The United Nations has said that the goal to eliminate global hunger by 2030 looks increasingly impossible to achieve.
The number of people suffering chronic hunger barely changed over the past year, a U.N. report said.
The annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report said that around 733 million people faced hunger in 2023.
These included one in 11 people globally and one in five in Africa, conflict.
Climate change and economic crises had a serious effect as well.
U.N. FAO Assessment
David Laborde, Director of the division within the U.N. FAO said that although some regions have made progress, the situation had deteriorated at a global level.
“We are in a worse situation today than nine years ago when we launched this goal to eradicate hunger by 2030,” he told Reuters.
Challenges
He said that challenges such as climate change and regional wars had grown more severe.
The report warned that if current trends continue, about 582 million people will be chronically undernourished at the end of the decade, half of them in Africa.
In the past three years, a broader objective to ensure regular access to adequate food has also stalled with 29% of the global population experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity in 2023.
Stark Inequalities
Nearly 71.5 per cent of people in low-income countries could not afford a healthy diet last year. This is against 6.3% in high-income countries.
Laborde said international aid linked to food security and nutrition amounted to $76 billion a year. This is 0.07% of the world’s total annual economic output.
“I think we can do better to deliver this promise about living on a planet where no one is hungry,” he said.
Regional trends varied significantly, with hunger continuing to rise in Africa.
In this continent, growing populations, myriad wars and climate upheaval weighed heavily.
By contrast, Asia has seen little change and Latin America has improved.
FAO’s Chief Economist
FAO’s chief economist Maximo Torero, said that South America has very developed social protection programmes. This allows them to target interventions.
“In the case of Africa, we have not observed that.”
The United Nations recommended that it is necessary to change the way the anti-hunger drive is financed.
Greater flexibility is needed to ensure the countries most in need got help.
Rome-based FAO, the U.N.’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, its Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization and World Food Programme, have compiled the report.
