Progress in tackling global food insecurity and nutritional deficiencies is stagnating and the world is unlikely to meet its global targets by 2030, according to a report released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization last week.

In the three years between the coronavirus pandemic and 2023, when the report’s data was collected, progress on problems such as undernutrition, food insecurity, obesity and malnutrition has either stagnated or even worsened worldwide.

Six years before the UN deadline to end hunger – the second Sustainable Development Goal – the report estimates that 582 million people will be chronically undernourished by the end of the decade unless urgent action is taken.

According to the report, intensifying conflicts, climate volatility and economic crises have led to global malnutrition. This is exacerbated by underlying factors such as social inequality and an environment in which healthy food is more expensive and harder to obtain than unhealthy food.

These causes of food insecurity and malnutrition have become more frequent and intense since the pandemic, the report says, resulting in more people being hungry and food insecure.

For three years in a row, malnutrition and food insecurity have stagnated after rising sharply during the pandemic. In 2023, 2.33 billion people – 28.9 percent of the world’s population – suffered from moderate or severe food insecurity, the report said.

The number of underweight babies born is also stagnating worldwide, especially in low-income countries.

In Africa, malnutrition rates are increasing. According to the report, one in five Africans will suffer from hunger by 2023. In Asia, rates have remained relatively unchanged over the past three years. Globally, an estimated 700 million people suffered from hunger last year.

At the same time, a combined problem of malnutrition and obesity persists in higher-income countries. In this situation, people develop obesity due to sluggish metabolism, inflammation or excessive calorie intake, while at the same time not receiving enough vital nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

As a result, the global prevalence of overweight children is stagnating, the report says, while childhood obesity is becoming increasingly common, laying the foundation for a host of health problems as these children grow up.

The report added that one in three people worldwide cannot afford a healthy diet due to uneven economic growth – more than in 2017.

There has been some progress. In Latin America and the Caribbean in particular, malnutrition has improved dramatically. Stunting among children under five is also becoming less common, meaning fewer children have slowed development and impaired growth due to malnutrition.

The breastfeeding rate has also increased among exclusively breastfed infants under six months of age.

Overall, the report focuses on the UN’s likely failure to achieve its global goals to end world hunger by 2030. It calls for accelerating efforts to transform global food systems and rethinking how to finance work to end world hunger.

The report predicts that there could be a multi-trillion dollar financing gap between what is needed to achieve the SDG target by 2030 and what is actually being invested. Rather than simply asking for more money, the report suggests making financing for food security and nutrition more efficient.

Finally, the report says that nutritional problems are not only affecting places with limited access to financial resources. Countries with better access to financial resources may have less malnutrition and stunting, but they are also likely to have more overweight children.

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reference

FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. (2024). The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2024. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd1254en