research on zero hunger

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• Published: 01 April 2024

Zero hunger: future challenges and the way forward towards the achievement of sustainable development goal 2

• Fabio Sporchia 1 , 2 ,
• Marta Antonelli 3 , 4 ,
• Alicia Aguilar-Martínez 5 ,
• Anna Bach-Faig 5 ,
• Dario Caro 1 ,
• Kyle F. Davis 6 ,
• Roberta Sonnino 7 &
• Alessandro Galli 4  

Sustainable Earth Reviews volume  7 , Article number:  10 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Since 2020, the progress towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2– Zero Hunger has faced a sudden stall due to an ongoing “polycrisis”. While some countries are on track, a great effort is still globally necessary to achieve the SDG2 targets. Here we provide a brief background about SDG2, including its synergies and trade-offs with other SDGs. We then identify and discuss the main challenges that the pathway towards zero hunger will have to tackle. The lack of a systemic approach, together with the complex, global, and nested dimensions of food systems are identified as key elements to be carefully considered when designing sustainability strategies. This means that a variety of stakeholders are called to simultaneously and cooperatively act on multiple fronts to ensure a safe, equal, and just progress of all countries and populations towards the achievement of SDG2.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2– Zero Hunger– consists of eight targets aiming to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” [ 1 ]. The first five targets (2.1–2.5) focus on food security, nutrition, and agricultural practices, while the last three focus on financial and market aspects to support the achievement of those targets (2.A-2.C).

As a result of major global events (e.g., the COVID-19 outbreak and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict), most of the global progress in achieving SDG2 has receded back to levels dating around 2015. Although improvements have been made in a few cases, most countries are off-track to meet the targets by 2030 [ 2 ]. For instance, the global trend in the prevalence of undernourishment (target 2.1.1) reverted to levels of 2009–2010 during 2020 [ 3 ], as a result of the various food systems shocks triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The levels of childhood stunting (target 2.2.1) stagnated after 2020, interrupting the previous positive trend. Similarly, the decreasing trend in wasting prevalence turned into stagnation, and the prevalence in overweight even slightly increased (target 2.2.2) [ 4 ]. Moreover, despite progress in public spending on agriculture, the recent polycrisis has resulted in high food and fertilizer prices, limiting the expected income gains for populations living off agriculture [ 2 ]. From a market perspective, substantial progress on meeting target 2.B.1, which aims to eradicate agricultural export subsidies, has been achieved [ 3 ]. Nevertheless, food price anomalies (indicator 2.C.1) are still quite diffused across countries.

The 17 SDGs and their relative targets are designed to be strongly interconnected which means that there may be trade-offs or synergies between them [ 5 , 6 ]. The presence of these interlinkages, together with the global dimension of food systems, explains the repercussions that global events had, have, and will continue to have on the achievement of SDG2 targets. For instance, although agricultural activities were exempted from the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions in the functioning and effectiveness of global food supply chains inevitably occurred during those years, with consequences on food security and nutrition [ 7 ]. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has exposed the sensitivity of global food systems, and food and nutrition security objectives, to geopolitical events, which impact countries regardless of their physical proximity to them [ 8 ]. Finally, climate change is also projected to hamper the achievement of SDG2 [ 9 ], and might have already done so. Some attribute to climate dynamics the increase in the percentage of undernourished people that occurred (after a period of positive trends between 2018 and 2019), when the absolute number of undernourished people in the world (since 2014) also increased [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Looking ahead, this situation will possibly continue to worsen, since the three recent drivers of disruption (major global health threats, geopolitical conflicts, and climate-induced environmental degradation) are themselves interconnected [ 13 ]. The cumulative effects of conflict, climate unpredictability and extreme weather events, have already produced resource degradation, economic hardship, and social and political instability, which have in turned exacerbated situations of chronic hunger, acute food insecurity, and malnutrition [ 14 ].

In sum, the challenges currently faced by the global food system are characterized by synergies, trade-offs, and feedback mechanisms [ 15 ]. Future challenges that will affect the achievement of SDG2 in the 7 years left to 2030 are likely to be complex. To engage with this complexity, in this debate paper we have adopted a systemic lens to the analysis of data collected through a review of recent literature and informal interviews with professionals with diverse food-related areas of expertise. Our analysis has identified four main challenges that– in our opinion– the pathway towards Zero Hunger will have to tackle.

Global causes, effects, and governance

Food systems will be severely affected by the consequences of the multiple global environmental impacts they continue to produce [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Climate crisis and shocks, in particular, will have direct negative consequences on food prices, food insecurity, and malnutrition through various direct and indirect pathways and feedback mechanisms. Indeed, the increasing climate unpredictability is altering planting patterns, amplifying the prevalence of pest and disease outbreaks, exacerbating the pressure on already scarce natural resources, and fostering local conflicts and migration patterns that detrimentally affect food security and nutrition [ 12 ]. The existence of Most Affected People and Areas (MAPAs) raises the need for a global recognition of the underlying past and present responsibilities and for a shared and active engagement with the drivers of both current and expected negative impacts. A global, target-oriented and evidence-based governance framework is urgently needed to avoid the persistence and worsening of the environmental, social, and economic injustice that continue to affect food security of populations across the globe [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. In this sense, it is remarkable that inter-governmental action is lagging behind the sub-national actions undertaken by local governments, stressing the unacceptable lack of willingness of national bodies to acknowledge the urgency of global action [ 22 , 23 ]. To address this gap, it is vital to reinforce the science-policy-society interface, ensuring that policies are backed by sustainability assessments that are multidisciplinary (encompassing environmental, social and economic domains), comprehensive (covering cradle-to-grave systems), integrated (focused on the whole diet instead of single foods) and with a special attention for nutritional and health aspects [ 23 ]. While there is a clear attention for the evaluation of policy readiness towards SDG2, existing assessments are fragmented across specific areas [ 24 , 25 ] and are oriented towards domestic policies. The lack of a global integrated assessment of the policy readiness towards SDG2 is a key gap, that will have to be filled out in the next few years. The urgency to acknowledge the relevance of food systems at the intergovernmental level, and the need to elevate its governance at the global scale were clearly stated in a letter addressed to the COP 28 (Conference of the Parties) and signed by 80 organizations and individuals Footnote 1 , which luckily resulted in the inclusion– for the first-time– of food-related actions in the final stocktaking decision text Footnote 2 . Only by thoroughly engaging with the global dimension of food systems it will be possible to design effective policies to sustainably accelerate the progress towards the achievement of SDG2.

Supply chains: inequality, power imbalances, and conflict

The global dimensions of food systems’ challenges raises the need for the adoption of a broad systemic approach that accounts for all components that connect food production with food security, nutrition, and human health. Developing frameworks that can reliably model and predict the place-based connections between food production and nutrition– and that account for such deep diversity and complexity– can be a monumental step towards achieving SDG2 [ 17 ].

Food consumption is generally linked to food production via supply chains, which can be short (e.g., subsistence-oriented), or, more often, long (e.g., global food trade) [ 26 ]. This imposes the urgent need to consider the whole supply chain when evaluating the sustainability of food systems [ 27 ], which should be transparent and explicitly highlight the role of international trade as a driver of negative environmental, social, or economic impact [ 28 ]. Through international trade, globalization ensures the availability of food items that would otherwise be only seasonally available. While this might meet consumer desires, the supply of off-season foods often comes with higher environmental and economic costs, which are mostly beared on regions that produce food for export [ 29 ]. The bridge between production and consumption (the missing middle) has already been identified as a critical entry point for policies oriented towards SDG2 [ 30 ].

However, the structure of global supply chains is often shaped by large (multinational) companies, which impose a monopoly dictated by the objective of maximizing their profit by taking advantage of the critical socio-economic situation of countries that have availability of natural resources, cheap labor, and relaxed regulation. This power imbalance, fueled by capitalism and globalization, risks to perpetuate existing inequalities, especially within supply chains of cash crops extensively demanded (though not supplied) by the Global North [ 29 ]. Pursuing profit means pursuing cheap primary inputs, such as labor and natural resources, which are often in the hands of a few powerful food system actors. The concentration of resources across the globe is often the cause of conflicts, which disrupt the environmental and socio-economic context of the regions involved, displacing small-scale family farms that, in many areas of the world, play a key role in terms of food security [ 31 , 32 ]. A key feature of the global capitalist food economy is the widespread tendency to disregard the real costs of food (i.e., the negative externalities associated with its production) in the market price. Such tendency has supported the diffusion of cheap, unhealthy, and ultra-processed foods, with negative socio-economic consequences even in wealthy countries [ 33 ]. Climatic and environmental policies are striving to incentivize the production of nutrient-dense crops that support a healthy diet. However, trade-offs are common and have the potential to seriously undermine the cost of healthy eating. The relative costs of nutrient-dense foods and foods with high energy density and low nutritional value could be significantly changed by internalizing those costs through pricing (such as carbon taxes or cap and trade systems); practically, however, financial measures are difficult to implement and may require global agreements [ 34 ].

Food production: farming practices, assessment methods, and data

Current farming practices and orientation are not sustainable. The use of more sustainable practices (such as organic farming) should be prioritized, and intensive farming (along with feed-food competition) should be restricted [ 35 ]. In terms of scope, SDG2 is mostly focused on cultivation, while livestock farming, pastoralism, fisheries and aquaculture are given marginal attention– also by other SDGs [ 36 ]. These food production activities urgently need attention given their multi-dimensional role as generators of resources (e.g., feed-food competition) but also as sources of income and nutrition (i.e., of food security). This implies, amongst other things, the implementation of a much larger effort in terms of data collection as well as the use of more robust methodologies. The latter should adopt a multi-scalar approach to complement on field-level surveys (the most common practice) with higher-level assessments that move beyond the mere consideration of the environmental burden [ 37 , 38 ].

