Despite abundant resources globally, progress in the fight against hunger and malnutrition is insufficient and uneven, concludes this year’s UN report on food security in the world.
Moderate or severe food insecurity, which forces people to skip an occasional meal because they don’t have food, affected 2.33 billion people last year – nearly 29 percent of the world’s population.
However, there are large geographical differences. While one in eleven people is affected by hunger globally, the number is one in five in Africa. And while Latin America and the Caribbean are making progress in the fight against malnutrition, things are getting worse in Asia.
A distant dream
Food insecurity particularly affects the rural areas and especially women, young people and indigenous people. According to the report, more and smarter investments and financial strategies are needed to eradicate hunger and malnutrition. Above all, political will is required.
As the situation is now, it is unlikely that the UN’s goal of a world without hunger by 2030 will become a reality, the report concludes.
Conflict, climate crisis and economic downturns are already known drivers of food insecurity in the world and are combined with underlying factors such as persistent inequality, unhealthy food environments and too expensive healthy food.
However, these drivers will become even more frequent and intense over the coming years, and they often strike at the same time, meaning that more and more people are facing hunger and food insecurity.
A healthy diet was too expensive for more than one-third of the world’s population in 2022, according to the report, which points to updated estimates. In this field too, the regional disparities are large. More than 71 percent of the population in low-income countries could not afford a healthy diet, compared to just over 6 percent in high-income countries.
– Gloomy
Development Minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim (Sp) refers to the UN report as bleak.
– Having enough and the right food on the table should be a matter of course for all families. Unfortunately, for the third year in a row, we have received yet another report which shows that the work to ensure a world free from hunger is going far too slowly, she says.
– There is a clear connection between poverty and hunger, as well as increased economic inequality and food insecurity. In this crossfire, all those people are affected who are unsure every day where they will get their next meal from.
The UN report has been prepared by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), the World Food Program (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
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2024-07-26 09:24:16
