Thursday, July 25, 2024-United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has revealed that 733 million people faced hunger in 2023, which is equivalent to one in 11 people globally and one in five in Africa.
This is contained in a new report, the
State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) published on
Wednesday.
Hunger affected one out of every
eleven people in the world and one out of five in Africa, with the number
rising on that continent.
The report highlights that access to
adequate food remains elusive for billions with around 2.33 billion people
globally faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2023.
It adds that this number that has not
changed significantly since the sharp upturn in 2020, amid the Covid-19
pandemic.
David Laborde, the Food and
Agriculture Organization’s director of agri-food economics, says solving the
problem is a political choice, and also depends on “how much money we are ready
to put on the table”.
“Today we produce enough food on this
planet to feed everyone. So if we want to solve the position by 2030, it's
technically feasible,” he says.
The report predicts that if current
trends continue, about 582 million people will be “chronically undernourished
by 2030", half of them in Africa.
Laborde said chronic hunger was a
crisis impacting people not only right now because its impact would still be
felt in the future.
"Pregnant women, kids that face
malnutrition problem today, will pay the price all of their life. So by not
solving the problem today, we are basically impoverishing these countries in
the future,” he says.
The report says food insecurity and
malnutrition are worsening due to a combination of factors, including
persisting food price inflation that continues to erode economic gains for many
people in many countries.
And major drivers like conflict, climate
change, and economic downturns are becoming more frequent and severe.
These issues, along with underlying factors
such as unaffordable healthy diets, unhealthy food environments, and persistent
inequality, are now coinciding simultaneously, amplifying their individual
effects.
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal
of Zero Hunger, it says, requires a multi-faceted approach and targeted
interventions.
This includes transforming and
strengthening agrifood systems, addressing inequalities, and ensuring
affordable and accessible healthy diets for all.
The UN agencies are calling for increased
and more cost-effective financing, with a clear and standardised definition of
financing for food security and nutrition.
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