Farming (including fishing and aquaculture) is the first step in the food supply chain. It is the activity most exposed to environmental disruptions, and the one that generates the greatest environmental impact– especially on climate dynamics. Farming practices matter not just in terms of how crops and livestock are produced and where. Detailed, item-specific and spatially disaggregated data on food production are often insufficient, outdated, and fragmented [ 39 ]. This severely constrains the ability of countries to quantify the current state of food production and prevents the implementation of evidence-based and targeted agricultural interventions that could improve food systems sustainability across multiple dimensions [ 40 , 41 ].

Place-based datasets would be a much-needed complement for the large variety of data collected on global food systems; their integration would indeed support the prioritization of actions on impactful leverage points associated with the use of agricultural inputs (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorous), as well as outputs (e.g., pollutant emissions). Finally, actions to measure, monitor and prevent food loss and waste are extremely valuable and need to deal with each stage of the supply chain: from product design (e.g., size and shelf life), processing (e.g., favoring less processed foods), and packaging (e.g., preferring materials that are easily up-cyclable), up to the provision to consumers of crystal clear instructions on the best food preservation practices.

Consumption: dietary patterns, shifts, and novel food

As the global population continues to increase, the need for sustainable production practices will become even more imperative. In quantitative terms, population growth translates into increased demand, which will not be met without changes in lifestyles and related dietary habits. These two key drivers are bound to clash with the shrinking resources of an overexploited, warming planet, where land and water availability continue to shrink– primarily due to unsustainable farming practices and climate change– and where rural out-migration is drastically decreasing the labor-force available in the fields [ 42 ]. A systemic approach to sustainable food systems must encompass strategies that address both demographic shifts and the multiple challenges posed by a changing climate and embracing the interconnected nature of the two phenomena. Dietary patterns are placing a substantial strain on natural resources and causing environmental burden that goes beyond the local boundaries [ 26 ]. More sustainable (and widely available) food alternatives (e.g., novel food such as edible insects, cultured meat, and algae, which have not yet been subjected to an adequate number of sustainability assessments) [ 43 , 44 ] are under-utilised, given the widespread tendency in the Global North to refrain from designing consumption-side solutions in favor of actions that rarely go beyond simple guidelines or recommendations. An interesting exemplary exception is the case of Denmark, which introduced the shift to a plant-based diet as an action not only to achieve climate goals, but also to generate socio-economic benefits [ 45 ]. This kind of effort confirms Kearney [ 46 ]’s hypothesis that in high-income countries– which have in the past transitioned towards heavy meat consumption– wealthier and highly educated residents (primarily located in urban areas) are shifting to diets reduced in fat and rich in fruits and vegetables. Conversely, low- and middle-income countries are abandoning a starchy low-fat diet with limited variety moving towards energy dense diets that are rich in sugar and fat and are based on the consumption of a higher variety of food items [ 46 , 47 ]– including animal-based (e.g., meat, fish and seafood) and sugar-rich products which place additional strain on land and water use and cause increased GHG emissions [ 46 , 47 , 48 ]. Policy makers should begin to engage with current food consumption issues, for instance by pushing towards the adoption of dietary patterns proven to be more sustainable, as proposed by the One Health approach [ 49 ]. At a bare minimum, action in this sense should be directed towards the promotion of local, seasonal, and more nutrient-rich foods (quality vs. quantity). This kind of actions are unlikely to have long-term effects unless they are coupled with a radical reform of the amount and quality of information provided to consumers (e.g., food marketing). A re-orientation of consumption patterns towards sustainability entails the designing of a standardized and comprehensive labeling system, providing nutritional information (i.e., about the quality of nutrients) alongside information on the environmental [ 50 ] and socio-economic costs of the whole supply chain. School meals could play a vital role in the dissemination of information about sustainable diets to young generations, while at the same time representing an important market for more sustainable food products (e.g., plant-based options).

Conclusions

Returning to the challenges identified above, we draw the following recommendations for the achievement of SDG2:

Global causes, effects and governance

Drawing on the conclusions reached at COP28, creating a global multi-scale governance framework is required to ensure collective surveillance, coordination and cooperation, with particular attention for the actors and areas that are, and will be, most vulnerable to climate shocks and related price shocks. This could be achieved– for instance– by strengthening the resources and scaling-up the remit and ambitions of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS).

Confining of strategic intervention at either the supply or the demand side of food chains is clearly not working. A comprehensive mapping of food supply chains is necessary and can be achieved through multidimensional life-cycle sustainability evaluations covering all dimensions of the food system, from production to consumption. The standardized mapping of environmental, social, and economic information, especially with regard to international supply chains, is also necessary to progress towards a more systemic approach to food issues.

National governments should push towards more sustainable farming practices (such as organic farming) while strengthening assessment and data collection methods that would support place-based interventions. This can prevent the proliferation of profit-driven (especially when export-oriented) practices that disregard food security and the conservation of natural resources in local communities. Waste and loss prevention should be prioritized, especially for long supply chains and packaged foods.

National governments must intervene on food consumption and move beyond the sole (ineffective) redaction of guidelines. An immediate strategy to contribute to shaping new and healthier dietary patterns could involve public procurement (e.g., targeted intervention on school meals). Even though it is difficult to set limits on the consumption of high impact (social and environmental) food items, a standardized, clear, and transparent labeling scheme should be implemented to stimulate more sustainable consumption patterns.

Overall, transversal remarks

The imposition of radical changes within food systems must ensure that the effort and consequent burdening is fairly shared among all actors involved. The required measures must be implemented gradually and all stakeholders within the most affected sectors (e.g., farmers, and especially livestock farmers) must be safeguarded by targeted social safety nets, such as temporary subsidies, while ensuring (or maintaining) fair wages and decent working conditions Footnote 3 . These important but still neglected issues should be placed on the agenda of global processes and organizations such as the CFS as well as incorporated in national roundtable discussions. More generally, it is time to turn emerging systemic initiatives, visions, and strategies into concrete and tangible policies. For instance, this is the case for the EU Farm-To-Fork Strategy Footnote 4 which still lacks a legislative framework (originally due by 2023). Similarly, there is an urgent need to put into practice the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 Footnote 5 through the designing of dedicated policies, which should be supported by an enabling legislative context– e.g., the not yet approved Nature Restoration Law Footnote 6 .

Effectively implementing the Zero Hunger ambition of SDG2 by 2030 urgently requires a combination of long-term, concerted efforts by multiple actors (e.g., producers, consumers and policy makers), which can trigger systemic behavioral changes at both individual and societal, collective level. The 2030 time horizon is not just a politically set deadline, but also the time-frame beyond which the destabilization of multiple Earth System processes might become irreversible [ 51 ].

Data availability

Not applicable.

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Abbreviations

Sustainable Development Goal

Most Affected People and Areas

Conference of the Parties

Committee on World Food Security

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Adrian Mueller (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL), Sara Moreno Pires (University of Aveiro), and Shauna Downs (The State University of New Jersey) for their remarkable suggestions that greatly improved the quality of this work. This paper and related research have been conducted during and with the support of the Italian national inter-university PhD course in Sustainable Development and Climate change.

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Ecodynamics Group, Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, University of Siena, Piazzetta Enzo Tiezzi 1, 53100, Siena, Italy

Fabio Sporchia & Dario Caro

Department of Science, Technology and Society, University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia, Pavia, Italy

Fabio Sporchia

Impacts on Agriculture, Forests and Ecosystem Services (IAFES), Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC), via Igino Garbini 51, 01100, Viterbo, Italy

Marta Antonelli

Global Footprint Network, Route de Jeunes, 9, 1227, Geneva, Switzerland

Marta Antonelli & Alessandro Galli

Foodlab Research Group (2021 SGR 01357), Faculty of Health Sciences, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Rambla del Poblenou, 156, 08018, Barcelona, Spain

Alicia Aguilar-Martínez & Anna Bach-Faig

Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences, University of Delaware, 19716, Newark, DE, United States of America

Kyle F. Davis

Centre for the Environment and Sustainability, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

Roberta Sonnino

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F.S., A.G., and M.A. contributed to the design of the work, F.S., A.G., M.A., K.D., A.B.F., A.A.M., and D.C., prepared the original draft, F.S., A.G., M.A., R.S., A.B.F., A.A.M., and D.C. revised and edited the manuscript.

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Sporchia, F., Antonelli, M., Aguilar-Martínez, A. et al. Zero hunger: future challenges and the way forward towards the achievement of sustainable development goal 2. Sustain Earth Reviews 7 , 10 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s42055-024-00078-7

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s42055-024-00078-7

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As more go hungry and malnutrition persists, achieving Zero Hunger by 2030 in doubt, UN report warns

Securing healthy diets for the billions who cannot afford them would save trillions in costs.

Rome – More people are going hungry, an annual study by the United Nations has found. Tens of millions have joined the ranks of the chronically undernourished over the past five years, and countries around the world continue to struggle with multiple forms of malnutrition.

The latest edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, published today, estimates that almost 690 million people went hungry in 2019 – up by 10 million from 2018, and by nearly 60 million in five years. High costs and low affordability also mean billions cannot eat healthily or nutritiously. The hungry are most numerous in Asia but expanding fastest in Africa. Across the planet, the report forecasts, the COVID-19 pandemic could tip over 130 million more people into chronic hunger by the end of 2020. (Flare-ups of acute hunger in the pandemic context may see this number escalate further at times.)

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World is the most authoritative global study tracking progress towards ending hunger and malnutrition. It is produced jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Writing in the foreword, the heads of the five agencies warn that “five years after the world committed to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, we are still off-track to achieve this objective by 2030".

The hunger numbers explained

In this edition, critical data updates for China and other populous countries ii  have led to a substantial cut in estimates of the global number of hungry people, to the current 690 million. Nevertheless, there has been no change in the trend. Revising the entire hunger series back to the year 2000 yields the same conclusion: after steadily diminishing for decades, chronic hunger slowly began to rise in 2014 and continues to do so.

