In 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 165,000,000 children under the age of 5 were stunted, 101,000,000 children under 5 were underweight (too light for their age), while 52,000,000 children under 5 suffered from wasting (too thin for their height). Faced with such figures, it is clear that ensuring enough and good quality nutrition from an early age is a priority for a healthy, productive world population.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Over 85 per cent of the approximately 1.2 billion youth (15-24) lives in developing countries and half of them work in the agricultural sector.

• Every year the World Food Programme feeds more than 20 million children in school feeding programmes in some 60 countries.

• The Food and Agricultural Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development

and WFP work with agricultural youth associations and networks to undertake youth development projects and capacity building initiatives in local communities. Since 2004, the Junior Farmer Field and Life School Programme has trained over 25,000 young people in 20 countries.

• Public awareness campaigns, such as FAO's “1 billion hungry campaign' or WFP's “Billion for a Billion” have been developed to highlight unacceptable levels of world hunger.