A crucial goal like ‘Zero Hunger’ under Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 looks far reaching as the global hunger report 2024 raises alarm!
Bhaskar Parichha
The annual report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) is a collaborative effort by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Since 1999, this report has been tracking and evaluating global progress towards eradicating hunger, attaining food security, and enhancing nutrition. It also offers a detailed examination of the main obstacles to achieving these objectives within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. The report is intended for a broad audience, including policymakers, international organizations, academic institutions, and the general public. This year’s focus is particularly pertinent as we approach the Summit of the Future and the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in 2025.
According to the report released this week at Rio de Janeiro, the prevalence of hunger remains persistently high as worldwide crises continue to worsen. The report reveals that approximately 733 million individuals experienced hunger in 2023, representing one in eleven people worldwide and one in five in Africa, as per the most recent State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report released recently by five United Nations specialized agencies.
This year’s report, introduced in the framework of the G20 Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty Task Force Ministerial Meeting in Brazil, cautions that the world is significantly lagging behind in achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2, Zero Hunger, by 2030. The report indicates that the world has regressed by 15 years, with levels of undernourishment similar to those in 2008-2009.
Despite some progress in specific areas such as stunting and exclusive breastfeeding, an alarming number of people continue to face food insecurity and malnutrition as global hunger levels have plateaued for three consecutive years, with between 713 and 757 million people undernourished in 2023—approximately 152 million more than in 2019 when considering the mid-range (733 million).
Culprit Continent
But, as the report points out, regional patterns exhibit notable differences. While the proportion of individuals experiencing food insecurity is on the rise in Africa (20.4 percent), it is steady in Asia (8.1 percent)—despite posing a substantial challenge given that over half of the global population suffering from hunger resides in this region—and demonstrating improvement in Latin America (6.2 percent). Between 2022 and 2023, hunger escalated in Western Asia, the Caribbean, and the majority of African sub regions. It is projected that if current trends persist, approximately 582 million individuals will experience chronic undernourishment by 2030, with half of them residing in Africa.
What is significant is that this warning comes from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO). The projection reflects the same levels seen in 2015 during the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting a concerning lack of advancement.
The heads of the five UN agencies, including FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, IFAD President Alvaro Lario, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, WFP’s Executive Director Cindy McCain, and WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, emphasize in the report’s Foreword the importance of estimating the financing gap for food security and nutrition. They stress the need for innovative financing solutions to address this gap, highlighting the significance of policies, legislation, and interventions to achieve SDG Target 2.1 and SDG Target 2.2. Resource mobilization is crucial to ending hunger, ensuring access to safe and nutritious food, and combating all forms of malnutrition. They view these efforts not only as investments in the future but as a moral obligation to secure the right to adequate food and nutrition for current and future generations.
Key Inferences
The report emphasizes that billions of people still struggle to access sufficient food. In 2023, approximately 2.33 billion individuals worldwide faced moderate or severe food insecurity, a figure that has remained relatively stable since the significant rise in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them, more than 864 million people experienced severe food insecurity, sometimes going without food for an entire day or longer. This number has stubbornly stayed high since 2020, and although Latin America has shown improvement, broader challenges persist, particularly in Africa where 58 percent of the population faces moderate or severe food insecurity. Economic barriers to healthy diets also continue to be a significant problem, impacting over one-third of the global population.
The report reveals that in 2022, over 2.8 billion people could not afford a healthy diet, with the majority of this discrepancy seen in low-income countries, where 71.5 percent of the population cannot afford a healthy diet, compared to 6.3 percent in high-income countries. It is noteworthy that the number decreased in Asia and Northern America and Europe, but rose significantly in Africa.
Says FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu: “Transforming agrifood systems is more critical than ever as we face the urgency of achieving the SDGs within six short years. FAO remains committed to supporting countries in their efforts to eradicate hunger and ensure food security for all. We will work together with all partners and with all approaches, including the G20 Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, to accelerate the needed change. Together, we must innovate and collaborate to build more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems that can better withstand future challenges for a better world.”
