An example of an SDG focusedlessonDavid Wagner
APEC Tsukuba 2017

Too much or too liDle• The primary author of this lesson wasAntonius Warmeling• The example is part of a chapter he is coauthoring with me.

Levels of overweight on the rise
The share of adults worldwide who are overweight jumped from 1.454
billion in 2002 to 1.934 billion in 2010, an increase of 25 percent. Some 23
percent of individuals age 15 or older were overweight in 2002, while in2010 the ﬁgure rose to 38 percent—even though the number of adults
increased by only 11 percent during these eight years. Much of this change
occurred in the industrial world. Economic, cultural, and possibly geneSc
factors all played a part. But in every country where the people have
goDen heavier the result has been the same: an increase in preventable
medical problems.
"Overweight" is used here for people with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 orgreater. BMI is a measure relaSng a person’s height to weight. (A personwith a BMI of 30 or above is usually labeled "obese," but here the term
“overweight” covers overweight and obese populaSons combined.)
The data considered are for people 15 and older in 177 naSons—home tothe vast majority of the world.
source: hDp://vitalsigns.worldwatch.org/vs-trend/levels-overweight-rise,
Worldwatch InsStute Washington, June 14, 2011.

Opening QuesSons• What is the Worldwatch InsStute saying to us?
Describe it with your own words.
• Explain their conclusions using the data.
• What are some reasons for these changes inBMI?
• InvesSgate the calculaSon of BMI for a human
who is overweight or even obese.
• What does this quote mean? “even though thenumber of adults increased by only 11 percent
during these eight years”

ConSnuing quesSons• What was the number of all people in the
researched naSons and age group?
• What do you suppose are the diﬀerences indeveloping or industrial countries? Is there adiﬀerence between women and men?
(data can be found at hDp://
databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?
source=health-nutriSon-and-populaSon-staSsScs )Half the propor3on ofundernourished people (1990 – 2015)
Current esSmates suggest that about 795 million
people are undernourished globally. This meansthat nearly one in nine individuals do not haveenough to eat. The vast majority of them (780
million people) live in the developing regions.
However, projecSons indicate a drop of almost halfin the proporSon of undernourished people in thedeveloping regions, from 23.3 per cent in 1990–
1992 to 12.9 per cent in 2014–2016.
source: The Millennium Development Goals, Report2015 (Target 1c)

Opening QuesSons• Tell each other, what you see in the graph.
• Research how the word “undernourished” isdeﬁned. Why do you think it is deﬁned likethat?
• Which UN sustainable development goals arebeing addressed? Are the goals achieved?
• How many people lived in the period from2014 to 2016 in the world? How many werethere in 1990-92?

Con3nuing ques3ons• Which is more important, the proporSon ofundernourished people or the actual numberof undernourished people? Develop anargument for each answer.
• Can you create a reasonable projecSon?
Based on this graph, what do you expect tohappen in the years up to 2030?

Connec3ng ques3ons• Compare the number of undernourished andoverweight people, for example in 2010.
• In the industrial countries we may ﬁnd the term
“underweight.” Research diﬀerent deﬁniSons of“underweight” and “undernourished.” (A deﬁniSon ofunderweight is a BMI < 18.5)• Design a presentaSon that addresses the issues of BMI
and malnourishment using examples of people withthe same height and diﬀerent weights to illustrate thecategories of overweight, underweight, etc. (or use
examples with the same weight and diﬀerent heights).