"environment":48,"publishedVersion":29,"revision":50,"contentType":51,"locale":34},{"sys":44},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"c14a0c6cdf44eda53ba7726983897997","2021-11-11T06:51:43.409Z","2024-09-03T08:34:17.671Z",{"sys":49},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},7,{"sys":52},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":53},"answer",{"globalId":55,"correctAnswer":56,"isVeryWrong":57,"answerText":58},"28-a1",false,true,"North Africa & Middle East",{"metadata":60,"sys":63,"fields":73},{"tags":61,"concepts":62},[],[],{"space":64,"id":66,"type":21,"createdAt":67,"updatedAt":68,"environment":69,"publishedVersion":29,"revision":50,"contentType":71,"locale":34},{"sys":65},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"541616e1d7e48763853c151e1a0d9959","2021-11-11T06:51:44.930Z","2024-09-03T08:34:17.720Z",{"sys":70},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},{"sys":72},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":53},{"globalId":74,"correctAnswer":57,"isVeryWrong":56,"answerText":75},"28-a2","South Asia",{"metadata":77,"sys":80,"fields":90},{"tags":78,"concepts":79},[],[],{"space":81,"id":83,"type":21,"createdAt":84,"updatedAt":85,"environment":86,"publishedVersion":29,"revision":50,"contentType":88,"locale":34},{"sys":82},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"ce1063bfe9fc1e5e1646b635c222443e","2021-11-11T06:51:46.557Z","2024-09-03T08:34:17.762Z",{"sys":87},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},{"sys":89},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":53},{"globalId":91,"correctAnswer":56,"isVeryWrong":56,"answerText":92},"28-a3","Sub-Saharan Africa",85,"Region underweight children","Which of the following regions has the largest share of children under 5 who are dangerously underweight?",[97],"uk 0.85",[99],"uk 0.206","South Asia has the highest share of children under 5 years old who are dangerously underweight.","When asked about hunger, you instinctively think “Africa”, don’t you? But undernourished children are actually more common in South Asia.","They probably think of hunger as a synonym for Africa and they can’t imagine there are more undernourished children elsewhere. ","Sources: UNICEF, WHO and World Bank","The prevalence of underweight, (low weight for age, also called wasting) is above 15% in India, which is a middle-income country. In Sub-Saharan Africa the number is around 6%.\nThe data is taken from nationally representative household surveys which are done infrequently (typically every 3 to 5 years). An issue when it comes to wasting is that it is an acute illness that can change frequently and quickly over the course of a year. As such, there is unreliability in the estimates, but we still know what the proportions are.\nThere are places in Africa where the problem is just as big as in South Asia, like in Sudan for example. \nWe consulted three independent experts about the data from the Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates and, while they pointed out its limitations, they did not object to using the data and often use it themselves to show measures of hunger among children.\n\n[1]  [UNICEF\u002FWHO\u002FThe World Bank Group joint child malnutrition estimates](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.who.int\u002Fdata\u002Fgho\u002Fdata\u002Fthemes\u002Ftopics\u002Fjoint-child-malnutrition-estimates-unicef-who-wb?id=402)  \n[2]  [WHO Global Nutrition Targets 2025: Wasting Policy Brief](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.who.int\u002Fnutrition\u002Ftopics\u002Fglobaltargets_wasting_policybrief.pdf)  \n[3]  [Emergency Nutrition Network.  “South Asia and child wasting – unravelling the conundrum” by Harriet Torlesse and Minh Tram Le from 2020](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ennonline.net\u002Fattachments\u002F3673\u002FFEX-63-Web_FINAL_7-12.pdf)  \n[4]  We consulted three independent experts about the source and data used in this question, including Ziad El-Khatib of the Karolinska Institute and the Medical University of Vienna.","Because countries in South Asia (including India and Pakistan) have been making so much progress in many ways, this problem hasn’t had the attention it deserves. Children in South Asia are more than twice as likely (14%) to be underweight than children in Sub-Saharan Africa (around 6%) and North Africa and the Middle-East (also around 6%).\n\nWhen we think of children who are so thin that their skin is stretched tight across their ribs and their heads seem too heavy for their bodies, it is no surprise Sub-Saharan Africa or war-torn countries in the Middle East come into our minds. After all, that is where a lot of the world’s poverty is and where we most often see images of hungry children.\n\nIt’s harder to see the amount of hunger that is hidden in poor communities across South Asia, in the outskirts of affluent cities or distant rural areas there are lots of “pockets of poverty” adding up to slightly more underweight children than there are in all of Africa. In South Asia, including Pakistan and India, 25 million children under age 5 have gotten too little food, which puts them at risk of infection and death.\n\n### Why is it a problem that people are wrong about this?\nThe stereotypical idea that all hunger problems are in Africa make people ignore a huge problem - the large share of children in South Asia who sometimes have too little food and risk dying because they are too thin.\n\n### Why are people wrong about this?\nFor many people, Africa is synonymous with hunger. There has been a lot of attention paid in the media and in charity campaigns to poor African countries with starving children.\n\n### Why is there a much higher rate in South Asia than anywhere else?\nMiddle-income countries like India still have a lot of poverty and more than 15% of children there have a serious lack of nutrition. In India, as well as Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Maldives, there hasn’t been much progress in helping children who are dangerously underweight over the last decade.\n\nOften the problem in these countries is that children are born very small because their mothers are very thin and undernourished. It might be because they are very young when they have babies or that they are so poor they don’t have enough food to eat while they are pregnant. And, in those countries, there are many small babies who don’t get enough of the healthy foods that will help them develop into strong children if they aren’t breastfed.\n\n### Where can I see this data for countries?\n[This bubble chart](https:\u002F\u002Fbit.ly\u002F2KRQuA3) shows you how countries in South Asia stand out with a very high share of undernourished children, compared to other countries on that income level. Play the graph over time, and see how this form of suffering is fortunately being reduced in most countries.\n\n### Can I trust the data?\nYes - but be realistic about how certain numbers are. The data is taken from nationally representative household surveys which are done infrequently (typically every 3 to 5 years). It is presented in the Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates database as a collaboration between UNICEF, the WHO and World Bank. An issue when it comes to wasting is that it is an acute illness that can change frequently and quickly over the course of a year. As such, there is unreliability in the estimates, but we still know what the proportions are.\n\n### What does dangerously underweight mean?\nThe technical term is “wasting”. The WHO defines wasting as “a symptom of acute undernutrition, usually as a consequence of insufficient food intake or a high incidence of infectious diseases, especially diarrhoea. Wasting in turn impairs the functioning of the immune system and can lead to increased severity and duration of and susceptibility to infectious diseases and an increased risk for death.”","Hunger is NOT a synonym for Africa","When asked about hunger, you instinctively think “Africa”, don’t you? But undernourished children are actually more common in South Asia. "]