Giving Compass' Take:

• Rina Chandran reports that a study from the UN reveals that Asia-Pacific is home to half of the undernourished individuals in the world and that both undernourishment and obesity are on the rise in the region.

• How can proper nutrition be spread effectively? What system barriers must be overcome to increase proper nutrition? 

• Learn about efforts to address global hunger. 

Hundreds of millions of children and adults in Asia's rapidly expanding cities are undernourished, and will remain so without "inclusive, sustainable, and nutrition-sensitive" urban planning, United Nations officials said.

The Asia-Pacific region has the world's highest rate of urbanisation, while also being home to more than half the world's 821 million undernourished people, four UN agencies said in a report released in Bangkok.

"Progress in reducing undernourishment has slowed tremendously," said the regional heads of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

"As migration from rural to urban areas continues apace, particularly involving poorer families, urban malnutrition is a challenge facing many countries," they said in a statement.

World hunger rose in 2017 for a third consecutive year due to conflict and climate change, jeopardising a global goal to end the scourge by 2030, the United Nations said in an earlier report.

At the same time, more than 1 in 8 adults is now obese, with the Asia-Pacific region recording the fastest growing prevalence of childhood obesity, fuelled by easier access to processed foods rich in salt, fat and sugar.

Read the full article about undernourishment and obesity by Rina Chandran of Thomson Reuters Foundation at Global Citizen.