Hunger in The World

The world today

The world today is more complex and volatile than it was five years ago. At that time, governments had just adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), affirming their resolve to end poverty and hunger, reduce inequality, build peaceful societies, stimulate environmentally sustainable and inclusive economic growth, and protect human rights. Yet, despite all good intentions, progress has been limited and, in some ways, reversed with the compounding impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This puts global efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda in jeopardy.

HUNGER ON THE RISE

Chronic hunger has been on the rise since 2014. The situation deteriorated drastically in 2020, with up to 811 million people classified as chronically hungry. Across the countries an estimated 283 million people needed urgent food assistance in 2021.

A staggering 45 million were at emergency levels of acute hunger and more than half a million faced famine-like conditions. Furthermore, the global burden of malnutrition remained enormous, as almost 150 million children were stunted, nearly 50 million wasted and every other child in the world suffered from micronutrient deficiencies.

In terms of key drivers of hunger, the world has become more perilous since 2016 – and the outlook is sobering. The Global Peace Index has deteriorated in four of the last five years. Weather-related disasters have doubled since the early 1990s, reaching an average of 334 per year between 2000 and 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the global economy into turmoil, causing the most severe labour market disruptions the world has seen since the Great Depression – with the equivalent of 255 million full time jobs lost in 2020.

_{Source & credit: WFP}