"Global hunger, on the decline"/ UN report: Food insecurity increases in Africa
Global hunger levels fell for the third consecutive year in 2024, according to a new United Nations report, as improving food supplies in South America and India offset deepening malnutrition and climate shocks in parts of Africa and the Middle East.
An estimated 673 million people, or 8.2 percent of the world's population, experienced hunger in 2024, up from 8.5 percent in 2023, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, prepared by five UN agencies. The agencies include the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
The report focused on chronic and long-term problems and did not fully reflect the impact of acute crises caused by specific events, such as Israel's war on Gaza.
“The conflict continues to fuel hunger from Gaza to Sudan and beyond,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, adding that “hunger further fuels future instability and undermines peace.” The WHO has warned that malnutrition in the besieged Palestinian enclave has reached “alarming levels” since Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2.
In 2024, the most significant progress was reported in South America and South Asia, according to the UN report. In South America, the hunger rate fell to 3.8 percent in 2024 from 4.2 percent in 2023. Meanwhile, in South Asia, it was reduced to 11 percent from 12.2 percent.
The overall hunger figures in 2024 were still higher than the 7.5 percent value recorded in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The picture was very different in Africa, where productivity gains were not keeping up with high population growth and the impacts of conflict, extreme weather and inflation. In 2024, more than one in five people on the continent, or 307 million people, were chronically undernourished, meaning hunger was more widespread than 20 years ago.
According to current projections, 512 million people in the world could be chronically malnourished by 2030, with nearly 60 percent of them in Africa, the report said.
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