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The latest State of Food Security and Nutrition report shows the world is moving backwards in efforts to eliminate hunger and malnutrition. Following is a news release jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Rome/New York, July 6 – The number of people affected by hunger globally rose to as many as 828 million in 2021, an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (1), according to a United Nations report that provides fresh evidence that the world is moving further away from its goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030.

The 2022 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report presents updates on the food security and nutrition situation around the world, including the latest estimates of the cost and affordability of a healthy diet. The report also looks at ways in which governments can repurpose their current support to agriculture to reduce the cost of healthy diets, mindful of the limited public resources available in many parts of the world.

The numbers paint a grim picture:

As many as 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021 – 46 million people more from a year earlier and 150 million more from 2019.

After remaining relatively unchanged since 2015, the proportion of people affected by hunger jumped in 2020 and continued to rise in 2021, to 9.8 percent of the world population. This compares with 8 percent in 2019 and 9.3 percent in 2020.

·      Around 2.3 billion people in the world (29.3 percent) were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021 – 350 million more compared to before the outbreak of the COVID‑19 pandemic. Nearly 924 million people (11.7 percent of the global population) faced food insecurity at severe levels, an increase of 207 million in two years.

·      The gender gap in food insecurity continued to rise in 2021 – 31.9 percent of women in the world were moderately or severely food insecure, compared to 27.6 percent of men – a gap of more than 4 percentage points, compared with 3 percentage points in 2020.

·      Almost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, up 112 million from 2019, reflecting the effects of inflation in consumer food prices stemming from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place to contain it.

An estimated 45 million children under the age of five were suffering from wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition, which increases children’s risk of death by up to 12 times. Furthermore, 149 million children under the age of five had stunted growth and development due to a chronic lack of essential nutrients in their diets, while 39 million were overweight.

Progress is being made on exclusive breastfeeding, with nearly 44 percent of infants under six months of age being exclusively breastfed worldwide in 2020. This is still short of the 50 percent target by 2030. Of great concern, two in three children are not fed the minimum diverse diet they need to grow and develop to their full potential.

Looking forward, projections are that nearly 670 million people (8 percent of the world population) will still be facing hunger in 2030 – even if a global economic recovery is taken into consideration. This is a similar number to 2015, when the goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition by the end of this decade was launched under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

As this report is being published, the ongoing war in Ukraine, involving two of the biggest global producers of staple cereals, oilseeds and fertilizer, is disrupting international supply chains and pushing up the prices of grain, fertilizer, energy, as well as ready-to-use therapeutic food for children with severe malnutrition. This comes as supply chains are already being adversely affected by increasingly frequent extreme climate events, especially in low-income countries, and has potentially sobering implications for global food security and nutrition.

“This report repeatedly highlights the intensification of these major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition: conflict, climate extremes and economic shocks, combined with growing inequalities,” the heads of the five UN agencies (2) wrote in this year’s Foreword. “The issue at stake is not whether adversities will continue to occur or not, but how we must take bolder action to build resilience against future shocks.”

Repurposing agricultural policies

The report notes as striking that worldwide support for the food and agricultural sector averaged almost USD 630 billion a year between 2013 and 2018. The lion share of it goes to individual farmers, through trade and market policies and fiscal subsidies. However, not only is much of this support market-distorting, but it is not reaching many farmers, hurts the environment and does not promote the production of nutritious foods that make up a healthy diet. That’s in part because subsidies often target the production of staple foods, dairy and other animal source foods, especially in high- and upper-middle-income countries. Rice, sugar and meats of various types are most incentivized food items worldwide, while fruits and vegetables are relatively less supported, particularly in some low-income countries.

With the threats of a global recession looming, and the implications this has on public revenues and expenditures, a way to support economic recovery involves the repurposing of food and agricultural support to target nutritious foods where per capita consumption does not yet match the recommended levels for healthy diets.

The evidence suggests that if governments repurpose the resources they are using to incentivize the production, supply and consumption of nutritious foods, they will contribute to making healthy diets less costly, more affordable and equitably for all.

Finally, the report also points out that governments could do more to reduce trade barriers for nutritious foods, such as fruits, vegetables and pulses.

(1) It is estimated that between 702 and 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021. The estimate is presented as a range to reflect the added uncertainty in data collection due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions. The increases are measured with reference to the middle of the projected range (768 million).

(2) For FAO – QU Dongyu, Director-General; for IFAD – Gilbert F. Houngbo, President; for UNICEF – Catherine Russell, Executive Director; for WFP – David Beasley, Executive Director; for WHO – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General.

What they said:

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu: “Low-income countries, where agriculture is key to the economy, jobs and rural livelihoods, have little public resources to repurpose. FAO is committed to continue working together with these countries to explore opportunities for increasing the provision of public services for all actors across agrifood systems.”

