Some 733 million people suffered from hunger last year, that is one person in 11,152 million more than in the pre-pandemic period (2019). This is the third consecutive year that the number is not decreasing, remaining “stu-bbornly unchanged,” this according to a report on The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Na-tions (FAO) and four other agencies. The document, presented in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – the country that holds the rotating presidency of the G20 this year – underscores the fact that the fight against hunger has suffered a 15-year setback.
Undernourishment levels are comparable to those of 2008-09 and the Sustainable De-velopment Goal of Zero Hunger appears un-achievable by 2030, despite some improve-ments in specific areas, like breastfeeding or stunted children. Instead, if current trends continue, 582 million people will be chronically undernourished by the end of the decade, 130 million more than in the pre-COVID-19 period. At the regional level, there are wide variations. In Asia, the percentage of people afflicted by food insecurity and malnutrition has stabilised at 8.1%. But hunger is still a huge problem for the region, home to more than half of the world’s hungry people, or 385 million people.
South Asia has the highest percentage, with 13.9% undernourished (almost 281 million), while in East Asia the figure is less than 2.5% and it is just over 6% in Southeast Asia. Food insecurity (defined as the situation in which an individual is without food for one or more consecutive days) also continues at record levels in South Asia, but the worst data come from Africa, where 58% of the population is in this condition. In South Asia, 2023 saw a drop to 41.1% (compared to 24.8% in the region), equal to 833.4 million people.
Only Central Asia has seen improvements over 2021, with 2.4 million fewer people suffering from severe or moderate food in-security, even though 16.6% of the population is still affected.
Compared to the past, hunger today affects men and women almost equally, the United Nations points out, thanks mainly to improve-ments in the conditions of women around the world. Asia, on the other hand, has the highest number in absolute terms, with over 1.65 billion people who cannot afford a healthy diet.