Food and Nutrition Security discussions held

A discussion under the theme of “Asia and the Pacific Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2018” took place at the Blue Sky Hotel on November 27. Presented at the conference was a report that highlighted the challenges that threaten to undermine the Sustainable Development Goal to end all forms of malnutrition that was released in November 2018.

The report also mentioned that obesity is high in all regions and population groups in Mongolia. About 46 percent of women and 49 percent of men are overweight and the prevalence of obesity increased dramatically in school aged children particularly. In 2010, the National Nutrition Survey indicated that obesity in the group was 4.3 percent, but now it has jumped to an alarming 28.6 percent with nearly one in four children being labeled obese in Mongolia, and one third of school age children obese in Ulaanbaatar.

The prevalence of obesity has also gone down to an early age with 12 percent of children under the age of five being overweight.

Present at the discussion was UN Resident Coordinator Beate Trankmann, UNFAO Representative Vinod Ahuja, WHO Representative Sergey Diorditsa, Food and Security Monitoring Consultant at UN World Food Program Darko Petrovic, UNICEF Representative Alex Heikens and other specialists.

“In Mongolia, limited or poor access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is one of the key drivers of malnutrition. Alongside, there is an issue of overweightness. Why malnutrition coexists with obesity connects with increasing use of cheap, unhealthy processed foods with high ingredients of salt, sugar and fat but poor essential nutrients among youth and children,” said Beate Trankmann.