The United Nations recently released the 2022 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World. The report shows that the world is moving backwards in efforts to eliminate hunger and malnutrition.
Key Messages:
After remaining relatively unchanged since 2015, the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) jumped from 8.0 to 9.3 percent from 2019 to 2020 and rose at a slower pace in 2021 to 9.8 percent.
Between 702 and 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021 – 103 million more people between 2019 and 2020 and 46 million more in 2021, considering the middle of the projected range.
Projections are that nearly 670 million people will still be facing hunger in 2030 –8 percent of the world population, which is the same as in 2015 when the 2030 Agenda
was launched.
Around 2.3 billion people in the world were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021.
The gender gap in food insecurity – which had grown in 2020 under the shadow of the
COVID-19 pandemic – widened even further from 2020 to 2021. In 2021, 31.9 percent of women in the world were moderately or severely food insecure compared to 27.6 percent of men.
Globally in 2020, among children under five years of age, an estimated 149 million (22%) were stunted, 45 million (6.7 %) were wasted, and 39 million (5.7 %) were overweight. Progress was made towards 2030 targets on stunting, while childhood overweight was worsening.
Globally in 2019, nearly one in three women aged 15 to 49 years (571 million) were affected by anaemia, with no progress since 2012.
Adult obesity is on the rise in all regions, having increased worldwide from 11.8 percent in 2012 to 13.1 percent in 2016 – the last year for which data are available.
Almost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020 – 112 million more than in 2019. This was mainly driven by Asia, where 78 million more people were unable to afford a healthy diet, followed by Africa (25 million more people), while Latin America and the Caribbean and Northern America and Europe had 8 and 1 million more people, respectively. This reflects the inflation in consumer food prices stemming from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place to contain it.
Citation:
FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. 2022. In Brief to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022. Repurposing food and agricultural policies to make healthy diets more affordable. Rome, FAO.https://doi.org/10.4060/cc0640en
Useful Links:
Link to the related WHO news release:
Link to the UN Report:
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