Global hunger levels remain stagnant 3 years after COVID-19

Global hunger levels have remained stagnant for the past three years, following a significant rise in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report released on Wednesday by U.N. agencies.

The report highlights that one out of 11 people worldwide faced hunger last year.

Persistent Hunger Worldwide

The SOFI report reveals that between 713 and 757 million people experienced hunger in 2023, with an estimated mid-range of 733 million. This figure is about 152 million more than in 2019, underscoring the ongoing challenge of achieving the sustainable development goal of zero hunger by 2030.

Regional disparities in hunger

Africa continues to suffer the highest proportion of hunger, with 20.4% of its population affected, compared to 8.1% in Asia, 6.2% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 7.3% in Oceania.

While hunger in Africa is still on the rise, it has remained relatively unchanged in Asia, and notable progress has been made in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, Asia still accounts for over half of the world’s hungry population.

Call for action, structural change

The report emphasizes the need for accelerated transformation of agrifood systems to enhance their resilience and address inequalities, ensuring healthy diets are accessible and affordable for all. It projects that by the end of the decade, 582 million people will be chronically malnourished, with more than half of them in Africa.

The U.K.-based charity Oxfam condemned the persistently high levels of global hunger as “shameful,” attributing it to a combination of factors that governments use as excuses to avoid decisive action. Oxfam highlighted that countries facing severe hunger are often poor, heavily indebted, and vulnerable to climate and economic shocks.

“The world’s poorest people are paying the highest price of hunger. We need deeper, structural policy and social change to address all the drivers of hunger, including economic injustice, climate change and conflict,” Oxfam stated.

Need for increased funding, support

Oxfam called for more public funding for smallholder farmers in poorer countries, more robust social protection schemes, widespread debt relief, and the fulfillment of wealthy nations’ humanitarian and climate finance pledges.

The charity also stressed that private financing alone is insufficient to tackle global hunger.