According to the report, food insecurity and malnutrition are deteriorating as a result of various factors, with ongoing food price inflation leading to diminished economic progress for numerous individuals across multiple nations. Factors like conflict, climate change, and economic downturns are increasingly prevalent and impactful. These challenges, combined with root causes like inaccessible nutritious diets, unhealthy food surroundings, and enduring inequality, are now converging concurrently, intensifying their respective impacts.
Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director states: “Malnutrition affects a child’s survival, physical growth, and brain development. Global child stunting rates have dropped by one third, or 55 million, in the last two decades, showing that investments in maternal and child nutrition pay off. Yet globally, one in four children under the age of five suffers from under nutrition, which can lead to long-term damage. We must urgently step-up financing to end child malnutrition. The world can and must do it. It is not only a moral imperative but also a sound investment in the future.”
Despite the increase in exclusive breastfeeding rates to 48 percent, achieving global nutrition targets continues to be a challenge. The prevalence of low birth weight remains at around 15 percent, and although stunting among children under five has decreased to 22.3 percent, it still does not meet the targets. Furthermore, there has been no notable improvement in the prevalence of wasting among children, and there has been a rise in anemia among women aged 15 to 49 years.
Foremost Challenges
Moreover, recent data on adult obesity reveals a consistent rise in numbers over the past ten years, climbing from 12.1 percent in 2012 to 15.8 percent in 2022. Projections suggest that by 2030, there will be over 1.2 billion obese adults worldwide. The prevalence of the double burden of malnutrition, which involves both under nutrition and overweight or obesity, has also increased significantly across all age groups on a global scale. While thinness and underweight have decreased in the last twenty years, obesity rates have surged. These patterns highlight the intricate challenges posed by malnutrition in its various forms and emphasize the critical need for targeted interventions, as current efforts are insufficient to meet any of the seven global nutrition targets by 2030, as indicated by the five agencies.
The worsening of food insecurity and malnutrition is attributed to a variety of factors, including ongoing food price inflation that is undermining economic progress for numerous individuals across multiple nations. Major contributors like conflict, climate change, and economic downturns are increasing in frequency and intensity. These challenges, combined with underlying issues like the unaffordability of nutritious diets, unhealthy food environments, and persistent inequality, are now occurring simultaneously, magnifying their respective impacts.
Funding to End Starvation
The recent High-Level Political Forum event at the UN headquarters in New York highlighted the theme of this year’s report, “Financing to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition”. It emphasizes the need for a multi-faceted approach to achieve SDG 2 Zero Hunger, which involves transforming and strengthening agrifood systems, addressing inequalities, and ensuring affordable and accessible healthy diets for all. The report calls for increased and more cost-effective financing, with a clear and standardized definition of financing for food security and nutrition.
As said by IFAD President, Alvaro Lario, “The fastest route out of hunger and poverty is proven to be through investments in agriculture in rural areas. But the global and financial landscape has become far more complex since the Sustainable Development Goals were adopted in 2015. Ending hunger and malnutrition demands that we invest more – and more smartly. 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.’’
Consistent with the views of other institutional heads, WFP Executive Director, Cindy McCain states: “A future free from hunger is possible if we can rally the resources and the political will needed to invest in proven long-term solutions. I call on G20 leaders to follow Brazil’s example and prioritize ambitious global action on hunger and poverty. “We have the technologies and know-how to end food insecurity – but we urgently need the funds to invest in them at scale. WFP is ready to step up our collaboration with governments and partners to tackle the root causes of hunger, strengthen social safety nets and support sustainable development so every family can live in dignity.”
Many countries requiring more funding encounter obstacles in accessing it. Out of the 119 low- and middle-income countries studied, around 63 percent have restricted or moderate access to financial resources. Moreover, the majority of these nations (74 percent) are affected by various key factors leading to food insecurity and malnutrition. It is crucial to coordinate actions to align data, boost risk tolerance, and improve transparency in order to close this disparity and reinforce worldwide food security and nutrition structures.
Concludes WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “The progress we have made on reducing stunting and improving exclusive breastfeeding shows that the challenges we face are not insurmountable. We must use those gains as motivation to alleviate the suffering that millions of people around the world endure every day from hunger, food insecurity, unhealthy diets and malnutrition. The substantial investment required in healthy, safe and sustainably produced food is far less than the costs to economies and societies if we do nothing.”
(The author is a senior journalist and columnist. Views expressed are personal)
