About one in 11 people globally faced hunger last year, demonstrating the world is falling short of its Zero Hunger by 2030 goal, says a recent report by United Nations agencies.
To address persistent hunger, UN representatives called for a transformation in agrifood systems and an investment in agriculture in rural areas.
“Ending hunger and malnutrition demands that we invest more — and more smartly,” said Alvaro Lario, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). “We must bring new money into the system from the private sector and recapture the pandemic-era appetite for ambitious global financial reform that gets cheaper financing to the countries who need it most.’’
About 733 million people had to deal with hunger in 2023, and between 713 and 757 million people were undernourished, meaning an individual's regular food consumption does not provide the amount of dietary energy necessary to maintain an active, healthy life, according to the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report published by five UN specialized agencies. The annual report was released Wednesday following the G20 Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty Task Force meeting in Brazil.
Despite the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 2 — Zero Hunger by 2030 — the report shows the world has actually gone backwards, with undernourishment levels comparable to those in 2008-2009.
If the trends outlined in the report continue, an estimated 582 million people will still be chronically undernourished in 2030, with half of those in Africa alone — similar to 2015, when the Sustainable Development Goals were adopted,
Hunger rates continued to rise in Africa, from 19.9% in 2022 to 20.4% in 2023. The levels remained stable in Asia at 8.1%, though the region represents more than half of those facing hunger nationwide, according to the report. From 2022 to 2023, hunger increased in Western Asia, the Caribbean and most African subregions.
The report found that access to food remains an issue, as 2.33 billion people faced moderate to severe food insecurity last year. This number has remained generally high since the COVID-19 pandemic. The report also found that over 2.8 billion people were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2022, about 35% of the total world population.
The economic challenges and high food prices are among other factors also contributing to an increased rate of obesity and malnutrition. By 2030, the report projects there will be 1.2 billion obese adults globally, while malnutrition — the combination of undernutrition and obesity — has also surged across all age groups.
In order to address these persistent issues, the report calls for strengthening agrifood systems, addressing inequalities and ensuring affordable and accessible healthy diets.
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Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN Director General Qu Dongyu called on funders and agrifood systems stakeholders to improve coordination on where to focus efforts and target financing.
He also pushed donors and international partners to be more risk-tolerant and become more involved in de-risking activities and said “properly dimensioned” blended financing with higher reliance on public-private partnerships is needed.
“It is important to recognize the new reality and to understand that with the current global challenges, agrifood systems operate under risk and uncertainties, so we need to be ready for the unforeseen,” Dongyu said in Rio de Janeiro at the release of the SOFI report.
The report was jointly prepared by the UN FAO, IFAD, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN World Food Programme and the World Health Organization.
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