The number of people going hungry was an estimated 735 million in 2022, up from 122 million people since 2019. This roughly 20% increase is attributed to the COVID pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to a new report from the WHO The Guardian reports that the Food and Agriculture Organization and four other UN bodies met on Wednesday. The 2023 edition of the annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report tracks the variability over this three-year period, reporting that 7.9% of the world’s population experienced chronic hunger in 2019. In 2021, that figure was 9.3% and stood at 9.2%. The report notes that in 2022 “no progress has been made on food insecurity at the global level”.
A prominent paragraph from the report’s executive summary: “The economic recovery from the pandemic has helped contain rising famine, at least on a global scale. However, the positive effect could have been even greater were it not for the headwinds caused by the global impact of the war in Ukraine and rising prices for food, agricultural inputs and energy, as well as other causes of food insecurity such as conflict and weather-related events. ”
The report finds that hunger is not evenly distributed across the world: the proportion of the population suffering from hunger is almost 20% in Africa, compared to 8.5% in Asia, 6.5% in Latin America and the Caribbean and 7% in Oceania. According to current forecasts, the number of chronically undernourished people will reach almost 600 million in 2030. That’s about 119 million more people than it would have been without the pandemic and war in Ukraine, and underscores “the immense challenge of getting there.” [Sustainable Development Goal] The goal is to eliminate hunger.
“There are bright spots,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres when the report was released. “Some regions are on track to meet some of the 2030 nutrition targets. But overall, we need an intense and immediate global effort… we need to build resilience to the crises and shocks that are driving food insecurity — from conflict to climate.” Meanwhile, the AP reports growing concerns that Russia brokered the United Nations Agreement, which has been in effect since last summer and has enabled grain exports from Ukraine to developing countries that depend on it, will not be extended. The Black Sea Grain Initiative faces its fourth renewal Monday; In the last two extensions, Russia made similar threats before allowing two-month extensions. (Read more hunger stories.)