Asia remains home to the greatest number of undernourished (381 million). Africa is second (250 million), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (48 million). The global prevalence of undernourishment – or overall percentage of hungry people – has changed little at 8.9 percent, but the absolute numbers have been rising since 2014. This means that over the last five years, hunger has grown in step with the global population.

This, in turn, hides great regional disparities: in percentage terms, Africa is the hardest hit region and becoming more so, with 19.1 percent of its people undernourished. This is more than double the  rate in Asia (8.3 percent) and in Latin America and the Caribbean (7.4 percent). On current trends, by  2030, Africa will be home to more than half of the world’s chronically hungry.

The pandemic’s toll

As progress in fighting hunger stalls, the COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying the vulnerabilities and  inadequacies of global food systems – understood as all the activities and processes affecting the  production, distribution and consumption of food. While it is too soon to assess the full impact of  the lockdowns and other containment measures, the report estimates that at a minimum, another  83 million people, and possibly as many as 132 million, may go hungry in 2020 as a result of the  economic recession triggered by COVID-19. iii The setback throws into further doubt the achievement  of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger).

Unhealthy diets, food insecurity and malnutrition

Overcoming hunger and malnutrition in all its forms (including undernutrition, micronutrient  deficiencies, overweight and obesity) is about more than securing enough food to survive: what  people eat – and especially what children eat – must also be nutritious. Yet a key obstacle is the  high cost of nutritious foods and the low affordability of healthy diets for vast numbers of families.

The report presents evidence that a healthy diet costs far more than US$ 1.90/day, the international  poverty threshold. It puts the price of even the least expensive healthy diet at five times the price of  filling stomachs with starch only. Nutrient-rich dairy, fruits, vegetables and protein-rich foods (plant  and animal-sourced) are the most expensive food groups globally.

The latest estimates are that a staggering 3 billion people or more cannot afford a healthy diet. In  sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, this is the case for 57 percent of the population – though no  region, including North America and Europe, is spared. Partly as a result, the race to end  malnutrition appears compromised. According to the report, in 2019, between a quarter and a third  of children under five (191 million) were stunted or wasted – too short or too thin. Another 38  million under-fives were overweight. Among adults, meanwhile, obesity has become a global  pandemic in its own right.

A call to action

The report argues that once sustainability considerations are factored in, a global switch to healthy  diets would help check the backslide into hunger while delivering enormous savings. It calculates  that such a shift would allow the health costs associated with unhealthy diets, estimated to reach  US$ 1.3 trillion a year in 2030, to be almost entirely offset; while the diet-related social cost of  greenhouse gas emissions, estimated at US$ 1.7 trillion, could be cut by up to three-quarters. iv   The report urges a transformation of food systems to reduce the cost of nutritious foods and  increase the affordability of healthy diets. While the specific solutions will differ from country to  country, and even within them, the overall answers lie with interventions along the entire food  supply chain, in the food environment, and in the political economy that shapes trade, public  expenditure and investment policies. The study calls on governments to mainstream nutrition in  their approaches to agriculture; work to cut cost-escalating factors in the production, storage,  transport, distribution and marketing of food – including by reducing inefficiencies and food loss and  waste; support local small-scale producers to grow and sell more nutritious foods, and secure their  access to markets; prioritize children’s nutrition as the category in greatest need; foster behaviour  change through education and communication; and embed nutrition in national social protection  systems and investment strategies.

The heads of the five UN agencies behind the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World  declare their commitment to support this momentous shift, ensuring that it unfolds “in a sustainable  way, for people and the planet.”

Media contacts for interview requests (several languages are covered):

FAO – Andre VORNIC, +39 345 870 6985, [email protected]

IFAD – Antonia PARADELA, +34 605 398 109, [email protected]

UNICEF – Sabrina SIDHU, +1 917 476 1537, [email protected]

WFP – Martin PENNER, +39 345 614 2074, [email protected]

WHO – Fadela CHAIB, +41 79 475 5556, [email protected]

----------------------------------------

i For FAO – Qu Dongyu, Director-General; for IFAD – Gilbert F. Houngbo, President; for UNICEF – Henrietta H.  Fore, Executive Director; for WFP – David Beasley, Executive Director; for WHO – Tedros Adhanom  Ghebreyesus, Director-General.

ii Updates to a key parameter, which measures inequality in food consumption within societies, have been  made for 13 countries whose combined population approaches 2.5 billion people: Bangladesh, China,  Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Sudan and Thailand. The  size of China’s population, in particular, has had the single largest impact on global numbers.

iii This range corresponds to the most recent expectations of a 4.9 to 10 percent drop in global GDP.

iv The report analyses the “hidden costs” of unhealthy diets and models options involving four alternative diets: flexitarian, pescatarian, vegetarian and vegan. It also acknowledges that some poorer countries’ carbon emissions may initially need to rise to allow them to reach nutrition targets. (The opposite is true of richer  countries.)

Media Contacts

Andre Vornic

Antonia Paradela

Sabrina Sidhu

Communication Specialist UNICEF

Martin Penner

Fadela Chaib

Communications Officer and Spokesperson WHO

Read the 2020 SOFI report

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ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

Sustainable development goal: zero hunger.

More than 800 million people around the world are hungry. The United Nations’s second Sustainable Development Goal, Zero Hunger, aims to end world hunger by 2030.

Conservation, Social Studies, Civics, Economics

Migrants in Italy

People displaced from their homes because of war and conflict—as some of the migrants shown here in Rome, Italy, likely are—often are vulnerable to hunger.

Photograph by Stefano Montesi/Corbis

In 2012, at the United Nations (UN) Conferences on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, world representatives created the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The purpose of creating SDGs was “to produce a set of universal goals that meet the urgent environmental, political and economic challenges facing our world,” according to the UN Development Programme. There are 17 SDGs that the UN hopes to meet by 2030, the second of which is Zero Hunger . Hunger is not caused by food shortage alone, but by a combination of natural, social, and political forces. Currently, natural resources that are necessary for human survival—like freshwater, the ocean, forests, soils, and more—are dwindling. Climate change is contributing to the degradation of precious resources, as severe weather events, like droughts, become more common and affect harvests, leading to less food for human consumption. Poverty and inequality are also two drivers of hunger, affecting who can buy food, as well as what kind of food, and how much, is available. Hunger is also a product of war and conflict. During periods of unrest, a country's economy and infrastructure can become severely damaged. This negatively affects civilian access to food by either driving up food prices, interfering with food production, or forcing people from their homes. Some governments and military groups have even used starvation as a war tactic, cutting off civilians from their food supply. In 2018, the UN declared this tactic a war crime . With these problems in mind, the world needs sustainable solutions to adequately feed each person on the planet. Right now, there are around 815 million people who are hungry. This number is only expected to increase as the years go on; the UN estimates that two billion more people will be undernourished by 2050. The Zero Hunger SDG focuses on finding sustainable solutions to stop world hunger. The goals of the Zero Hunger initiative are to end hunger and make sure that enough nutritious foods are available to people by 2030. Other aspects of the goal include ending all forms of malnutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture . One environmental scientist that is working to alleviate world hunger is Jennifer Anne Burney. She is a National Geographic Explorer and associate professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California at San Diego. Concentrating on ensuring food security for the world as well as limiting climate change, Burney designs and uses technologies to improve food and nutrition security.

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Food security and nutrition and sustainable agriculture

Related sdgs, end hunger, achieve food security and improve ....

Description

Publications.

As the world population continues to grow, much more effort and innovation will be urgently needed in order to sustainably increase agricultural production, improve the global supply chain, decrease food losses and waste, and ensure that all who are suffering from hunger and malnutrition have access to nutritious food. Many in the international community believe that it is possible to eradicate hunger within the next generation, and are working together to achieve this goal.

World leaders at the 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) reaffirmed the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger. The UN Secretary-General’s Zero Hunger Challenge launched at Rio+20 called on governments, civil society, faith communities, the private sector, and research institutions to unite to end hunger and eliminate the worst forms of malnutrition.

The Zero Hunger Challenge has since garnered widespread support from many member States and other entities. It calls for:

• Zero stunted children under the age of two
• 100% access to adequate food all year round
• All food systems are sustainable
• 100% increase in smallholder productivity and income
• Zero loss or waste of food

The Sustainable Development Goal to “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” (SDG2) recognizes the inter linkages among supporting sustainable agriculture, empowering small farmers, promoting gender equality, ending rural poverty, ensuring healthy lifestyles, tackling climate change, and other issues addressed within the set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Beyond adequate calories intake, proper nutrition has other dimensions that deserve attention, including micronutrient availability and healthy diets. Inadequate micronutrient intake of mothers and infants can have long-term developmental impacts. Unhealthy diets and lifestyles are closely linked to the growing incidence of non-communicable diseases in both developed and developing countries.

Adequate nutrition during the critical 1,000 days from beginning of pregnancy through a child’s second birthday merits a particular focus. The Scaling-Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement has made great progress since its creation five years ago in incorporating strategies that link nutrition to agriculture, clean water, sanitation, education, employment, social protection, health care and support for resilience.

Extreme poverty and hunger are predominantly rural, with smallholder farmers and their families making up a very significant proportion of the poor and hungry. Thus, eradicating poverty and hunger are integrally linked to boosting food production, agricultural productivity and rural incomes.

Agriculture systems worldwide must become more productive and less wasteful. Sustainable agricultural practices and food systems, including both production and consumption, must be pursued from a holistic and integrated perspective.

