Achieving Zero Hunger by 2030 in Doubt, UN Report Warns

Many people are hungry and the poor are the most common in Asia, but the fastest rising in Africa is the annual report of the United Nations.

Tens of millions have entered the ranks of critically undernourished over the past five years, and countries across the world are also struggling with multiple forms of malnutrition.

The latest edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, released on Monday, reports that almost 690 million people were hungry in 2019 – up 10 million in 2018, and over 60 million in five years.

High costs and poor sustainability often imply that billions can not eat healthy or nutritiously, according to the Rome report.

Across the planet, the report predicts that the COVID-19 pandemic will lead more than 130 million more citizens to extreme poverty by the end of 2020.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World is the world's most comprehensive analysis on development towards the elimination of poverty and malnutrition.

It is produced jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Writing in the Foreword, the heads of the five agenciesi warn that “five years after the world committed to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, we are still off track to achieve this objective by 2030.”

The hunger numbers explained

In this edition, critical data updates for China and other populous countriesii have led to a substantial cut in estimates of the global number of hungry people, to the current 690 million. 

Nevertheless, there has been no change in the trend. Revising the entire hunger series back to the year 2000 yields the same conclusion: after steadily diminishing for decades, chronic hunger slowly began to rise in 2014 and continues to do so.

Asia remains home to the greatest number of undernourished (381 million). Africa is second (250 million), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (48 million). 

The global prevalence of undernourishment – or overall percentage of hungry people – has changed little at 8.9 percent, but the absolute numbers have been rising since 2014. 

This means that over the last five years, hunger has grown in step with the global population.

This, in turn, hides great regional disparities: in percentage terms, Africa is the hardest hit region and becoming more so, with 19.1 percent of its people undernourished. 

This is more than double the rate in Asia (8.3 percent) and in Latin America and the Caribbean (7.4 percent). On current trends, by 2030, Africa will be home to more than half of the world’s chronically hungry.

The pandemic’s toll

As progress in fighting hunger stalls, the COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying the vulnerabilities and inadequacies of global food systems – understood as all the activities and processes affecting the production, distribution and consumption of food. 

While it is too soon to assess the full impact of the lockdowns and other containment measures, the report estimates that at a minimum, another 83 million people, and possibly as many as 132 million, may go hungry in 2020 as a result of the economic recession triggered by COVID-19. 

Unhealthy diets, food insecurity and malnutrition

Overcoming hunger and malnutrition in all its manifestations (including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, overweight and obesity) is more than enough food to survive: what people consume – and particularly what children eat – must always be nutritious.

Yet the high expense of balanced products and the poor availability of safe diets for a substantial number of families remain a major challenge.

The report presents evidence that a healthy diet costs far more than US$ 1.90/day, the international poverty threshold. It puts the price of even the least expensive healthy diet at five times the price of filling stomachs with starch only. 

Nutrient-rich dairy, fruits, vegetables and protein-rich foods (plant and animal-sourced) are the most expensive food groups globally.

The latest estimates are that a staggering 3 billion people or more cannot afford a healthy diet. 

It is the case for 57% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, but no area, including North America and Europe, is spared. Partly as a consequence of this, the effort to eliminate hunger seems compromised.

According to the report, in 2019, between a quarter and a third of children under five (191 million) were stunted or wasted – too short or too thin. Another 38 million under-fives were overweight. Among adults, meanwhile, obesity has become a global pandemic in its own right.

A call to action

The report argues that once sustainability considerations are factored in, a global switch to healthy diets would help check the backslide into hunger while delivering enormous savings.

It calculates that such a shift would allow the health costs associated with unhealthy diets, estimated to reach US$ 1.3 trillion a year in 2030, to be almost entirely offset; while the diet-related social cost of greenhouse gas emissions, estimated at US$ 1.7 trillion, could be cut by up to three-quarters.iv

The report urges the transformation of food systems to reduce the cost of nutritious foods and increase the affordability of healthy diets. 

Although different strategies can differ from nation to nation, and also inside them, the ultimate approach lies in actions around the food supply chain, the agricultural system, and the political economy that forms commerce, public policy and expenditure policies.

The study calls on governments to mainstream nutrition in their approaches to agriculture; work to cut cost-escalating factors in the production, storage, transport, distribution and marketing of food – including by reducing inefficiencies and food loss and waste; support local small-scale producers to grow and sell more nutritious foods, and secure their access to markets; prioritize children’s nutrition as the category in greatest need; foster behaviour change through education and communication; and embed nutrition in national social protection systems and investment strategies.

The heads of the five UN agencies behind the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World declare their commitment to support this momentous shift, ensuring that it unfolds “in a sustainable way, for people and the planet.”

Source: UNB