UN: 9% of the World's Population Experienced Hunger in 2023

UN agencies announced in their comprehensive report that military conflicts, economic turmoil, and severe climatic conditions have thwarted efforts to reduce hunger, affecting about 9% of the global population in 2023. The report, published on Wednesday, August 25, states that approximately 733 million people suffered from hunger last year. Comparisons of statistics in recent years show that the number of hungry people worldwide, which significantly increased after the COVID-19 pandemic, has not decreased in the past three years. The overall picture of hunger varies across different regions of the world. For instance, in Africa, about 20% of the population is considered hungry, while the global average is around 9%. Latin America and the Caribbean have made progress in reducing hunger, while Asian countries' efforts to eradicate nutritional poverty have stalled. Another point addressed by UN agencies is moderate or severe food insecurity, which forces people to skip one of their daily meals during certain periods. Last year, 2.33 billion people, about 29% of the global population, suffered from such conditions. This report, jointly prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization, suggests that achieving the UN goal of eradicating hunger by 2030 seems unlikely. It has long been evident that wars and military conflicts, economic crises, and severe climatic conditions are the main factors behind hunger and food insecurity. However, the report emphasizes that the intensity and frequency of these factors have increased, and as a result, despite international efforts, a large portion of the world's population still faces hunger and food insecurity. Inequality among residents of different countries regarding access to a proper and healthy diet is also highlighted in this report. In poor or low-income countries, over 71% of people cannot afford a healthy diet, while in wealthy countries, this figure is about 6%. According to David Laborde, an economic expert at the FAO and one of the report's coordinators, the economic recovery process after the COVID-19 pandemic has been highly unequal among different countries and even within each country. He told AFP that the number of wars and severe climatic phenomena also increased in 2023, but the global community has not increased the budget and resources necessary to combat poverty. The UN report, which will be presented at the G20 summit in Brazil, calls for fundamental reforms in securing the necessary funding to improve and expand food security worldwide. Current estimates suggest that eradicating hunger by 2030 requires a budget between $176 billion and about $4 trillion. The UN report reminds that 'the current very incoherent financial structure makes it impossible to increase the necessary actions to eradicate poverty.' David Laborde added, 'Food security is not just about distributing bags of flour and towers in emergencies; the infrastructure for food production in each country, including the needs of small farmers such as access to fuel and electric irrigation, must be supported and strengthened.' Another shortcoming of the current system is that the plans and priorities of donor countries do not always align with the needs of populations in poor countries. According to Mr. Laborde, a prominent example is the cessation of international aid to countries in the Sahel region of Africa due to chronic political instability and military coups in that part of the world, while the scale of hunger in these countries has increased due to these very events. The UN report concludes that 'time should not be wasted because the cost of inaction is much greater than the cost of the actions recommended in this report.'