Joint report on state of world food security reveals worrying decline in nutrition

25 Jul 2024 --- The annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (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), points to worrying trends.

The 286-page document estimates that 733 million people faced hunger in 2023, equivalent to one in eleven people globally and one in five in Africa. Malnourishment worldwide has now fallen back to levels comparable to those last recorded in 2008 and 2009.

Alvaro Lario, president of IFAD, states: “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.”

Food security and malnutrition rates have been plateauing for three consecutive years, with approximately 152 million more hungry people than in 2019.

“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 to bring cheaper financing to the countries that need it most,” asserts Lario. 

Worrying trend
The 2024 report highlights the concerning finding that if the current malnutrition trends remain unchanged, close to 582 million people will be chronically undernourished in 2030, half of whom will be located in Africa.

Currently, in Africa, the percentage of the population affected by food insecurity continues to grow in most countries, now sitting at 20.4% of the population. In Asia, the numbers are staying stable, with 8.1% of the population facing hunger. The world’s largest continent also has the most hungry people, and the situation is worsening in Western Asia. 

Hunger also worsened in the Caribbean. However, a positive trend has been recorded in Latin America, where the percentage of hunger has fallen to 6.2%.

The report provides a new definition of financing for food security and nutrition and guidance for its implementation, recommendations regarding the efficient use of innovative financing tools and reforms to the food security and nutrition financing architecture. 

The document asserts that: “Establishing a common definition of financing for food security and nutrition and methods for its tracking, measurement and implementation, is an important first step toward sustainability increasing the financing flows needed to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition and to ensure access to healthy diets for all.”

By Milana Nikolova