The United Nations recognizes that poverty and malnutrition (as well as the environment) are interdependent and complementary with population growth. According to the World Health Organisation, "Family planning is key to slowing unsustainable population growth and the resulting negative impacts on the economy, environment, and national and regional development efforts". However, more than 200 million women worldwide lack adequate access to family planning services. There are different theories about what causes famine. Some theorists, like the Indian economist Amartya Sen, believe that the world has more than enough resources to sustain its population. In this view, malnutrition is caused by unequal distribution of resources and under- or unutilized arable land. For example, Sen argues that "no matter how a famine is caused, methods of breaking it call for a large supply of food in the public distribution system. This applies not only to organizing rationing and control, but also to undertaking work programmes and other methods of increasing purchasing power for those hit by shifts in exchange entitlements in a general inflationary situation." Food sovereignty
Food sovereignty is one suggested policy framework to resolve access issues. In this framework, people (rather than international market forces) have the right to define their own food, agricultural, livestock, and fishery systems. Food First is one of the primary think tanks working to build support for food sovereignty. Neoliberals advocate for an increasing role of the free market. Health facilities
Another possible long-term solution to malnutrition is to increase access to health facilities in rural parts of the world.
Prevention
Reducing malnutrition is key part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2), "Zero Hunger," which aims to reduce malnutrition, undernutrition, and stunted child growth. Managing severe acute undernutrition in a community setting has received significant research attention. Food security
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Green Revolution aimed to bring modern Western agricultural techniques (like nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides) to Asia. Investments in agriculture, such as fund fertilizers and seeds, increased food harvests and thus food production. Consequently, food prices and malnutrition decreased (as they had earlier in Western nations).The Green Revolution was possible in Asia because of existing infrastructure and institutions, such as a system of roads and public seed companies that made seeds available. These resources were in short supply in Africa, decreasing the Green Revolutions impact on the continent. For example, almost five million of the 13 million people in Malawi used to need emergency food aid. However, in the early 2000s, the Malawian government changed its agricultural policies, and implemented subsidies for fertilizer and seed introduced against World Bank strictures. By 2007, farmers were producing record-breaking corn harvests. Corn production leaped to 3.4 million in 2007 compared to 1.2 million in 2005, making Malawi a major food exporter. Consequently, food prices lowered and wages for farmworkers rose. Such investments in agriculture are still needed in other African countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Despite the countrys great agricultural potential, the prevalence of malnutrition in the DRC is among the highest in the world.