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Home » News » 733m people in Africa, others faced hunger in 2023 – FAO, IFAD,
WHO, others
News

July 24, 2024


733M PEOPLE IN AFRICA, OTHERS FACED HUNGER IN 2023 – FAO, IFAD, WHO, OTHERS

Layer 1


By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA- AS Nigerians go down through a severe hunger crisis, the United Nations,
UN, organisations including the Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO,
International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, World Health
Organization, WHO, World Food Programme, WFP, United Nations Children’s Fund,
UNICEF, Wednesday, reported that 73 million people in Africa, and other
continents of the world were faced with hunger in 2023.



According to a latest report jointly released by the five UN agencies, tagged
the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, SOFI, some progress in
specific areas such as stunting and exclusive breastfeeding, an alarming number
of people continue to face food insecurity and malnutrition as global hunger
levels have plateaued for three consecutive years, with between 713 and 757
million people undernourished in 2023—approximately 152 million more than in
2019 when considering the mid-range (733 million).


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Regional trends vary significantly: the percentage of the population facing
hunger continues to rise in Africa (20.4 percent), remains stable in Asia (8.1
percent)—though still representing a significant challenge as the region is home
to more than half of those facing hunger worldwide —and shows progress in Latin
America (6.2 percent). From 2022 to 2023, hunger increased in Western Asia, the
Caribbean, and most African subregions.

“If current trends continue, about 582 million people will be chronically
undernourished in 2030, half of them in Africa, warned the FAO, IFAD, UNICEF,
WFP, and WHO.

“This projection closely resembles the levels seen in 2015 when the Sustainable
Development Goals were adopted, marking a concerning stagnation in progress.”

According to the key findings beyond hunger as contained in the report, access
to adequate food remains elusive for billions of people. In 2023, around 2.33
billion people globally faced moderate or severe food insecurity, a number that
has not changed significantly since the sharp upturn in 2020, amid the COVID-19
pandemic. Among those, over 864 million people experienced severe food
insecurity, going without food for an entire day or more at times. This number
has remained stubbornly high since 2020 and while Latin America shows
improvement, broader challenges persist, especially in Africa where 58 percent
of the population is moderately or severely food insecure.

The lack of economic access to healthy diets also remains a critical issue,
affecting over one-third of the global population. With new food price data and
methodological improvements, the publication reveals that over 2.8 billion
people were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2022.

This disparity is most pronounced in low-income countries, where 71.5 percent of
the population cannot afford a healthy diet, compared to 6.3 percent in
high-income countries. Notably, the number dropped below pre-pandemic levels in
Asia and in Northern America and Europe, while it increased substantially in
Africa.

While progress has been made in increasing exclusive breastfeeding rates among
infants to 48%, achieving global nutrition targets will be a challenge. Low
birthweight prevalence has stagnated around 15%, and stunting among children
under five, while declining to 22.3%, still falls short of achieving targets.
Additionally, the prevalence of wasting among children has not seen significant
improvement while anaemia in women aged 15 to 49 years has increased.



Similarly, new estimates of adult obesity show a steady increase over the last
decade, from 12.1 percent (2012) to 15.8 percent (2022). Projections indicate
that by 2030, the world will have more than 1.2 billion obese adults. The double
burden of malnutrition – the co-existence of undernutrition together with
overweight and obesity – has also surged globally across all age groups.
Thinness and underweight have declined in the last two decades, while obesity
has risen sharply.

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These trends underscore the complex challenges of malnutrition in all its forms
and the urgent need for targeted interventions as the world is not on track to
reach any of the seven global nutrition targets by 2030, the five agencies
indicate.

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. 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.

The Director-General, FAO, QU Dongyu, said: “Transforming agrifood systems is
more critical than ever as we face the urgency of achieving the SDGs within six
short years. FAO remains committed to supporting countries in their efforts to
eradicate hunger and ensure food security for all.

“We will work together with all partners and with all approaches, including the
G20 Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, to accelerate the needed change.
Together, we must innovate and collaborate to build more efficient, inclusive,
resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems that can better withstand future
challenges for a better world.”



The President, IFAD, Alvaro Lario, said: “The fastest route out of hunger and
poverty is proven to be through investments in agriculture in rural areas. But
the global and financial landscape has become far more complex since the
Sustainable Development Goals were adopted in 2015. Ending hunger and
malnutrition demands that we invest more – and more smartly. We must bring new
money into the system from the private sector and recapture the pandemic-era
appetite for ambitious global financial reform that gets cheaper financing to
the countries who need it most.’’

The Executive Director, UNICEF, Catherine Russell, said: “Malnutrition affects a
child’s survival, physical growth, and brain development. Global child stunting
rates have dropped by one third, or 55 million, in the last two decades, showing
that investments in maternal and child nutrition pay off. Yet globally, one in
four children under the age of five suffers from undernutrition, which can lead
to long-term damage. We must urgently step-up financing to end child
malnutrition. The world can and must do it. It is not only a moral imperative
but also a sound investment in the future.”

The Executive Director, WFP, Cindy McCain said: “A future free from hunger is
possible if we can rally the resources and the political will needed to invest
in proven long-term solutions. I call on G20 leaders to follow Brazil’s example
and prioritize ambitious global action on hunger and poverty.

“We have the technologies and know-how to end food insecurity – but we urgently
need the funds to invest in them at scale. WFP is ready to step up our
collaboration with governments and partners to tackle the root causes of hunger,
strengthen social safety nets and support sustainable development so every
family can live in dignity.”

The Director-General, WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “The progress we
have made on reducing stunting and improving exclusive breastfeeding shows that
the challenges we face are not insurmountable. We must use those gains as
motivation to alleviate the suffering that millions of people around the world
endure every day from hunger, food insecurity, unhealthy diets and malnutrition.
The substantial investment required in healthy, safe and sustainably produced
food is far less than the costs to economies and societies if we do nothing.”



Meanwhile, the annual report, launched in 2024, in the context of the G20 Global
Alliance against Hunger and Poverty Task Force Ministerial Meeting in Brazil,
warns that the world is falling significantly short of achieving the Sustainable
Development Goal, SDG, 2, Zero Hunger, by 2030.

The report shows that, “The world has been set back 15 years, with levels of
undernourishment comparable to those in 2008-2009.”




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