Introduction

Hunger and inadequate food supply are still affecting large parts of the world's population with serious consequences for health and well-being, especially in children. Undernutrition and malnutrition in childhood interfere with physical and mental development, thus compromising whole lives. Assuring adequate nutrition from an early age on is therefore a prerequisite for a society's prosperity. Diet plays a special role because of the importance of specific micronutrients for growth and development.

So far, efforts to combat undernutrition and malnutrition, and make progress towards the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which aims to "eradicate extreme poverty and hunger", by reaching the target of halving (by 2015, as compared with 1990) the proportion of people who suffer from hunger, have achieved some success. Thus, the proportion of undernourished children less than 5 years of age has been lowered from 33% in 1990 to 26% in 2006. Worldwide, however, the number of undernourished people is continuing to rise, and recent economic hardship threatens to postpone further achievements.

The aim of the UNSCN's periodically published reports on the world nutrition situation is to highlight the impact nutrition problems have, particularly on developing nations, by describing and analyzing the global food and nutrition situation. After its predecessor's excursion into the role of nutrition in strategies for health improvement, this sixth report on the world nutrition situation brings regional trend analyses to the fore, while at the same time pursuing the subject of nutrition throughout the life-cycle (discussed in the 2nd and 4th reports) with a chapter dedicated to maternal nutrition and its effects on child health.