IFAD President Gilbert F. Houngbo: “These are depressing figures for humanity. We continue to move away from our goal of ending hunger by 2030. The ripple effects of the global food crisis will most likely worsen the outcome again next year. We need a more intense approach to end hunger and IFAD stands ready to do its part by scaling up its operations and impact. We look forward to having everyone’s support.”

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell: “The unprecedented scale of the malnutrition crisis demands an unprecedented response. We must double our efforts to ensure that the most vulnerable children have access to nutritious, safe, and affordable diets — and services for the early prevention, detection and treatment of malnutrition. With so many children’s lives and futures at stake, this is the time to step up our ambition for child nutrition – and we have no time to waste.”

WFP Executive Director David Beasley: “There is a real danger these numbers will climb even higher in the months ahead. The global price spikes in food, fuel and fertilizers that we are seeing as a result of the crisis in Ukraine threaten to push countries around the world into famine. The result will be global destabilization, starvation, and mass migration on an unprecedented scale. We have to act today to avert this looming catastrophe.”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “Every year, 11 million people die due to unhealthy diets. Rising food prices mean this will only get worse.  WHO supports countries’ efforts to improve food systems through taxing unhealthy foods and subsidising healthy options, protecting children from harmful marketing, and ensuring clear nutrition labels. We must work together to achieve the 2030 global nutrition targets, to fight hunger and malnutrition, and to ensure that food is a source of health for all.”

GLOSSARY

—Acute food insecurity: food insecurity found in a specified area at a specific point in time and of a severity that threatens lives or livelihoods, or both, regardless of the causes, context or duration. Has relevance in providing strategic guidance to actions that focus on short-term objectives to prevent, mitigate or decrease severe food insecurity.

—Hunger: an uncomfortable or painful sensation caused by insufficient energy from diet. Food deprivation. In this report, the term hunger is synonymous with chronic undernourishment and is measured by the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU).

–Malnutrition: an abnormal physiological condition caused by inadequate, unbalanced or excessive intake of macronutrients and/or micronutrients. Malnutrition includes undernutrition (child stunting and wasting, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies) as well as overweight and obesity.

–Moderate food insecurity: a level of severity of food insecurity at which people face uncertainties about their ability to obtain food and have been forced to reduce, at times during the year, the quality and/or quantity of food they consume due to lack of money or other resources. It refers to a lack of consistent access to food, which diminishes dietary quality and disrupts normal eating patterns. Measured based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale.

–Severe food insecurity: a level of severity of food insecurity at which, at some time during the year, people have run out of food, experienced hunger and at the most extreme, gone without food for a day or more. Measured based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale.

–Undernourishment: a condition in which an individual’s habitual food consumption is insufficient to provide the amount of dietary energy required to maintain a normal, active, healthy life. The prevalence of undernourishment is used to measure hunger (SDG indicator 2.1.1).
Contacts:

FAO

Nicholas Rigillo, Communication Officer, nicholas.rigillo@fao.org

WHO

Jin Ni, Communications Officer,

+41 (0)79 791 9098,

jinn@who.int

UNICEF

Helen Wylie, Communication Specialist

+1 917 244 2215

hwylie@unicef.org

IFAD

Alberto Trillo Barca, Communication Officer

a.trillobarca@ifad.org
+39 366 576 3706

WFP

Isheeta Sumra, Communications Officer

isheeta.sumra@wfp.org

+39 347 181 4398

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New York, June 30 – The UN General Assembly has adopted a political declaration committing member states to set up policies that will halve the annual number of 1.3 million people killed and 50 million who suffered critical injuries in road traffic accidents by 2030.

The UN said road traffic accidents have become a major mortality cause for people aged 5 to 29 and developing countries are losing 2 to 5 per cent of GDP every year to those accidents.

The 193-nation assembly adopted by consensus the declaration following a high-level debate on global road safety, calling on countries worldwide to set up “national targets to reduce fatalities and serious injuries for all road users with special attention given to the safety needs of those road users who are the most vulnerable to road-related crashes.”

Abdulla Shahid, President of the 76th assembly session, said the global plan is “key to reducing deaths and boosting development” and it makes “the best use of our investments in safe transport systems, and aims to halve preventable deaths by 2030.”

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in an address to the assembly that road fatalities are “closely linked to poor infrastructure, unplanned urbanization, lax social protection and health care systems, limited road safety literacy, and persistent inequalities both within and between countries. At the same time, unsafe roads are a key obstacle to development.”

“Traffic accidents can push entire families into poverty through either the loss of a breadwinner or the costs associated with lost income and prolonged medical care.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) called the political declaration a milestone in efforts to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries.