Land, healthy soils, water and plant genetic resources are key inputs into food production, and their growing scarcity in many parts of the world makes it imperative to use and manage them sustainably. Boosting yields on existing agricultural lands, including restoration of degraded lands, through sustainable agricultural practices would also relieve pressure to clear forests for agricultural production. Wise management of scarce water through improved irrigation and storage technologies, combined with development of new drought-resistant crop varieties, can contribute to sustaining drylands productivity.

Halting and reversing land degradation will also be critical to meeting future food needs. The Rio+20 outcome document calls for achieving a land-degradation-neutral world in the context of sustainable development. Given the current extent of land degradation globally, the potential benefits from land restoration for food security and for mitigating climate change are enormous. However, there is also recognition that scientific understanding of the drivers of desertification, land degradation and drought is still evolving.

There are many elements of traditional farmer knowledge that, enriched by the latest scientific knowledge, can support productive food systems through sound and sustainable soil, land, water, nutrient and pest management, and the more extensive use of organic fertilizers.

An increase in integrated decision-making processes at national and regional levels are needed to achieve synergies and adequately address trade-offs among agriculture, water, energy, land and climate change.

Given expected changes in temperatures, precipitation and pests associated with climate change, the global community is called upon to increase investment in research, development and demonstration of technologies to improve the sustainability of food systems everywhere. Building resilience of local food systems will be critical to averting large-scale future shortages and to ensuring food security and good nutrition for all.

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• January 2015 SDG 2 SDG2 focuses on ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture. In particular, its targets aims to: end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round by 2030 (2.1); end all forms of malnutrition by 2030, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons (2.2.); double,by 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment (2.3); ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality (2.4); by 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed (2.5); The alphabetical goals aim to: increase investment in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks , correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets as well as adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility.
• January 2014 Rome Decl. on Nutrition and Framework for Action The Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) took place at FAO Headquarters, in Rome in November 2014. The Conference resulted in the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and the Framework for Action, a political commitment document and a flexible policy framework, respectively, aimed at addressing the current major nutrition challenges and identifying priorities for enhanced international cooperation on nutrition.
• January 2012 Future We Want (Para 108-118) In Future We Want, Member States reaffirm their commitments regarding "the right of everyone to have access to safe, sufficient and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger". Member States also acknowledge that food security and nutrition has become a pressing global challenge. At Rio +20, the UN Secretary-General’s Zero Hunger Challenge was launched in order to call on governments, civil society, faith communities, the private sector, and research institutions to unite to end hunger and eliminate the worst forms of malnutrition.
• January 2009 UN SG HLTF on Food and Nutrition Security The UN SG HLTF on Food and Nutrition Security was established by the UN SG, Mr Ban Ki-moon in 2008 and since then has aimed at promoting a comprehensive and unified response of the international community to the challenge of achieving global food and nutrition security. It has also been responsible for building joint positions among its members around the five elements of the Zero Hunger Challenge.
• January 2002 Report World Food Summit +5 The World Food Summit +5 adopted a declaration, calling on the international community to fulfill the pledge, made at the original World Food Summit in 1996, to reduce the number of hungry people to about 400 million by 2015.
• January 2000 MDG 1 MDG 1 aims at eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. Its three targets respectively read: halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25 a day (1.A), achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people (1.B), halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger (1.C).
• January 1996 Rome Decl. on World Food Security The Summit aimed to reaffirm global commitment, at the highest political level, to eliminate hunger and malnutrition, and to achieve sustainable food security for all. Thank to its high visibility, the Summit contributed to raise further awareness on agriculture capacity, food insecurity and malnutrition among decision-makers in the public and private sectors, in the media and with the public at large. It also set the political, conceptual and technical blueprint for an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger at global level with the target of reducing by half the number of undernourished people by no later than the year 2015. The Rome Declaration defined seven commitments as main pillars for the achievement of sustainable food security for all whereas its Plan of Action identified the objectives and actions relevant for practical implementation of these seven commitments.
• January 1992 1st ICN The first International Conference on Nutrition (ICN) convened at the FAO's Headquarters in Rome to identify common strategies and methods to eradicate hunger and malnutrition. The conference was organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and was attended by delegations from 159 countries as well as the European Economic Community, 16 United Nations organizations, 11 intergovernmental organizations, and 144 non-governmental organizations.
• January 1986 Creation of AGROSTAT (now FAOSTAT) Since 1986, AGROSTAT, now known as FAOSTAT, has provided cross sectional data relating to food and agriculture as well as time-series for some 200 countries.
• January 1979 1st World Food Day World Food Day is celebrated each year on 16 October to commemorate the day on which FAO was founded in 1945. Established on the occasion of FAO Twentieth General Conference held in November 1979, the first World Food Day was celebrated in 1981 and was devoted to the theme "Food Comes First".

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• 14 January 2020

Imagine a world without hunger, then make it happen with systems thinking

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Limited land resources in Jakarta, Indonesia, mean that many residents grow crops on rooftops. Credit: Ari/Barcroft Media/Getty

“What would the world be if there were no hunger?” It’s a question that the late ecologist Donella Meadows would ask her students at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, back in the 1970s. They found it hard to answer, she later wrote , because imagining something that isn’t part of real life — and learning how to make it real — is a rare skill. It is taught to artists, writers and engineers, but much less often to scientists. Meadows set out to change that, and helped to create a global movement. The result — an approach known as systems thinking — is now seen as essential in meeting big global challenges such as the Sustainable Development Goals.

Systems thinking is crucial to achieving targets such as zero hunger and better nutrition because it requires considering the way in which food is produced, processed, delivered and consumed, and looking at how those things intersect with human health, the environment, economics and society. Doing this is genuinely difficult, but it’s not impossible if the barriers are known. Some of these obstacles — along with potential solutions — are explored this week in a series of articles in the first issue of Nature Food , one of three journals in the Nature Research portfolio (along with Nature Cancer and Nature Reviews Earth & Environment ) to launch this month.

According to systems thinking, changing the food system — or any other network — requires three things to happen. First, researchers need to identify all the players in that system; second, they must work out how they relate to each other; and third, they need to understand and quantify the impact of those relationships on each other and on those outside the system.

Take nutrition. In its latest report on global food security , the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says that the number of undernourished people in the world has been rising since 2015, despite great advances in nutrition science. For example, tracking of 150 biochemicals in food by the US Department of Agriculture and various databases has been important in revealing the relationships between calories, sugar, fat, vitamins and the occurrence of common diseases. But using machine learning and artificial intelligence, network scientist Albert László Barabási at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and his colleagues propose that human diets consist of at least 26,000 biochemicals — and that the vast majority are not known ( Nature Food 1 , 33–37; 2020 ). This shows that we have some way to travel before achieving the first objective of systems thinking — which, in this example, is to identify more components of the nutrition system.

Ecologist Donella Meadows was a pioneer of systems thinking. Credit: The Donella Meadows Project , Academy for Systems Change

A systems approach to creating change is also built on the assumption that everyone in the system has equal power and status — or agency, to use the academic term. But as health-equity researcher Sharon Friel at the Australian National University in Canberra and her colleagues show, the food system is not an equal one, and the power of world trade can override environmental and nutritional needs ( S. Friel et al. Nature Food 1 , 51–58; 2020 ). Countries need to pass relevant laws and regulations to meet global goals for nutrition and climate change. But this becomes difficult because the global trade rules set by the World Trade Organization (WTO) are legally binding on countries, whereas policies on climate change or nutrition are often not.

The need for a global counterweight to the WTO has led to calls for a World Environmental Organization (see, for example, go.nature.com/2th18yc ). Another way to redress such power imbalances is for more universities to do what Meadows did and teach students how to think using a systems approach.

A team of researchers has done just that, through the Interdisciplinary Food Systems Teaching and Learning programme ( J. Ingram et al . Nature Food 1 , 9–10; 2020 ). Students from disciplines including agriculture, ecology and economics learn together by drawing on their collective expertise in tackling real-world problems, such as how to reduce food waste. Since its launch in 2015, the programme has trained more than 1,500 students from 45 university departments.

More researchers, policymakers and representatives from the food industry must learn to look beyond their direct lines of responsibility and embrace a systems approach, as the editors of Nature Food advocate in their launch editorial . Meadows knew that visions alone don’t produce results, but concluded that “we’ll never produce results that we can’t envision”.

Nature 577 , 293-294 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00086-5

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Zero Hunger: End hunger, Achieve Food Security and Improved Nutrition, and Promote Sustainable Agriculture

Undernourishment declined globally from 19 percent to 11 percent in the past quarter century, while child stunting fell from 40 percent to 23 percent. But populations and food demand continue to grow, especially in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 requires faster downward trends. Goal 2 also addresses poverty and food insecurity through enhancing agricultural productivity and sustainability.

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Defining the Path to Zero Hunger in an Equitable World

The Center on Global Food and Agriculture provides a bold vision for a 21st Century of zero hunger in a healthier and more equitable world.

During the 2022 World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogues, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and The Rockefeller Foundation gathered experts and stakeholders from climate, agriculture, food security, and humanitarian backgrounds to discuss a bold vision for a 21st Century of zero hunger in a healthier and more equitable world. The white paper, “Defining the Path to Zero Hunger in an Equitable World,” reflects a summary of their views and offers a framework to reimagine a hunger-free world.

The quickened pace of extreme weather events, disruptions to agricultural markets from the war in Ukraine and other conflicts, and a fragile post-pandemic international economy rattled the global food chain. A culmination of these realities is complicating the dual imperative to both nourish the planet and preserve it from environmental threats. According to the 2022 IPCC report, without immediate changes, extreme weather will likely render large areas of crop and livestock land unsuitable by 2050, potentially pushing millions of people into food insecurity. 

The newly outlined white paper tackles some of the greatest obstacles facing the nexus of food security, climate, and humanitarian spaces, and ultimately voices hope for a better food future. It amplifies this message by providing an analysis of three major obstacles—silos, myopic priorities, and top-down decision-making—in conjunction with catalyzing ideas that address these challenges. 

