Poor countries like Bangladesh should pay attention to ensuring food safety and reducing malnutrition in their efforts to attain food security, one of the Sustainable Development Goals, said an expert yesterday.

Nations such as Bangladesh should also focus on renewable

energy to face the challenge of global warming and climate change, said Prof Jomo Kwame Sundaram, a member of the Council of Eminent Persons of the Malaysian government, at a lecture.

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organised the lecture titled "Assessing the challenges of SDG implementation: food, energy and

inequality" at the Lakeshore Hotel in Dhaka. CPD Chairman Prof Rehman Sobhan chaired the event.

Sundaram, a leading economist and expert on political economy of development, said production and distribution of food is very important. At the same time, the issue of food safety should be considered. He said the use of herbicides and agro-chemicals compromises food safety. “We all are consuming that food and our bodies are going to be affected by these."

It comes to light when food exports are rejected by importing nations, he said.

He said malnutrition is a major challenge. "Malnutrition is widespread and costly. It costs lives and money, ” he said, adding that 2 billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies and 2.1 billion people, including 700 million adults, suffer from obesity.

According to Sundaram, under-nutrition and nutrientdeficiency cost 2-3 percent of the global GDP. Total output loss and healthcare cost due to non-communicable diseases would be about $47 trillion over the next two decades. Obesity is the third largest burden on the global population, he said, adding that all these have strong implications for human development.

"Despite ostensible decline in poverty, hunger remains a critical issue," said Sundaram. The expert said hidden hunger resulting from micronutrient deficiency has been one of the major reasons behind undernourishment.

He said Bangladesh made progress in the last decade and the progress has reversed. The proportion of hungry people in Bangladesh has actually increased. As the population is increasing the number is also on the rise. "This is a matter of concern," he said.

He stressed the need for producing energy from renewable sources to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

"I think making some progress in renewable energy is relatively easy for Bangladesh. The government can work with the private sector to mobilise more investment. All it will have to do is to create incentives," he said.

Bangladesh has made strides in the expansion of renewable energy, particularly solar electricity, he said.

"There is no reason why Bangladesh cannot make solar panels." He said renewable energy has become cheaper now than ever before and subsidies that are given for petrol can be redirected towards renewable energy.

"Governments cannot rely on markets alone to solve the problem and they need new mechanisms for developing and transferring technologies," said Sundaram, advocating for more research and development and flexible intellectual property rules.

Sundaram, a former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, also talked about the rising inequality, particularly between the rich and poor countries, and called for attention to reduce the gap. Income inequality is rising and two-thirds of the world's inequality is due to international inequalities, he said.

Inequalities have widened between the 20 poorest countries and the 20 richest countries between 1960-62 and 2000-02, he said, adding that the incomes of the wealthy nations have risen three times. There has been a great deal of illicit financial flows mainly through trade mispricing and tax evasion through transfer pricing, he said.