SOFI 2025: Global food security and nutrition are growing, but gaps are widening

Fewer people experienced hunger in 2024 than in the years before, but progress was not consistent globally. This is according to the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, which estimates that 638–720 million, or 8.2% of the global population, may have faced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5% in 2023 and 8.7% in 2022.

However, the report cautions that hunger continued to rise in most subregions of Africa and Western Asia. By 2030, a projected 512 million people will still be chronically undernourished globally, of which nearly 60% will be in Africa. 

Food insecurity remains widespread, with 2.3 billion, or 28% of the 2024 global population, facing moderate or severe food insecurity. Current hunger estimates are also still above pre-pandemic levels, with recent high food inflation contributing to the slow recovery in food security. 

“While it is encouraging to see a decrease in the global hunger rate, we must recognize that progress is uneven,” says Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 

“SOFI 2025 serves as a critical reminder that we must intensify efforts to ensure everyone has access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. To achieve this, we must work collaboratively and innovatively with governments, organizations, and communities to address the specific challenges faced by vulnerable populations, especially in regions where hunger remains persistent.”

The SOFI 2025 report was published by five UN agencies: FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP), and the WHO. It was released during this week’s Second UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake (July 27–29) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 

Growing regional disparities

SOFI 2025 highlights notable improvements in southern Asia and Latin America, where undernourishment prevalence fell from 7.9% in 2022 to 6.7%, or 323 million people, in 2024. Brazil reached the first goal in its national nutrition program by moving off the FAO Hunger Map — in 2024, undernourishment levels dropped below the map’s threshold of 2.5%. 

The SOFI 2025 report was developed and published by five UN agencies: FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, and the WHO.However, the report observes a steady rise in hunger across Africa and Western Asia, including in many countries affected by prolonged food crises. In 2024, Africa’s population facing hunger surpassed 20%, or 307 million people, while over 39 million people in Western Asia may have faced hunger, an estimated 12.7% of its population. 

Although the total number of people unable to afford a healthy diet fell from 2.76 billion in 2019 to 2.6 billion last year, these rates grew substantially in low-income countries. In Africa, the number increased from 864 million to just over one billion people — 66.6% of the continent’s population. 

Máximo Torero, FAO chief economist, explains that the concerning situation in Africa can be attributed to several key drivers. Food production cannot keep up with population growth, and multiple shock drivers like conflict, climate extremes, and economic downturns hit these regions. “These shocks interact and reinforce each other, weakening already fragile agri-food systems.”

Moreover, he says that many African and Western Asian countries are net food importers and thus highly exposed to global price volatility, resulting in more severe food inflation than globally. 

The report says median global levels reached 13.6% in January 2023, but peaked at 30% in May 2023 in low-income countries.

Child malnutrition updates

The report says accelerated progress is needed to achieve the 2030 global targets for key indicators of child malnutrition. Last year, around one-third of children aged six to 23 months and two-thirds of women aged 15–49 achieved minimum dietary diversity.

The report calls for accelerated progress to reach the 2030 global targets for child malnutrition, considering stunting, wasting, and overweight.Although the prevalence of stunting in children under five declined from 26.4% in 2012 to 23.2% in 2024, child wasting and overweight remained essentially unchanged. Meanwhile, more infants under six months were exclusively breastfed in 2023 than in 2012 — 47.8% compared to 37%.

WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, welcomes the progress in stunting and exclusive breastfeeding, but warns there is still much to be done to relieve millions from malnutrition. 

“This report provides encouraging news, but also shows where the gaps are and who is being left behind, and where we must direct our efforts to ensure everyone has access to a healthy and nutritious diet.”

Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director, says the report underscores the need to act urgently for the world’s youngest and most vulnerable children. Rising food prices could deepen nutrition insecurity for millions of families.  

“We must work in collaboration with governments, the private sector, and communities themselves to ensure that vulnerable families have access to food that is affordable and with adequate nutrition for children to develop. That includes strengthening social protection programs and teaching parents about locally produced nutritious food for children, including the importance of breastfeeding, which provides the best start to a baby’s life.”

Rising food prices

The global policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic — extensive and monetary interventions — along with the impacts of the war in Ukraine and extreme weather events all contributed to inflationary pressures. 

Low-income countries experienced higher food prices and inflation than global levels, which hindered post-pandemic nutrition recovery.The report warns that rising food prices have hindered post-pandemic food security and nutrition recovery, specifically in low-income countries. At the same time, wage recovery lagged during the 2021–2023 period of high food price inflation. 

“A 10% increase in food prices is associated with a 3.5% rise in moderate or severe food insecurity, and a 1.8% increase in severe food insecurity,” reveals the report. “At the peak of inflation, 65% of low-income and 61% of lower-middle-income countries, home to 1.5 billion people, faced food price inflation above 10%, deepening inequalities and threatening progress on poverty reduction and food security and nutrition.” 

Moreover, the report notes that structural and gender inequalities amplify the impact of food price inflation, specifically in countries with high income inequality. Rising food prices, especially in staple foods, have put additional pressure on the diets of low-income households and are linked to higher wasting rates among children under five. 

The 2025 SOFI report recommends a mix of policy measures to prevent future inflationary episodes: 

• Protect vulnerable populations with well-designed fiscal responses. 
• Align fiscal and monetary policies to stabilize markets. 
• Prioritized structural and trade-related measures for lasting impact. 
• Strengthen and invest in data and information flows. 
• Invest in resilient agri-food systems. 

“In times of rising food prices and disrupted global value chains, we must step up our investments in rural and agricultural transformation,” says IFAD president Alvaro Lario. “These investments are not only essential for ensuring food and nutrition security — they are also critical for global stability.”

IFAD calls for investments in rural and agricultural transformation to ensure nutrition security and global stability.In addition, Juliette Tronchon, head of UN Affairs at ProVeg International, urges countries to invest in building strong, domestic plant-based food supply chains and partner with research institutes and the food industry to advance climate-smart innovation.

“By shifting toward more plant-rich diets through growing more climate-resilient and diverse crops for direct human consumption, we can strengthen food security in the Global South.”

Impact of funding cuts

WFP’s executive director, Cindy McCain, underscores that funding critical to tackling hunger is falling. “Last year, WFP reached 124 million people with lifesaving food assistance. This year, funding cuts of up to 40% mean that tens of millions of people will lose the vital lifeline we provide.” 

“While the small reduction in overall rates of food insecurity is welcome, the continued failure to provide critical aid to people in desperate need will soon wipe out these hard-won gains, sparking further instability in volatile regions of the world.”

“This is not a crisis of scarcity — it is a crisis of inequality,” adds Emily Farr, Oxfam International’s Food and Economic Security lead. “Low-income countries are paying the highest price for a crisis they did not create.”

To turn the tide, she calls on governments to act urgently and unitedly: “Restore gutted aid, crack down on food profiteers, and invest in local farmers and local food systems that feed people, not profit margins.”