According to the latest United Nation(UN)report titled “State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2024: Financing to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms”, around 733 million people faced hunger in 2023, which is equivalent to 1 in 11 people (approx. 9%) globally and 1 in 5 in Africa.
- As per the report, India is home to 194.6 million (19.5 crore) undernourished people, which is the highest in any country in the world. The report mentioned that about 13% of the population of India suffers from chronic undernourishment.
- The theme of SOFI 2024 is “Financing to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition’’. This year theme draw attention to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)2 Zero Hunger.
About SOFI 2024:
i.This annual report was launched on the backdrop of the Group-20 (G-20) Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty Task force Ministerial held in Brazil, which cautioned that the world is falling significantly short of achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 i.e. Zero Hunger by 2030.
ii.This flagship report is part of the State of the World series of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
iii.The report has been prepared by departments of FAO such as: Agrifood Economics and Policy division and Statistics Division of the Economic and Social Development along with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
iv.The report noted that the world has been set back 15 years, with levels of undernourishment comparable to those in 2008-2009.
Key Findings:
i.The report noted that despite some progress made in certain areas such as: stunting and exclusive breastfeeding, but significant number of people continued to face food insecurity and malnutrition as global prevalence of undernourishment persisted at pre-COVID pandemic levels for the 3rd consecutive year.
ii.As per the report, between 713 million and 757 million people have faced hunger in 2023, which is nearly 152 million more than in 2019 when considering the midrange of 733 million.
iii.The report highlighted that access to adequate food remains elusive for billions. The report mentioned that around 2.33 billion people globally faced moderate to severe food insecurity in 2023, this number remain unchanged since the sharp upturn in 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Among those, more than 864 million people experienced severe food insecurity, going without food for an entire day or more at times.
iv.The new estimates of the report showed that over 1/3rd (or, 33%) of people in the world which is equivalent to about 2.8 billion people globally, could not afford a healthy diet in 2022.
- These disparities are more prevalent in Low-Income Countries (LICs), where the 71.5% of the population cannot afford a healthy diet, followed by Middle-Income Countries (MICs) (52.6%), Upper-Middle-Income Countries (UMICs) (21.5%) and 6.3% for High-Income Countries (HICs).
- While, regions like: Asia, Northern America and Europe saw a significant drop below pre-pandemic levels, while it increased substantially in Africa.
v.As per new estimates, adult obesity show a steady increase from 12.1%(2012) to 15.8% (2022). These projections indicate that the world will have over 1.2 billion obese adults by 2030.
- While, obesity has increased sharply, thinness and underweight have declined in the last 20 years.
Region-wise Trends:
i.According to the report, Africa region has witnessed continued increase in the percentage of population facing hunger (20.4%).
- While, Asian region remained stable (8.1%) and showed progress in Latin America (6.2%).
- Though, Africa was the region with largest percentage of the population facing hunger, but Asia region which is home to 384.5 million people, more or half of all those facing hunger in the world were Asian.
- Hunger has increased in Western Asia, the Caribbean, and most African sub-regions.
ii.As per the report, around 298 million people in Africa may have faced hunger in 2023, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean(41.0 million), Oceania (3.3 million).
- However, the report warned that if current trend continued then, about 582 million people will be chronically undernourished in 2030, and 50% of them in Africa.
Status of India:
i.The SOFI 2024 report highlighted that over half of Indians (55.6%) are still unable to afford a ‘healthy diet’. This proportion is the highest in South Asia. In terms of numbers, this translates into 79 crore people in India.
- India’s current proportion of people who are unable to afford a healthy diet is about 3% points better than in 2022.
ii.The report highlighted that the prevalence of wasting (low weight for one’s height) in children under 5 years is 18.7% in India, which is the highest in South Asia region and also prevalence of stunting (low height for one’s age) in children under 5 years is at 31.7%.
- Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in South Asia which have a higher portion of stunted children.
iii.According to the report, the prevalence of low birth weight in India is at 27.4%, which is highest in the world.
Note: Low birth weight means, if a baby weighs less than 2,500 grams (gm) at birth. It is an indicator of malnutrition among the pregnant women.
iv.As per the SOFI report, over half of the Indian women (53.0%) are anaemic, the highest in South Asia and also among the highest in the world.
v.The report found that about 2.8% of all children under 5 years are overweight and has increased from 2.2% in 2012.
- Among adults in India, the prevalence of obesity increased from 4.1% (in 2022) to 7.3%.
Key Challenges:
i.The report noted that significant progress has been made in increasing exclusive breastfeeding rates among infants to 48% but still, achieving global nutrition targets will be a challenge.
ii.Low-birth weight prevalence has stagnated at around 15% and there is decline of 22.3% in stunting among children under 5. But, still these fall short of achieving targets.
- Also, no significant improvement has been made to reduce the wasting among children while, anaemia in women aged between 15 to 49 years has increased from 28.5% in 2012 to 29.9% in 2019.
iii.The report outlined various factors which drives mainly insecurity, undernourishment, and hunger were: conflict, climate variability and extremes, economic slowdowns and downturns, combined with other factors such as: lack of access to healthy diets, and high and persistent inequality.
About Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO):
Director-General (DG)- Qu Dongyu
Headquarters- Rome, Italy
Established- 1945
