600 million people will be chronically undernourished in 2030

This is what is projected in the UN’s ‘The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2023’ report. Hunger is still on the rise in Africa, Western Asia and the Caribbean. 

The report also contains other stark facts. 

• 783 million people faced hunger in 2022. 
• 2.4 billion people were moderately or severely food insecure (lacking consistent access to enough food to live healthily) in 2022. 
• Food insecurity disproportionately affects women and people living in rural areas. 
• Global hunger remained relatively unchanged from 2021 to 2022, but it is far above pre-pandemic levels. 

“Solutions to end world hunger exist but they require bold and united political action. Governments must support small-scale food producers, and promote especially the rights of women farmers, who are key in the fight against global hunger. They should also properly tax corporate windfall profits, cancel poor countries’ debt, and regulate market speculators from inflating food prices,” says Hanna Saarinen, Oxfam International Food Policy Lead. 

Inequality is the root of poverty and injustice, and the widening gap between the wealthiest and the poorest people is a gross example of this. 

“It is unforgivable for governments to watch billions of people going hungry in a world of plenty, as they put the interests of mega-rich agribusinesses and energy companies before those of the most vulnerable people and widen the inequality gap,” notes Hanna. 

“Billionaires’ wealth has exploded in recent years on the back of the COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine whilst over 3.1 billion people cannot afford an adequate diet,” Hanna continues. 

“Meanwhile, the climate crisis is outpacing our humanitarian systems’ ability to respond. In Somalia, one of the countries least responsible for the climate crisis, a prolonged climate-induced drought has pushed one in three people to acute hunger. In East Africa alone, over eight million children under five- nearly the entire population of Switzerland- suffer acute malnutrition.”