“Road safety affects everyone. We step from our homes every day onto roads that take us to our jobs, schools and to meet our vital daily needs. Yet our transport systems remain far too dangerous. No death should be acceptable on our roads. The future of mobility should promote health and well-being, protect the environment and benefit all,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “It will require transformative leadership from the highest levels of government to act on the Political Declaration to make that vision a reality.”

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Schloss Elmau, Germany/New York, June 24 – Despite the Ukraine war, an effective solution to the current world’s food crisis requires the reintegration into world markets of food produced by Ukraine as well as Russia’s food and fertilizers, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a summit meeting of the world’s most industrialized nations (G7) in Germany.

Guterres said he has been in “intense contact” with governments in Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the United States, the European Union and other countries to reopen Black Sea ports so wheat produced in Ukraine and Russia, and Russian fertilizers, can be shipped to countries that need those products.

“This is not just a food crisis,” Guterres said in a video link to the G7 summit The Uniting For Global Food Security Conference.“It goes beyond food and requires a coordinated multilateral approach, with multi-dimensional solutions.”

The G7 is composed of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada.

Guterres said hundreds of millions of people on the poverty line have been crushed by the crisis as a result of the pandemic, climate change and Russia’s war in Ukraine and warned of a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022 and “2023 could be even worse.”

“Developed countries and international financial institutions need to make resources available to help governments support and invest in their people, leaving no one behind,” he said. “Developing countries that face debt default must have access to effective debt relief to keep their economies afloat and their people thriving. Financial institutions must find the flexibility and understanding to get resources where they are needed most.”

US supports UN-led efforts in Ukraine

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told the summit that more countries should step up with new substantial contributions to meet urgent humanitarian needs. 

“The work of critical organizations like the World Food Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization – their cost of doing business has gone up dramatically.  We need to help them fill some of these gaps,”  Blinken said.

He said since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 this year the United States has committed nearly $2.8 billion in emergency food assistance, including increasing our aid to countries and regions that were the hardest hit – in the Horn of Africa, Yemen, Lebanon, Haiti. 

“We have $5.5 billion in new funding for global food security and humanitarian assistance approved last month by the United States Congress,” Blinken said.  “We’ll be able to do even more in the weeks and months ahead, and you can expect further announcements of our additional support soon, including from the President at the G7 meeting.”

“We have to accelerate efforts led by the United Nations to end Russia’s blocking of Ukrainian food exports through the Black Sea,” he said.

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New York, June 23 – The group of seven most industrialized countries in the world has been asked to take swift and decisive action to avert a global food and nutrition crisis as severe floodings and heatwaves, the pandemic and Russia’s destructive war in Ukraine are worsening living conditions for millions of people.

A coalition of organizations and individuals, #HungryForAction #GoodFood4AllNOW, has sent an open letter to G7, which is composed of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada, demanding that it must act now to prevent a global food crisis and secure a sustainable future for people and the planet.

The coalition said the open letter has been coordinated by the UN’s SDG2 Advocacy Hub, which brings together NGOs, agricultural networks, nutritionists, campaigners, civil society, the private sector and UN agencies to co-ordinate advocacy efforts and achieve Good Food For All by 2030.

 For more information: https://sdg2advocacyhub.org/actions/urgent-action-needed-prevent-global-food-nutrition

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Co-chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, said: “Low and lower-middle-income countries’ resources, especially in Africa, are being depleted by crisis upon crisis. We need swift and decisive leadership to tackle their increasing vulnerability to climate shocks and to invest in agricultural adaptation. G7 leaders must act now to help smallholder farmers become climate-resilient, build sustainable food systems, and fund a secure future for people, planet and prosperity.”

Catherine Bertini, Executive Director (1992-2002) of the UN’s World Food Program and 2003 World Food Prize Laureate, said: “The worsening of the global hunger and malnutrition crisis is not inevitable. It can be averted with swift, decisive and visionary leadership. My expectation is that the G7 leaders will act with urgency to address the cost of living crisis, strengthen global food systems and finance safety nets for the most vulnerable

Open letter

G7 must act now to prevent a global food & nutrition crisis and secure a sustainable future for people and the planet

Without action, hundreds of millions will be pushed into poverty and are at risk of being malnourished. But a global hunger and malnutrition crisis is not inevitable. It can be averted with swift, decisive and visionary leadership. In tackling today’s emergency, we must also reduce the likelihood of future crises, making food systems more resilient by investing in a safe climate and healthy natural systems and resources, upon which future food security depends. The G7 must act with urgency on immediate, near- and long-term solutions that save lives and prevent future crises.

