COMCEC Agriculture Outlook 2016
37
Figure 32. Undernourished People in the OIC by Sub-Regions
Source: Calculated by using FAOSTAT
At the sub- regional level, despite of the higher proportion of undernourishment in
African Group, Asia Group has almost half of the total undernourished people in the Member
Countries due to its high population. Figure 32 shows that as of 2014-2016, 98.6 million
undernourished people are expected to live in the Asia Group, which accounts for nearly 60
percent of undernourished population in the OIC.
After examining the average dietary energy supply adequacy, average value of food
production and average protein supply, it is clear that the availability dimension of food
security in the OIC needs to be fortified. Furthermore, undernourishment is one of the major
problems which need to be alleviated immediately.
3.2. Access
World Health Organization defines the food access as having sufficient resources to
obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet.21 Access dimension of food security is fully met
when all people in a country have all adequate resources needed to acquire sufficient
nutritious and safe food. Therefore, the concept of food accessibility encompasses several
issues such as affordability of individuals to purchase foods, existence of nutritious goods in
nearby grocery stores, sufficient and convenient transportation nets to reach local food
retailers.
In the FAO study of food security indicators, the access dimension of food security is
measured by various indicators such as percent of paved roads over total roads, road density,
21 WHO, 2015
55,4 54,7 54,6
5,8
11,8
15,1
106,7
113,7
98,9
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1990-92 2000-02 2014-16* 1990-92 2000-02 2014-16* 1990-92 2000-02 2014-16*
African Group Arab Group Asian Group
Million People