The World Bank has said that rising food and fuel prices will increase the number of malnourished people around the world in 2008 by 44 million.

The report said the situation will cause malnutrition for 967 million people.
A copy of the report titled: ``Rising food and fuel prices: Addressing the risks to future generations"", said the effect of the crisis would be life-long on some families.
The report was presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the World Bank/IMF at the weekend in Washington D.C. by Word Bank President, Robert Zoellick, to the Development Committees.
An executive summary of the report, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the impact of the crisis would be felt more on the health of some growing children.
The report said many children would not be able to grow into adults due to poor nourishment, except urgent steps were taken to intervene in the crisis.
``Malnourished children cannot develop into healthy adults and become productive members of society who can contribute to the growth needed to lift themselves and their country out of poverty, '' it said.
The report said priority should be given to a series of targeted measures, which include making existing targeted cash transfer programs more generous, adding that allocating the necessary amount of budget to finance an expansion of safety net programs might require pruning less-priority spending in other areas.
The report said well-designed safety net programs did not have to be prohibitively expensive to be effective.
``Some of the most successful programs in the world cost well under one percent of Gross Domestic Products,'' it added.
According to the report, investing in safety net programs now will give governments new tools to address not just the current crisis, but future ones as well.
It explained that most people in the developed countries were more focused on the financial crisis, forgetting that a human crisis was rapidly unfolding in developing countries.
``It is pushing poor people to the brink of survival,"" he said.
Zoellick said the financial crisis would only make it more difficult for the developing countries to protect their most vulnerable people from the impact of rising food and fuel costs.
The World Bank president said about 28 countries were most hit by the global food and fuel crisis, including some African countries.
Although the crisis had thrown so many African countries into conflict, Nigeria 's Finance Minister, Dr Shamsudeen Usman and CBN Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, said the economy was proofed.
Soludo, who led the Nigerian delegation to the World Bank/IMF meeting, said 11 countries had already consulted the CBN on Nigeria's secret to having a strong economy.
(Source: leadershipnigeria.com)