Save Lives Now: 276 million people face acute food insecurity. COVID-19 could result in 13.6 million more children wasted by 2022, up 30 percent compared to three years ago. The G7 should mount an urgent response to the humanitarian crisis including investing in social protection interventions to prevent vulnerable households from being pushed further into extreme poverty.

 This response should include:

1. Support WFP’s $21.5 billion requirement to reach 147 million people in 2022, which includes $1.6 billion to provide additional services to 30 million of the most vulnerable children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in need of malnutrition prevention and treatment services, and the UN’s $4.4 billion appeal for the Horn of Africa.

2. Provide an immediate package of support to relevant UN agencies and civil society actors so they can scale-up essential nutrition services in countries with the highest burden of malnutrition, including lifesaving nutrition products like ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) used to prevent and treat child malnutrition. This should allocate at least $1.2 billion to UNICEF, including dedicated funding for The Nutrition Fund.

3. Secure the release of grain and fertilizer from the port of Odessa, commit to resisting export bans and ensure in-donor refugee costs associated with the Ukraine crisis are additional to ODA.

Build Resilience Now: A 1% rise in global food prices tips another 10 million people into extreme poverty. As food prices spiral upwards, low income households cut back on nutritious foods, forgo meals, reduce essential spending and sell off assets. Averting these impossible decisions will be much cheaper in the long run, whilst significantly improving outcomes for people and the planet in the medium term by investing in programmes to reduce food waste and tackle unhealthy, unsustainable diets.

The G7 should invest in a resilience package that includes:

1. Provide $10 million to FAO to assess the impact of the Ukraine crisis on food insecurity and access to food in 50 countries in 2022/2023, using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) measurement system.

2. Commit $1.5 billion to GAFSP to help smallholder farmers boost production and support nutritious food production.

3. Contribute $500 million to IFAD’s Crisis Response Initiative to protect and boost sustainable agricultural production.

4. Invest at least $360 million in nutrition through the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents.

5. Stop using food for fuel: roll back biofuel mandates, with a commitment to cut mandates now by 50%.

6. Ensure access to and affordability of fertilizer now to ensure sustained production in Africa and South Asia while increasing investment in greener fertilizer and more efficient fertilizer use.

7. Provide $39 million to FAO to support 52 countries vulnerable to the current crisis to identify policies and interventions to address food loss and waste over 3 years (2022-2024).

8. Invest $200 million in the African Development Bank’s $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility to support 20 million farmers.

Fund the Future Now: Low and lower-middle income countries’ resilience is being depleted by these recurrent crises and are increasingly vulnerable to debt defaults and climate shocks. A G7 Marshall Plan is needed to mobilize trillions in sustainable investments to narrow the gap to a 1.5-degree pathway. A seven-fold increase in investment for renewables is needed by 2030 in developing economies.

The G7 should commit to:

1. Double climate adaptation finance, including support for smallholder producers through IFAD’s ASAP+, whilst meeting the promise of $100 billion in climate finance each year; and support the establishment of a Loss and Damage Finance facility.

2. Reallocate at least $100 billion in SDRs to the IMF and through MDBs and IFAD; direct the World Bank to go beyond the additional commitment of $12 billion over 15 months to respond to the food security crisis; and lead on debt relief.

3. Invest $2.3 billion annually to scale up evidence-based nutrition interventions as outlined in the Nutrition Investment Framework.

The Global Alliance for Food & Nutrition Security (GAFNS; “nutrition” should to be added to the Alliance’s title to emphasis the comprehensiveness of the package) should provide a platform to meaningfully engage governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America, smallholder farmers, academics and civil society to work together on agricultural development, health and nutrition, and climate. It should mobilize financing for small-scale producers’ and civil society organizations with a proven track record of delivering efficient and targeted programs and interventions.

Following are organizations and individuals

#HungryForAction

Alliance to End Hunger; Ban Ki-Moon Centre for Global Citizens; Bread For The World; Children’s Investment Fund Foundation; EAT Foundation; Eleanor Crook Foundation; Global Citizen; International Fertilizer Development Center; Micronutrient Forum; ONE Campaign; ONE Campaign Germany; ONE Camapign USA; One Acre Fund; Open Society Foundations; Power of Nutrition; Sanku – Project Healthy Children; Save the Children; Standing Together for Nutrition; Tailored Food; World Business Council for Sustainable Development; World Vision Network; Gerda Verburg, UN Assistant Secretary General and Coordinator of the SUN Movement; Jamie Drummond, Co-Founder of Sharing Strategies & the ONE Campaign; Catherine Bertini, former Executive Director of WFP and 2003 World Food Prize Laureate

Media contact:

Donna Bowater

Marchmont Communications

donna@marchmontcomms.com

+61 434 635 099

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