The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report 2012, has indicated that one-in-four sub-Saharan Africans, about 214 million people, goes hungry every day and warned that countries in this region cannot sustain current levels of economic growth without reaching out to their most marginalized inhabitants.

The report, on the theme: Towards a Food Secure Future, released on Tuesday, says “15 million of these vulnerable people live in the drought-struck, semi-arid belt of Sahel, which stretches across West and Central Africa. There, malnutrition is threatening the lives of one million children”. The report also states that more than a million children in the Sahel region are at risk of dying because they don't have enough to eat

According to the report, in Africa, growth in economy, education and life expectancy have not been met with stabilization in food security for all. Inequalities continue to put the future of many children and families at risk. “Across sub-Saharan Africa rural infrastructure has deteriorated, farming has languished, gender and other inequalities have deepened and food systems have stagnated,” says the UNDP report.

Uneven human development continues to be influenced by the inequitable distribution of land and productive resources based on gender, ethnicity and geographical location. These power imbalances trap women and children in the poverty cycle, the report goes on. “Women’s lack of control over land resources is one example of how power structures have impeded food security. But, if women had the same access to resources as men, UN estimates show that they could produce enough food to lift 100-150 million more people out of a state of hunger,” the reports states.

The report calls for improved food security through such measures as investments in agricultural productivity, better nutrition, social safety nets to build resilience to crises, gender equality and empowerment programmes for poor rural-dwellers.