War, Pandemic, and Climate Shocks Have Pushed 122 Million Into Hunger Since 2019: UN - Common Dreams

The climate emergency, armed conflicts, and the Covid-19 pandemic have pushed over 100 million more people into hunger around the world during the past few years, five United Nations agencies revealed Wednesday in an annual report.

The latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report estimates that hunger affected between 691 million and 783 million people last year, with a mid-range of 735 million—or 122 million more than 2019, before the public health disaster.

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In terms of nutrition, “more than 3.1 billion people in the world—or 42%—were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021,” or “an overall increase of 134 million people compared to 2019,” [the report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), and World Food Program (WFP) states]. “Worldwide in 2022, an estimated 148.1 million children under 5 years of age (22.3%) were stunted, 45 million (6.8%) were wasted, and 37 million (5.6%) were overweight.”

The document also looks ahead, warning of the projection that “almost 600 million people will be chronically undernourished in 2030,” which “is about 119 million more than in a scenario in which neither the pandemic nor the war in Ukraine had occurred, and around 23 million more than if the war in Ukraine had not happened.”

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IFAD President Alvaro Lario stressed in a statement that “a world without hunger is possible. What we are missing is the investments and political will to implement solutions at scale. We can eradicate hunger if we make it a global priority.”

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