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Unlocking the potential for achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 – ‘Zero Hunger’ – in Africa: targets, strategies, synergies and challenges

Prudence atukunda.

1 Department of Nutrition, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Wenche Barth Eide

Kristin r. kardel, per ole iversen.

2 Department of Haematology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

3 Division of Human Nutrition, Stellenbosch University, Tygerberg, South Africa

Ane C. Westerberg

4 Institute of Health Sciences, Kristiania University College, Oslo, Norway

5 Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 (‘Zero Hunger’) aims to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Thus, a range of different strategies are needed to facilitate the achievement of SDG 2 to overcome challenges and enable synergies between various SDG targets.

The aim of this review is to highlight Africa’s progress toward SDG 2, including targets, strategies, synergies and challenges.

We scrutinized published research articles in peer-reviewed journals, UN reports and in-country Africa reports (between 2015 and 2020) that were relevant to the current topic.

Several hunger indicators are showing slow progress or even deterioration in Africa. The prevalence of undernourishment in the general population was 19.1% in 2019 and is expected to increase to 25.7% by 2030. Improvements in child stunting in several regions in Africa are slow, especially in sub-Saharan Africa where about 34% of under-fives were stunted in 2012 and 31% in 2019. In Eastern Africa, stunting prevalence decreased from 38% in 2012 to 34% in 2019. Major drivers of hunger are poor governance and state fragility, war and conflicts, increasing inequality, weak economic development, climate change, biodegradation – and now lately the Covid 19 pandemic – factors that all increase food insecurity.

Africa is off track to reach SDG – ‘Zero Hunger’ – by 2030. Current efforts and progress are insufficient. Africa must champion the SDG agenda on a national, regional and global level to facilitate synergies to unlock the potential for reaching ‘Zero Hunger’ throughout the continent.

Popular scientific summary

• The UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 (‘Zero Hunger’) aims to end all forms of hunger by 2030.
• Africa is off track to reach this goal. Current efforts and progress are insufficient.
• Major drivers of hunger are war/conflicts, poor governance, inadequate health services, increasing inequality, weak economic development, climate change and biodegradation.
• Africa must champion the SDG agenda on all levels and facilitate synergies to unlock the potential for reaching ‘Zero Hunger’ throughout the continent.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were born at the United Nations (UN) Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 where the main objective was to produce a set of universal goals that met the urgent environmental, political, and economic challenges facing the world ( 1 ). Notably, 17 SDGs were to replace the eight UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ( Fig. 1 ). This marked the start of a renewed and collective global effort to tackle the indignity of poverty, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), as well as an acknowledgment of the need for the human species to adjust its living patterns within sustainable planetary boundaries. Thus, the SDGs represented a considerable advance from the MDGs, with a substantially broader agenda affecting all nations, requiring coordinated and sustainable global actions ( 2 ). The processes toward the 17 SDGs were led by the nations rather than steered by international agencies as was the case with the MDGs. The UN Member States themselves guided the whole SDG process, including leading discussions and the selection of goals, targets, and indicators ( 3 ).

An overview of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Modified from ( 65 , 66 ).

Within the wide thematic areas covered, the SDGs’ core focus is on the cross-cutting 5 Ps ( Fig. 2 ): People’s well-being; Planet with protection of the earth’s ecosystems; Prosperity with eradication of poverty and inequality; Peace, and international Partnerships ( 4 , 5 ).

The 5Ps (people’s well-being; planet with protection of the earth’s ecosystems; prosperity with eradication of poverty and inequality; peace, and international partnerships) of sustainable development. Modified from ( 4 , 5 ).

SDG 2 ‘Zero Hunger’ – targets and indicators

SDG 2 ‘Zero Hunger’ includes several targets to be achieved by 2030. To monitor the progress of these targets, several indicators are defined ( Table 1 ). The targets and indicators for SDG2 ‘Zero Hunger’ include nutrition, food production, agriculture, and food systems ( 6 ).

Sustainable Development Goal 2 (‘Zero Hunger’) – targets and indicators relevant for Africa

The current hunger situation in Africa

The prevalence of undernourishment is a ‘Zero Hunger’ indicator using in-country data to estimate dietary energy intakes relative to food availability based on national food balance sheets. Since 2015, the prevalence of undernourishment, which is defined as an estimate of the percentage of the population whose habitual food consumption is insufficient to provide the dietary energy levels required to maintain a normal active and healthy life, is gradually increasing ( 7 ). The majority of undernourished people in Africa is found in the sub-Saharan region, which shows an increase of about 32 million undernourished people since 2015 ( 8 ). Table 2 shows the prevalence of general population undernourishment in African regions for 2005–2019, with only Northern Africa showing a decline. It is discouraging for Africa that a rapid increase in the prevalence of undernourishment is projected from 19.1% in 2019 to 25.7% in 2030 ( 8 ). Notably, when measured using the food insecurity experience scale (FIES), the state of both moderate and severe food insecurity increased in Africa as a whole from 2014 to 2019 ( 8 ) ( Fig. 3 ). FIES is a self-reported questionnaire focusing on behaviors and experiences related to difficulties accessing food because of resource constraints.

Prevalence of population undernourishment in the world and in African regions

Food insecurity in Africa for the period 2014–2019. Modified from ( 8 ).

Stunting among children below 5 years is commonly used as a marker of chronic undernutrition and defined as height-for-age z-score more than two standard deviations (SD) below the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards median. Stunting is a result of insufficient nutrient and energy intake over a long period of time. There are large variations of stunting prevalence both between and within countries. In 2019, 144 million children under 5 years were affected by stunting worldwide, a 12% reduction relative to the baseline reference year for the global nutrition targets in 2012 (164 million) ( 9 , 10 ). In Africa, from 2000 to 2020, there has been a gradual decline in the number of stunted children below 5 years of age, from 38 to 29% ( 9 , 10 ). However, the prevalence is still high and even short of the set targets for both 2025 (about 16%) and may still not be achieved by 2030 set target of 11% ( 8 ). The biggest challenge remains in sub-Saharan Africa which is the only region with increasing prevalence of stunting ( 8 ). In line with this, the highest stunting prevalence in 2014 was found in East Africa (43%) according to the UN ( 9 ), whereas a recent analysis reported a stunting prevalence of 33% among under-fives children under 5 years ( 11 ). Notably, there were wide variations between countries in East Africa, ranging from 21.9% in Kenya to 53% in Burundi.

Wasting (weight-for-height z-score < –2 SD of the WHO Child Growth Standards median) among children under 5 years, which is a marker of acute malnutrition, is still way above the set global targets, that is, 6.4% in 2019, 5% in 2025 and 3% by 2030 ( 8 ). Currently, the prevalence of wasting for the African region is 6.4%, with only the Southern African region having a prevalence below 5% ( 9 , 10 ).

Strategies to combat hunger toward SDG 2 – a mixed African perspective

As to African strategies to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’, there is no one-type-fits–all approach. The continent offers widely different conditions for land-, water- and forest-based food production with regard to soil and rainfall. The level of technological development, besides economic, legal, and social assets of cultivators, varies among fisher folks, forest people, and nomadic groups to achieve food security.

Peace, governance, and institutions

The 2019 Global Report on Food Crisis indicated that conflict created food insecurity in the following African countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, the Lake Chad Basin, Somali, and the Central African Republic ( 12 , 13 ). Therefore, African countries must establish political and financial commitment to proposed SDGs actions backed by institutional reforms, strict implementation measures, as well as quality monitoring and evaluation of progress ( 14 ). In 2015, UN food agencies suggested that poverty and hunger eradication in all LMICs by 2030 would be possible ( 15 ). This would involve investments in social protection combined with public and private efforts to raise investment levels in productive sectors, especially among rural areas and particularly in agriculture ( 16 ).

Food systems and agriculture

Robust food systems and agriculture are crucial for food security. Agricultural diversification means growing individual food crops for consumption and where possible keeping a variety of animals for meat or milk and eggs ( 17 ). Climate Smart Agriculture is a strategy that includes development and promotion of innovations to adapt and create resilience to climate change and extreme weather events ( 18 ). This focuses on the use of high-yielding, drought-tolerant crop varieties, climate information services, agricultural insurance, agroforestry, water harvesting techniques, and integrated soil fertility management practices. Such climate smart agriculture will be especially important in West, Central East, and Southern African regions that are prone to challenging climatic conditions.

Africa must ensure that food production strategies are based on solid policy frameworks that safeguard food security to rural communities as well as sustainable production. Two dominant types of agricultural production systems stand in contrast to each other and may cause political tension. Simplified, the commercially based large-scale mono-crop intensified cultivation is geared to increase yields aimed primarily for the foreign markets, typically generated by multinational corporations. These often buy land and squeeze smallholder farmers out of production. On the other hand, various forms of locally based and diversified food production by small farmers have proven to be successful in both enabling healthy diets and often some income for the households, but may lose in the competition with large food-chain companies due to lack of appropriate markets. Over the last decade, the understanding of the potential of smallholder farming also with respect to yields comparable to high-tech commercial agriculture has increased. Agro-ecological farming, drawing on local environmental condition, traditionally successful farming methods, safeguarding of ecosystems and capturing carbon, has attracted renewed interest. Less use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides brings the best of traditional knowledge to the fore as well as new research aimed at improving food security to rural families ( 19 ).

Collaboration with UN specialized agencies, programs, and funds

African countries are collaborating with several UN development bodies to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’, including various activities explicitly aimed at ending hunger and achieving sustainable food systems in Africa ( 20 ). Some token examples are listed in Table 3 .

