United Nations agencies reported on Wednesday that conflicts, economic instability, and climate change severely impeded efforts to reduce hunger last year, affecting about nine percent of the global population.
Experts highlight that persistent wars and extreme weather events significantly contribute to the worsening hunger crisis.
According to the agencies’ recent report, about 733 million people faced hunger in 2023. This figure has remained constant for three years after a significant rise following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hunger affected one in five people in Africa, compared to a global average of one in eleven. While Latin America and the Caribbean made some progress, Asia struggled to achieve the goal of eradicating undernutrition.
The broader aim of ensuring regular access to sufficient food for everyone also faltered during this period.
Moderate or severe food insecurity, forcing people to occasionally skip meals, impacted 2.33 billion people last year, nearly 29% of the global population.
The report, produced by five specialized UN agencies—the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO)—indicated that the world is still far from achieving the UN’s goal of ending hunger by 2030.
Current estimates suggest that an investment between $176 billion and $3.975 trillion is required to eradicate hunger by 2030.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva urged G20 countries to join the fight against global hunger ahead of a meeting of the group’s finance ministers in Rio de Janeiro.
The meeting is expected to feature challenging discussions on taxing billionaires. Scheduled for Thursday and Friday, the finance ministers’ meeting will be one of the last major stages before the G20 summit of heads of state and government on November 18-19, also in Rio.
Lula emphasized the necessity of a collective effort, stating that the fight against inequality, hunger, and poverty must be led by all willing countries. To this end, he launched the “Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty” on Wednesday. Lula has significant credibility in this area, as his social programs during his first two presidential terms from 2003 to 2010 lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty.
The “Alliance” aims to create shared financial resources to combat hunger and replicate successful local initiatives.
The scale of the challenge was underscored in a report on the state of hunger worldwide, published by the FAO.
