This is the second annual report developed collaboratively by United Nations agencies on progress in Asia and the Pacific towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 to eliminate hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Its findings are a cause for concern. The SDG hunger deadline is just over a decade away, and nearly half a billion (479 million) people are still undernourished in Asia and the Pacific. To achieve SDG 2 in the region, more than 3 million people must escape hunger each month from now until

December 2030. Asia-Pacific is home to well over half of all people worldwide who do not obtain  sufficient dietary energy to maintain normal, active, healthy lives. But the problem goes well beyond calories. In most countries in the region, the diets of more than half of all very young children (aged 6–23 months) fail to meet minimum standards of diversity, leading to micronutrient deficiencies that affect child development and therefore the potential of future generations. The high prevalence of stunting and wasting among children under five years of age is a result of these deficiencies. The report notes that only four countries in the region are on track to meet the global target of a 40 percent reduction in the number of stunted children between 2012 and 2025.