Examples of UN-based initiatives directed towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 in Africa

Also to be mentioned in this context is the recent (February 2021) adoption of the ‘UN Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition’ by the UN Committee on World Food Security. Here, experiences from and recommendations for ways to reach SDG 2 at an accelerated pace toward 2030 were negotiated. Alongside this more than 2 years long process, an initiative of the UN Secretary-General in 2019 for a UN Food Systems Summit in September 2021 is being planned in various ways, including through five separate ‘Action Tracks’ directed by experts in various fields together with interested states, civil society and private sector organizations, and with opportunities for wide engagement for those interested in proposing various ‘game-changing solutions’ toward achieving SDG2. Also, national dialogues in some 60 countries, both government-led and independent ones, will provide new information of the efforts of individual African states regarding what ought to be more coordinated efforts at national levels toward 2030.

The UN has been integrated into nationally led SDG implementation strategies to end hunger through the Zero Hunger Challenge. Each UN development agency is aligned with the 2030 Agenda in their programs and activities to deliver outcomes across a range of the agenda’s goals and targets to attain ‘Zero Hunger’ in Africa. They are committed to bring together governments, civil society, the private sector, and others for collective impact in the area of food security, nutrition, and sustainable food systems ( 21 ). This collective commitment focuses on a call to end hunger, eliminate all forms of malnutrition, and build inclusive and sustainable food systems within planetary safe operating limits.

Synergies among the SDGs to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’

An important recognition underlying the SDGs is that all the 17 goals are interrelated, in what is commonly known as a synergistic relationship. Thus, success in one goal affects the attainment of others, including SDG 2 ‘Zero Hunger’. For example, SDG 1 ‘No Poverty’ has impact on the ‘Zero Hunger’ target since being poor negatively impacts the capacity of individuals to access adequate food both in quality and in quantity ( 22 ). Synergy between SDG 3 ‘Good Health and Well-Being’ and SDG 2 is through the fact that good health is closely linked to nutrition, with good health relying on sufficient and adequate macro- and micronutrient intake. Furthermore, access to quality health care is necessary to prevent and treat diseases that may increase nutrient needs through increased catabolism and malabsorption. Furthermore, SDG 3 ‘Good Health and Well-being’ includes family planning and reproductive health that is important to ensure manageable family size, which is less prone to food insecurity and improved child nutritional status ( 23 ). SDG 4 on ‘Quality Education’ relies on the achievement of ‘Zero Hunger’ since food is needed to facilitate learning and cognitive development. In the long-term perspective, quality education and learning enable individuals and societies to develop. In many countries, school meals are an important source of daily nutrition and good health promotion ( 24 ). In fact, a quality education should include a curriculum involving food, nutrition, and agricultural food production, targets within SDG 2. SDG 5 ‘Gender Equality’ is important to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’ since women with access to income typically improve the children’s nutrition and health ( 22 ). SDG 6 ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ is a prerequisite for good health through avoidance of enteric infections. In fact, not having access to safe water impacts other parts of daily life activities, including nutrition. For example, lack of clean water for drinking and to prepare food increases the vulnerability to infections and sickness, which in turn affects nutritional status ( 25 ). SDG 8 ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’ is related to the ‘Zero Hunger’ target since countries with high rates of malnutrition and food insecurity may have a high loss of gross domestic product ( 26 ). SDG 13 ‘Climate Action’ is of major importance, especially to some of Africa’s most vulnerable societies, since climate change increases droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events, with detrimental effects on food production ( 27 ). SDG 14 ‘Life Below Water’ and SDG 15 ‘Life on Land’ relate to loss of biodiversity, acidification of the oceans, and soil degradation, which threaten the ability to produce food ( 22 ). SDG 16 ‘Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions’ is critical to ensure ‘Zero Hunger’ as instability, war, and bad governance are among the major contributors of food and nutritional insecurity. SDG 17 ‘Partnerships for the Goals’ pinpoints the necessity for strong global collaboration to achieve the goals, including SDG 2 ‘Zero Hunger’ ( 22 ).

Challenges to achieve SDG 2 in Africa

Several challenges are slowing down the progress to achieve the desired targets, which are discussed next.

State fragility

Conflicts, wars, and insurgencies have affected many African countries, resulting in several conflict events at one time or another, rendering many hungry and food insecure. For example, in 2017, the South-Sudan war caused 42% of its population to face severe food insecurity ( 28 , 29 ). Somalia, South Sudan, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, known for protracted crises, have very high child undernourishment and under-five mortality rates compared to stable nations in Africa ( 29 ).

Poor governance and corruption

In Africa, poor governance by far has hampered the progress of food security in many nations. Governance is a key priority action area to mitigate food insecurity in terms of building and enabling policies and regulatory frameworks to enhance increased coordination of agricultural, climate change, and food system policies ( 30 ). Due to poor governance, policy, and coordination of national agricultural policies, strategies, investment plans, and climate change instruments, including national adaptation programs, are lacking in many food insecure African countries ( 30 ).

Poor governance and corruption, specifically the lack of democracy in food and agriculture, widen the already yawning gap between the have and have-nots in many African countries. Thus, no initiative on food security will work in the absence of ethical public behavior because of corruption and poor governance culture ( 31 ). Increased reported corruption in the import and distribution of agricultural inputs by government agencies in African countries delays the end to hunger goals ( 31 ).

Climate change

Climate shocks, as evidenced by the increasingly more frequent occurrences of cyclones and droughts, have affected the most vulnerable populations in Africa through devastating effects on their food and nutrition security. The estimated numbers of droughts and floods have increased, respectively, from 89,256,000 and 5,583,000 between 1980 and 1989 to 158,509,000 and 23,332,000 between 2000 and 2009 ( 32 ). Regrettably, greenhouse gas emissions, attributed mostly to the industrialized Western World, are linked to adverse climate changes, causing food insecurity for the poorest people in the global south hardest, mostly in LMICs ( 16 ). Water shortages are the most concerning aspect of climate change in Africa. Already, in parts of the Sahel region such as Mali, desertification is reducing available croplands ( 8 ). Furthermore, climate change affects local biodiversity and may contribute to new invading alien species affecting local food production. This is currently a large problem with a locust invasion in Eastern Africa that threatens to eradicate crucial harvests from the local small-scale farmers ( 33 ). A predictive model on climate change including possible determinants projects a 20% increase in child malnutrition by 2050, and a 50% decrease in crop yields in many sub-Saharan countries ( 32 ). Unfortunately, this model mentions that by 2080s, arid and semi-arid land in Africa will have increased by 5–8%, leading to significant reduction in rain-fed land for cereal production. Thus, the success of the SDG 13 ‘Climate Action’ and the Paris Climate Accord (target of staying below 2°C warming) and the future temperature trajectory will be of major importance to food security on the African continent. Furthermore, increased competition for key resources, such as fertile land and clean water, contributes to provoking violence and armed conflicts, exacerbating the vicious circle of hunger and poverty and resulting in protracted crises.

Natural resource mismanagement

Mismanagement of natural resources, such as water, largely contributes to food insecurity and inefficacy of food production practices. African countries that have prioritized good practices and technologies utilizing efficiency in water use and management have promoted their food productivity gains, as evidenced by outcomes of research and development (R&D) investments. African countries that have made significant investments in agricultural R&D continue to reap food productivity and security gains for their population. For example, Namibia, largely a desert country, utilizes the available water resources to enhance food production by having a system of responsive and accountable governance ( 34 ).

The role of forests for food security, nutrition, and the challenge of forest mismanagement

In 2017, the High Level Panel of Experts of the UN Committee on World Food Security emphasised that sustainable forest management is important to maintain and enhance the economic, social, and environmental values of all types of forests ( 35 ). This is important in the strive toward ‘Zero Hunger’ since deforestation is a critical sustainable development challenge, as increasing food production to meet growing demand has strikingly reduced tropical forests. This is especially true in sub-Saharan Africa that continues to face serious food insecurity issues because smallholder farming is the main driver of forest reduction ( 36 ). During the period between 2001 and 2015, 92% loss of land area covered by forests in Africa was attributable to expansion of smallholder farming ( 37 ). For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon have reported increasing deforestation associated with high levels of poverty and food insecurity ( 38 ). Annually, about 13 million hectares of forests are lost due to deforestation, partly by agriculture, logging, mining, and infrastructure development. Deforestation is a significant factor in promoting climate change through increased emission of greenhouse gases, thus altering temperature and weather patterns globally ( 27 , 39 ).

Fisheries and aquaculture

Fisheries and aquaculture have often been arbitrarily separated from other parts of the food and agricultural systems in food security studies, debates, and policymaking. Small-scale fisheries in sub-Saharan Africa are threatened by overfishing, pollution, and competition for water which is a potential threat to their sustainability. The significant development of aquaculture raises many questions about its environmental impacts on land, water, and biodiversity, as well as sustainability, and has itself to face competition from other users of land ( 40 ). However, the demand for fish is growing due to a combination of factors such as population growth, urbanization, and increasing wealth and incomes. Aquaculture is one of the few food production sectors worldwide where growth in production is outpacing growth in population. Small-scale fisheries can give opportunities to the poorest, landless, food-insecure people and households, providing them a critical (and sometimes unique) source of income and livelihood. Intake of fish can help reduce the risks of malnutrition and of non-communicable diseases. Farmed fish contribute to improved nutritional status of households, directly through self-consumption, and indirectly through selling farmed fish to enhance household purchasing power. Notably, there is almost a consensus that women’s roles in aquaculture and fisheries are not fully recognized, often go unrecorded, are undervalued, and are largely invisible in national statistics ( 41 ). Thus, given the importance of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture in poverty alleviation, food security, and nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa, governments should make fish an integral component of inter-sectoral national food security and nutrition programs, with special emphasis on small-scale capture fisheries and fish farming or aquaculture projects. Stakeholders in these fish subsectors should support self-organized local professional organizations and cooperatives, as these strongly contribute to and foster the integration of small-scale operations into markets. State labour, finance, and policy formulation and implementation agencies, in collaboration with fisheries agencies, should improve national regulations for fish workers, including women workers in fish processing factories and markets, ensure that adequate and specific budget allocations are made for small-scale fisheries and aquaculture development, and facilitate the direct involvement of farmers and other stakeholders in the process of priority setting and choice of technology ( 41 ).

