The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has warned that the United Nations goal of ending hunger by 2030 is further and further away from it.
The organization painted a “dark picture” of global food security in 2021, even before the crisis in Ukraine began.
In a joint report with the International Fund for Development and Agriculture, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization, the organization indicated that “between 702 million and 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021,” or about 9.8 percent of the population. world population.
This is 46 million more than in 2020 and 150 million more than in 2019, two years that have been marred by the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic, which in turn exacerbated world hunger.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has stated that “the world is moving away from its goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030”, as the United Nations strives to achieve under the sustainable development goal of “completely eradicating hunger”.
It is expected that 670 million people will still suffer from hunger by the end of the decade (the figure is similar to 2015), when the international community set this goal.
If decisive action is not taken until then, “all our efforts will only delay the consequences of the serious crises that we are witnessing,” Gilbert Hongbo, head of the International Fund for Development and Agriculture, told Agence France-Presse. .
Five international organizations have expressed concern about “the increase in the main factors leading to food insecurity and malnutrition, namely conflicts, extreme weather events and economic shocks.”
The organizations concluded that “the question is not whether these problems will continue to arise”, but “how to take bolder measures to build resilience to future shocks” such as wars, supply chain disruptions and price spikes.
More broadly, 2.3 billion people were severely or moderately food insecure at some point in 2021, meaning they were unable or barely able to get enough food at certain times.
Source: AFP.