Chief victims: the most vulnerable populations

7. The poor are the chief victims of malnutrition and hunger in the world. The fact of being poor almost invariably means falling more easily prey to the many hazards that threaten survival, and being less resistant to physical sickness. Since the Eighties poverty has grown increasingly more serious and is threatening ever larger numbers of people in most parts of the world. Within a poor population, the first victims are always the weakest individuals: children, pregnant women, nursing mothers, the sick and theelderly. There are also other vulnerable groups that run a very high risk of malnutrition: refugees and displaced persons, as well as victims of political turmoil.

But it is in the 42 Least Developed Countries (LDCs)—of which 28 are in Africa alone—that hunger is most severe(¹⁵). "About 700 million people in developing countries—20% of their population—still do not have access to enough food to meet their basic daily needs for nutritional well-being"(¹⁶).