A food system for the first 6 months of life and beyond

As recommended by the WHO, infants should be given exclusively breastmilk for the first 6 months of life and if possible continue with breastfeeding for up to 2 years or beyond in combination with suitable complementary foods. The interactive food systems implied have numerous dimensions economically, socially, culturally and psychologically in relation to women’s lives and rights. While breastfeeding mothers are the primary actors to ensure an ideal and functioning food system in this case, they need support at many levels: near family, practice at delivery wards, community support, workplace allowances, legal protection, etc., to maintain the protective food system needed through these critical first 1,000 days of life. Any government must decide whether it will actively promote and strengthen this critical food system with regard to actively protecting and optimizing nutrient supply to its youngest citizens. The constant and often misleading advertisements of breastmilk substitutes for profit by large multinational companies must be met by strong legal regulations of such marketing and through systematic follow-up. Moreover, the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and subsequent biannual resolutions should be implemented in national legislations ( 42 ). The stakes are high, as ‘Zero Hunger’ not least demands action for the particularly vulnerable age bracket of 0–24 months. The issue should therefore no longer be dealt with by health systems and especially primary health care alone as is typical, but be treated alongside other food system challenges in their own right.

Conflicting global and national food policies

Global and national food policies affect food security in both rural and urban Africa. Despite food insecurity generally having been described as a rural issue, the effect of global and national policies on food insecurity is increasingly making it an urban challenge ( 43 ). Increased export-driven agriculture by big companies may cause small-scale farmers to sell their farm land and migrate to cities. Thus, the functioning of the food systems is an increasingly central issue for policymakers concerned with the future development of urban areas in Africa ( 44 ). ‘Super marketization’ refers to the fact that big supermarkets have taken over retail shops in many African countries. There are several concerns over the negative impacts of the ‘super marketization’ of food. They may provide cheaper food, and their contribution to dietary shifts escalates the ‘triple burden of malnutrition’ (the coexistence of overweight/obesity, undernutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies) ( 45 ). ‘The global supermarket’ is another term reflecting the dominant power of transnational food companies that often control whole food chains from production to retail level. Combined with frequent unethical marketing of ultra-processed unhealthy foods to children and youth, these companies play a role in the global ‘nutrition transition’ from traditional foods to mote-processed, energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods that contribute to increasing overweight/obesity also in many African countries.

Conflicting agricultural practices

Conflicting agricultural practices and policies have affected progress toward ‘Zero Hunger’ in Africa. The choice between organic and conventional agriculture may impact health. For example, biofertilizers in conventional farming containing heavy metals have shown an extremely long persistence in the soil environment, leading to metal accumulation ( 46 ). In addition, mechanized farms in sub-Saharan Africa may increase gender inequalities especially among rural women in some countries ( 47 ). This can be observed in terms of loss of employment for casual laborers, when low-income rural workers are being replaced by mechanization, which in turn threatens their food security and nutritional status. In Zimbabwe and Malawi, reports indicated negative effects of inadequate conservation agriculture (improved soil structure and soil erosion protection) to promote food security among farmers ( 48 ). Notably, the majority of rural smallholders are less likely to benefit from mechanization of agriculture. For example, small-scale traditional farmers cannot afford tractors even when they are highly subsidized, which leads to elite capture ( 31 ). A case example is Ghana, were it was found that distribution of government-imported tractors was not transparent and encouraged rent-seeking behavior ( 31 ). Sadly, the tractor imports were politically more attractive than investing in skills development ( 49 ). Tractors showed short-term effects and generated media attention, which was particularly valuable prior to elections just as in many other African countries ( 31 ).

Good agricultural practices, including the importance of food security initiatives in school curriculum, are desired, for example, through in situ soil application and utilization of organic waste materials via compost processing ( 50 ). This has been shown to enhance soil and plant productivity, increase soil water retention, sequester carbon, and decrease external synthetic fertilizer and chemical inputs. Such an educational model for organic waste-to-resource initiatives is positively associated with food production for long-term sustainability that is in alignment with SDG 2 ‘Zero Hunger’ ( 50 ).

Another conflicting food policy in Africa is the imbalance between agricultural extension/agricultural advisory services in the interest of large commercial producers versus those of family farmers. For example, a recent Ethiopian study identified gaps between digitalizing agricultural extension information services and stakeholders’ experiences ( 51 ).

Population growth

Population growth will greatly increase the amount of food needed to adequately feed Africa’s people. Despite a fall in fertility rates, the number of children per family in Africa is still much higher than the global average (2.4 children per woman in 2018), and the population is growing. For example, in sub-Saharan countries, the fertility rate has gone from 6.8 children per woman in the 1970s to 4.7 children in 2018 ( 52 ). Increasing population pressure in Africa (about 1.2 billion in 2018) has impacts on food security and has worsened land scarcity, land use intensification, and land degradation linked to food insecurity. This together with increased poverty is associated with a stronger tendency to use soil-mining practices, for example, removal of soil conservation structures to use fertile soils within the structures ( 53 ). Remarkably, land degradation in combination with population growth continuously leads to increasing food insecurity unless targeted policy interventions for improved food markets and agro-processing technology adoptions are introduced ( 53 ).

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is here singled out as a challenge of its own as it is so thoroughly worsening all the above challenges. This global pandemic has worsened the slow progress to ‘Zero Hunger’ in Africa. Furthermore, the pandemic has a considerable negative effect on the economic development in Africa. Indeed, lately several households in Africa, with low levels of educational attainment and high dependence on labor income, experience an enormous real income shock that has visibly jeopardized their food security ( 54 ). Informal food traders are an essential part of a wider food system going from input suppliers to farmers to the final eaters ( 55 ). By far, the ‘informal food sector’ in Africa is still the highest employer to the young African population and has been greatly disorganised by COVID-19 pandemic. This sector is made up of small-scale owner-operated enterprises (e.g. selling food of various kinds, including street traders, hawkers, street restaurants, etc.) that employs more people than the formal food and grocery sector or even other sectors ( 55 ).

Summary and future directions

Despite challenges, many African countries have made significant improvement in reducing stunting, wasting, and underweight among children < 5 years ( 56 ). African countries are striving towards ‘Zero Hunger’ by developing policies and involving several stakeholders. Notably, increased effort from the African nations, the African Union, and the international community is necessary to unlock the potential for ‘Zero Hunger’ on a long-term basis. This includes international partnership and collaboration on food systems, trade, health services, and climate change. Collaboration between African countries and several UN agencies and other development partners, as well as the African Union’s efforts to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’ in Africa, is important, but at risk of being insufficient. With only 9 years left to the 2030 SDGs target, all African countries should increase progress actions toward ‘Zero Hunger’ as well as champion the SDGs on the global stage, including the SDGs targets related to planetary health (climate, water, and land) where global efforts are crucial and to which the poorest people in the world are most vulnerable. African nations should continue and strengthen the research and development in sustainable and climate-resilient food and agricultural practices. Also, Africa must support the SDG agenda at the national and continental level to harness the synergies between the targets, including good governance, good health and well-being, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, as well as reduced inequalities.

Conflict of interest and funding

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest. PA and POI received funding from the Throne Holst Foundation and the Centre for Global Health at the University of Oslo’s Research ExceLlence and Innovation in Global HealTh (RELIGHT) program.

Hunger and Undernourishment

What are the consequences of undernourishment and how can we make progress against hunger and undernourishment?

By: Hannah Ritchie , Pablo Rosado and Max Roser

Having enough to eat is one of the fundamental basic human needs. Hunger – or, more formally, undernourishment – is defined as eating less than the energy required to maintain an active and healthy life.

The share of undernourished people is the leading indicator for food security and nutrition used by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The fight against hunger focuses on a sufficient energy intake – enough calories per person per day. But it is not the only factor that matters for a healthy diet. Sufficient protein, fats, and micronutrients are also essential, and we cover this in our topic page on micronutrient deficiencies .

Undernourishment in mothers and children is a leading risk factor for death and other poor health outcomes.

The UN has set a global target as part of the Sustainable Development Goals to “ end hunger by 2030 “. While the world has progressed in past decades, we are far from reaching this target.

On this page, you can find our data, visualizations, and writing on hunger and undernourishment. It looks at how many people are undernourished, where they are, and other metrics used to track food security.

Key insights on Hunger and Undernourishment

Almost one-in-ten people in the world do not get enough to eat.

Hunger – also known as undernourishment – is defined as not consuming enough calories to maintain a normal, active, healthy life.

The world has made much progress in reducing global hunger in recent decades — we will see this in the following key insight. But we are still far away from an end to hunger. Tragically, nearly one-in-ten people still do not get enough food to eat.

The share of the undernourished population is shown globally and by region in the chart.

You can see that rates of hunger are highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. South Asia has much higher rates than the Americas and East Asia. Rates in North America and Europe are below 2.5%. However, the FAO shows this as “2.5%” rather than the specific point estimate.

What you should know about this data

• Undernourishment is solely determined by the sufficiency of energy (calorie) intake. It does not consider the quality or diversity of someone’s diet.
• You can read more about this metric in our article What is undernourishment and how is it measured?

The world has made significant progress against hunger, but this has slowed

Rates of undernourishment fell quickly during the 20th and early 21st centuries.

The UN FAO estimated that one-in-three people in ‘developing countries’ suffered from hunger in 1970. Rates then plummeted, reaching 12% in 2015.

In the last few years, the FAO has adapted its methodology for estimating undernourishment and no longer updates this long-term series from the 1970s.

