Nearly one in 10 people worldwide suffer from hunger, an increase of 150 million since the pandemic struck in 2020, and the numbers are sure to worsen, said the annual UN hunger report on Wednesday. “The global price spikes that we are seeing as a result of the crisis in Ukraine threaten to push countries around the world into famine,” said the leader of the World Food Program.
“The world is moving in the wrong direction,” said the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, contrasting the sharp increases of hunger in 2020 and 2021 with the global goal of ending hunger by 2030. As many as 828 million people around the world lacked enough food to lead a normal, active, and healthy life in 2021, said the report. Experts say an additional 19 million people could be pushed into hunger by the ripple effects on food supplies of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Despite hopes that the world would emerge more quickly from the crisis and food security would begin to recover from the pandemic in 2021, world hunger rose further in 2021, following a sharp upturn in 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the report. “Disparities in the impact of the pandemic and the recovery, together with the limited coverage and duration of the social protection measures, led to widening inequalities that have contributed to further setbacks in 2021 towards achievement of the Zero Hunger target by 2030.”
The Zero Hunger Challenge was launched in 2012 by Ban Ki-moon, then the UN Secretary-General, as the global hunger rate declined rapidly. It was roughly 8 percent in 2012, down from 12.3 percent in 2005. The hunger rate hovered at around 8 percent through 2019. It jumped to 9.3 percent in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, and then jumped again, in 2021, to 9.8 percent.
“These are depressing figures for humanity,” said Gilbert Houngbo, president of the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development. “The ripple effects of the global food crisis will most likely worsen the outcome again next year.”
Efforts to reduce hunger “are proving insufficient in the face of a more challenging and uncertain context,” said the report. It suggested that a “repurposing” of the average $630 billion a year that is spent on farm and food subsidies could make nutritious diets more affordable and available to everyone.
That would mean a massive realignment, since wealthy nations hold the purse strings for the most part and farm subsidies are targeted toward staple crops rather than the fruits and vegetables that are lacking in many diets. An estimated 3.1 billion people, or 40 percent of the world population, could not afford a healthy diet in 2020.
“The effects of inflation in consumer food prices stemming from the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures put in place to contain it have increased costs and worsened the unaffordability of a healthy diet around the world,” said the report.
“It is time to examine our food and agriculture policies, to better ensure healthy, nutritious food for all,” said Tim Prewitt of the Hunger Project. “Our global food systems feed billions, but we are also learning their weaknesses against the multiple economic, environmental, and social shocks over the past few years.”
Three in 10 of the people in the world, or 2.3 billion, were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021, meaning they lacked consistent access to food, or even ran out of food, due to lack of money or other resources. Roughly 32 percent of women and 28 percent of men experienced moderate or severe food insecurity.
Warfare, climate change, and economic shocks are the major factors in hunger and malnutrition.