Five United Nations (UN) agencies have just published a long report on “the state of food security and nutrition in the world”. For the first time in six years, hunger is no longer progressing. But the numbers are stabilizing at a very high level.
Nearly 735 million people suffered from chronic hunger last year. Almost one in ten. And if we include all those who have had to reduce the content of their plates, who have had to skip meals, then we arrive at almost 30% of the world’s population. The figures were published by the United Nations on Wednesday July 12.
Tea #SOFI2023 report estimates that:
around 735 million people suffer from hunger
over 122 million more people have been pushed into hunger since 2019
more than 3.1 billion people in the world cannot afford a healthy dietRead the full @A report https://t.co/9MLcci7QLw pic.twitter.com/dAYDpGS31i
— Food and Agriculture Organization (@FAO) July 12, 2023
The good news is that hunger is no longer progressing after six years of increases. Last year, nearly four million people came out of the “red zone”, it’s not nothing. The bad news is that these numbers remain very high, much higher than before the Covid pandemic.
A particularly serious situation in Africa
In Africa, hunger is on the rise. Nearly one in five Africans do not have enough to eat. The report provides context. So there was the Covid and when the world started to recover slowly, Russia invaded Ukraine. Increase in the prices of energy, fertilizers, wheat. “With speculation on the financial markets”recalls the NGO CCFD-Terre Solidaire.
And then there are the effects of climate change too. In the Horn of Africa, in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, the worst drought for almost forty years is raging: severe famine for 23 million people, according to the World Food Programme.
The UN is not optimistic for the future
The goal was to end world hunger in 2030, seven years from now, and that seems off track. “There is no doubtcan we read in this report, that threats such as conflicts, inequalities, climate impacts, economic slowdowns will continue”. Rapid urbanization poses questions. With the danger of seeing” pockets of abject poverty still form in the cities”. With inhabitants cut off from the earth’s resources, dependent on increasingly processed products that are expensive.
Moreover, this report makes a broader assessment of the number of people who could not afford a healthy and balanced diet in 2022. That is to say composed of legumes, whole grains, nuts, lots of fruits and vegetables , a “moderate amount of eggs, dairy products, poultry and fish” and a small amount of ” Red meat”. Three billion people cannot access this variety, with what that means in terms of growth retardation, malnutrition, deficiencies or obesity. We are nearly eight billion on Earth.