However, we can see from more recent data – shown in the previous key insight – that declines have slowed across most regions in the last decade.

Rates of undernourishment are much lower than they were in the past but are still far away from zero.

• The FAO maintained a constant definition of "developing countries" throughout the data series, with the following definition: "Includes all countries other than developed countries, namely: all countries in Africa except South Africa, all countries in Asia except Israel and Japan, all countries in Oceania except Australia and New Zealand, and all countries in North and Central America except Canada and USA, and all countries in South America."
• Figures for 1970 and 1980 are the average between two FAO estimates from annual "State of Food Insecurity in the World" reports in 2006 and 2010. Therefore, these estimates should be interpreted cautiously but have been included for a longer-term perspective on reduction trends.

Many children suffer from stunting or wasting due to poor nutrition

Hunger and malnutrition can present themselves in several ways. Poor health outcomes for mothers and children are essential ones.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and UN FAO measure two critical signs of malnutrition in children.

One is stunting . This is when a child is too short for their age. This indicates that a lack of food has hindered their growth and development.

Stunting is not just an issue during childhood. For some children, it has long-term consequences that can persist throughout their life, affecting physical and cognitive development.

The second is wasting . This is when a child’s weight is too low for their height.

Wasting is a sign that a child has experienced short periods of undernutrition, resulting in significant wastage of muscle and fat tissue. This means their weight is very low for their height.

Many children across the world are still malnourished. In the chart, you can see rates of stunting. In some countries, over one-third and up to one-half of children are stunted.

→ Read more about childhood stunting in our article What is childhood stunting? .

→ Read more about childhood wasting in our article What is childhood wasting? .

• ‘Stunting’ and ‘Wasting’ are key metrics used by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN FAO) to track child malnutrition.
• ‘Stunting’ is measured based on a child’s height relative to age. The WHO produces ‘Expected Healthy Growth Curves’ for child growth. If a child’s height is more than two standard deviations below the median height on this curve, they are defined as ‘stunted’. Read more about childhood stunting in our article What is childhood stunting?
• ‘Wasting’ is measured based on a child’s weight relative to height. The WHO produces ‘Expected Healthy Growth Curves’ for child growth. If a child’s height is more than two standard deviations below the median height on this curve, they are defined as ‘stunted’. The WHO produces ‘Expected Healthy Growth Curves’ for child growth. If a child’s weight relative to their height is more than two standard deviations below the median, they are defined as ‘wasted’. Read more about childhood wasting in our article What is childhood wasting?

Research & Writing

Definitions and concepts of hunger and malnutrition.

What is undernourishment and how is it measured?

Hannah Ritchie

What is childhood stunting?

What is childhood wasting?

What is food insecurity?

Other articles related to hunger.

Three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet

Yields vs. Land Use: How the Green Revolution enabled us to feed a growing population

Increasing agricultural productivity across Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most important problems this century

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Towards the sustainable development goal of zero hunger: what role do institutions play.

1. Introduction

2. literature review, 2.1. institutions, 2.2. relationship between institutions and the “zero hunger” goal, 2.3. analytical framework, 3. methodology, 3.2. model specification and methods of estimation, 3.2.1. principal component analysis, 3.2.2. simultaneous equation modeling, instrumental variables (iv) and the two-stage least squares (2sls) method, three-stage least squares (3sls) method, 3.2.3. pooled ordinary least squares, fixed effects, and random effects models, 4. results and discussion, 4.1. direct impact of institutions on sdg2 performance according to worldwide governance indicators, 4.2. direct impact of institutions on sdg2 performance according to political risk rating, 4.3. contrasting the direct impact of institutions on sdg2 in developing and developed countries, 4.4. indirect impact of institutions on sdg2 performance, 5. robustness check, 6. conclusions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Galabada, J.K. Towards the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger: What Role Do Institutions Play? Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 4598. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084598

Galabada JK. Towards the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger: What Role Do Institutions Play? Sustainability . 2022; 14(8):4598. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084598

Galabada, Jalini Kaushalya. 2022. "Towards the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger: What Role Do Institutions Play?" Sustainability 14, no. 8: 4598. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084598

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• Frontiers in Nutrition
• Nutritional Epidemiology
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Nutrition and Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger

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Building on the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the cornerstone of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, billed by the UN as “an agenda of unprecedented scope and significance.” These seventeen goals are conceived as integrated, ...

Keywords : Sustainable Development Goals, sustainability, nutrition, food, health, agriculture, diet, food system, food security, SDG, Zero Hunger, Hunger, Malnutrition

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PhD candidate Meike Reusken investigated how mathematics can enable food banks in the Netherlands to provide food assistance to even more people.

Zero Hunger Lab

The hunger problem in the world is huge. Today, according to the United Nations (UN 2024), as many as 783 million people regularly go to bed hungry. Every 10 seconds a child dies of hunger somewhere in our world. Tilburg University’s Zero Hunger Lab wants to use data science to contribute to realizing global food security. We call this bytes for bites.

Sustainable Development Goals

Globally, all countries have made agreements and laid them down in the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The second goal (SDG-2) is Zero Hunger. The five agreements made in this respect are:

• By 2030, safe, nutritious and sufficient food
• By 2030, end malnutrition
• By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small scale food producers
• By 2030, ensure sustainable food production
• By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed, and domesticated animals and their related wild species.

Bytes for Bites

Tilburg University’s Zero Hunger Lab wants to contribute to the attainment of these five agreements based on data science. Only by working together intelligently can we put an end to hunger in the world. We do this by advising aid organizations, companies, and government institutions through mathematics and smart algorithms: we call it Bytes for Bites.

Our mission is to make people independent from food aid and to ensure sustainable food security. We do this not only in Africa, Asia, or the Middle East but also in the Netherlands, where 150,000 people depend on the 170 Food Banks for their daily meal.

Achieving food security

We believe that, with a joint approach to food security problems, we will make more impact in the fight against hunger. Our food systems have to be fundamentally adapted over the next decade – of course in order to better help people in need when they are hit by war or natural disaster, but also to be able to provide more than 10 billion people with three healthy meals a day by 2050 within the planetary boundaries.

What have we already achieved?

thanks to our model OPTIMUS

the model in 80 countries

In achieving greater food security, we have to deal with an enormous complexity of factors. This also means that changes take time and, sometimes, results do not become concrete until after a number of years.

Featured project: The importance of analytics for food security

Zero Hunger Lab PhD candidate Koen Peters investigated how analytics can be used to improve food security, drawing from experiences of the World Food Programme (WFP) in the past decade.

Read more about this project or View more PhD research

Digital Dignity Initiative

Not everyone eligible for assistance from the Food Bank utilizes it. How can we ethically reach and encourage people to accept this help?

Improving Humanitarian Operations through Innovative Methods of Network Optimization

The Zero Hunger Lab investigates how humanitarian organizations can gather reliable information despite data scarcity and uncertainty.

The Influence of Nutrition on Brain Development

The Zero Poverty Lab and Zero Hunger Lab investigate the effects of poverty and malnutrition on the development of the (child's) brain.

Strong together

Research projects and knowledge-building are being planned or already implemented with many institutions such as:

• Aid & development organizations: World Food Programme, Solidaridad, Welthungerhilfe, Food Banks Netherlands, Oxfam, Dutch Relief Alliance, Dutch National Operational Team-Corona, World Bank, One-Acre Fund.

• Knowledge institutes: INSEAD Humanitarian Research Group, Wageningen University & Research, Dutch Coalition for Humanitarian Innovation, Center for Frugal Innovation Africa, KU Leuven, University of Liberia.

Check this out

More people benefit from food banks thanks to math

Three Analytics for a Better World Awards for Zero Hunger Lab Researchers

Using analytical methods for scarce and uncertain data of humanitarian organizations

Are more and more people relying on food banks?

Science podcast about livelihood security

Tilburg University and The Foodbank join forces to lower barriers to food aid

Veni grant for Thomas Breugem: the world’s unprecedented humanitarian needs call for more efficient aid

Zero Hunger Lab and Kickstart AI join in deploying AI to increase food security

Zero Hunger Lab and WCDI publish report on how data can help to foresee food crises

“You can’t think without food”

Virtual child growth monitor

“We can contribute more to a better world”

Three young do-gooders

ENHANCE: a data platform that informs and advises on food supplies and 'desired' food patterns

Playing with food

From oddity to household name

Zero Hunger Lab and World Food Programme win prestigious Franz Edelman Award

Data Morgana: Milestones of Data Science

Join in the help.

Reducing the world's great hunger problem requires not just more efficient and effective (emergency) food aid. On the contrary, it is also necessary to share knowledge, also from other disciplines such as behavioral, legal, or economic sciences. It is important to strengthen local capacity so that farmers, businesses, and communities themselves can ensure sustainable food security and become independent of support.

The solution to the food problem lies in cooperation. Help us achieve this solution.

Want to help us to make a change? Contact us!

Our stories

Read more in the special issue of New Scientist with stories from our researchers and our partners like World Food Programme, Food Banks Netherlands and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  It gives a 360 degree view of what we have achieved with our research and what we are aiming for in the medium and long term. 

Go to New Scientist online

Request your hard copy

Collaborate

Partners Zero Hunger Lab

We are looking for partners to make even more impact.

Donors Zero Hunger Lab

We invite you to support the Zero Hunger Lab.

Researchers Zero Hunger Lab

We are looking for passionate master's students or PhD's who want to work with us.

Perry Heijne

Hein Fleuren

[email protected]

Team Zero Hunger Lab

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Tilburg University Warandelaan 2 5037 AB Tilburg

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Contact Zero Hunger Lab

Are you interested in what contribution you can make or do you already know that you want to become our partner or colleague, please contact us! Hein Fleuren Co-founder Zero Hunger Lab

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