The world is in a very different place compared to six years ago when it committed to the goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition by 2030.

At that time, everyone was optimistic that transformative positive approaches would put us on track to achieve that goal but realities on the ground reveal that the world has not been making progress in ensuring access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food for all people year round or eliminating all forms of malnutrition.

With one person estimated to die of hunger every four seconds, 238 local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) recently called on the leaders gathering at the 77th U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) in New York to take decisive action to end the spiraling global hunger crisis.

Organizations from 75 countries have signed an open letter expressing outrage at skyrocketing hunger levels and recommended quick action.

A staggering 345 million people are now experiencing acute hunger, a number that has more than doubled since 2019. Despite promises from world leaders to never allow famine again in the 21st century, famine is once more imminent in Somalia and 50 million people are on the brink of starvation in 45 countries around the world.

"The international community and national governments are failing to meet their duty and have prioritized political and economic interests over the wellbeing of the world’s most vulnerable children, families and communities," the organizations said.

Mohanna Eljabaly from the Yemeni Family Care Association, one of the signatories of the letter, said: "It is abysmal that with all the technology in agriculture and harvesting techniques today we are still talking about famine in the 21st century.

"This is not about one country or one continent and hunger never only have one cause. This is about the injustice of the whole of humanity. It is extremely difficult to see people suffering while others sharing the same planet have plenty of food."

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Eljabaly said a record 19 million people are now in need of food assistance in Yemen, while 2.2 million children are projected to be malnourished. She said a lack of funding made it difficult for organizations to execute humanitarian response plans and called on officials meeting in New York to take "realistic firm actions" towards addressing the hunger crisis. "We must not wait a moment longer to focus both on providing immediate lifesaving food and longer-term support so people can take charge of their futures and provide for themselves and their families," she said. "It’s true that hunger has won a battle but the war is still there to be won," said Eljabaly. "People in many suffering countries are betting on humanity to come together and defeat it, as there is nothing else for them to bet on."

Grim picture

Food insecurity and malnutrition have been consistently rising since 2015, according to a new U.N. report titled "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI)," which paints a grim picture of the future impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine. Up to 828 million people, or nearly 10% of the world’s population, were affected by hunger last year, 46 million more than in 2020 and 150 million more since before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.

The report names the three main drivers of the increased food insecurity and malnutrition – conflict, climate extremes and economic shocks. Combined with growing inequalities, these drivers are "increasing in intensity and frequency, often in combination," according to Amina Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, who warned that the negative impacts are "exacerbated by and contributing to worsening high and persistent levels of inequality and poverty."

Meanwhile, as food prices skyrocket due to the war in Ukraine, healthy diets are also becoming increasingly unaffordable, with the number of people globally unable to afford a healthy diet shooting from 112 million to almost 3.1 billion.

The situation differs among different countries, revealing the inequality due to unequal patterns of economic recovery and unrecovered income losses among those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Africa bearing the heaviest burden.

These numbers are only likely to worsen due to the consequences of the ongoing Ukraine war. "Numbers will not be looking any better as the war becomes protracted," European Commission representative, Leonard Mizzi, said. "And if nothing really happens fundamentally, 2023 will look even bleaker," he warned.

Before the war, Ukraine and Russia were among the key global grain exporters, with the African and Middle East countries heavily reliant on the two agricultural powerhouses. Altogether, the U.N. report leads to the projections that nearly 670 million people, or 8% of the global population, will still be facing hunger in 2030 – the same figure as in 2015 when the 2030 Agenda was launched.

The 'approach' needed

According to Tisorn Songsermsawas, a technical coordinator of the SOFI 2022 report, these findings show that policies are "no longer effective in reducing hunger, with insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms." "So, we need to repurpose agricultural and food policies. And we need to make them more sustainable, equitable and inclusive," he said.

The report concludes that repurposing existing public support for agriculture in all regions of the world can help increase the availability of nutritious foods to the consumer. "That we have limited resources, we need more wisdom and to look at the issues of policy and also research," Qu Dongyu, the director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), explained.

When repurposing public support to make healthy diets less costly, policymakers have to avoid potential inequality trade-offs that may emerge if farmers are not in a position to specialize in the production of nutritious foods due to resource constraints. As Maximo Torero, the FAO chief economist, put it, "understanding the trade-offs of the choices we make will be central for the future and to be able to make policies that move towards what we are saying what we’ve been recommending."

According to experts, a complex approach will be needed to reduce the negative consequences of the relocation of support reallocation on vulnerable groups and enhance the positive outcomes of such changes. World Food Programme chief David Beasley said the "real danger" was that these figures were likely to increase "in the months ahead," resulting in: "Global destabilization, starvation, and mass migration on an unprecedented scale. We have to act today to avert this looming catastrophe."

The report urged governments to take immediate action, suggesting they repurpose the resources being used to incentivize the production, supply and consumption of nutritious foods in order to make healthy foods more affordable and to reduce trade barriers to help lower the price of nutritious foods. It warned that unless these bold actions are taken to address major drivers of food insecurity, malnutrition and the inequalities affecting the access of millions to food, hunger will not be eradicated by 2030.