Despite “modest progress”, still too many people suffer from malnutrition in the world. The number of people suffering from hunger has stabilized in the world in 2022, but the goal of ending hunger by 2030 still seems out of reach. About 735 million people suffered from chronic undernourishment last year, nearly 9.2% of the world’s population, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said in a joint report. agriculture (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Unicef, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization (WHO). This figure, which has been increasing since 2015, is stabilizing and even beginning to decline slightly, with 3.8 million fewer people compared to 2021.
“This is not a time for complacency, however, as hunger continues to rise in Africa”, where one in five people are currently affected, in West Asia and the Caribbean, the agencies pointed out in the introduction to this annual report on the state of food security and nutrition. It is, they say, “a snapshot of a world still recovering from a global pandemic, and now grappling with the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, which has shaken food and ‘energy “.
From Covid-19 to Ukraine, major crises
Since 2019, these major crises have plunged 122 million additional people into hunger, according to the UN, particularly affecting women and people in rural areas. The post-pandemic economic recovery has improved the situation, “but there is no doubt that the modest progress made has been undermined by rising food and energy prices, amplified by the war in Ukraine” . “Unless we redouble our efforts, our goal of eradicating hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all their forms by 2030 will remain out of reach,” the organizations warned.
If progress does not accelerate, almost 600 million people could still be undernourished in 2030, mainly in Africa. This represents “119 million more people than in a scenario where neither the Covid-19 pandemic nor the war in Ukraine would have taken place”, pointed out the agencies in their report. In addition, the main drivers of food insecurity – conflicts, economic shocks and climatic disasters – and rampant inequalities now seem to constitute “a ‘new normal'”, they worried. “What we lack are the investments and the political will to implement large-scale solutions,” said Alvaro Lario, President of IFAD.