KAMPALAAccording to a research released Monday, food insecurity is increasing in many regions of the world, with over 1 billion people—roughly two-thirds of the continent’s population—unable to afford a nutritious meal by 2024.
According to the research, the proportion of moderate to severe food insecurity in Africa is more than twice as high as the global average of 28%, whereas statistics from Asia, Oceania, and Latin America and the Caribbean fall short of that threshold.
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The yearly study, which is created by five U.N. organizations, examines global developments in efforts to eradicate hunger by 2030. The World Food Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Health Organization are some of these organizations.
of contrast to the persistent increase of hunger in most subregions of Africa, western Asia, or portions of the Middle East and South Asia, the research anticipated that 8.2% of the world’s population may have experienced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5% in 2023 and 8.7% in 2022.
According to the report, undernourishment, a crucial indicator of development, increased to 12.7% in western Asia and exceeded 20% in Africa.
The report is the most recent to indicate that eradicating food insecurity globally is still a significant concern. The most vulnerable continent is still Africa.
The research stated that the current estimate suggests that 512 million people worldwide may suffer from chronic undernutrition by 2030, with approximately 60% of them residing in Africa.
“We need to change this trend immediately,” stated M ximo Torero, FAO head economist.
The amount of Africans who cannot afford a nutritious food is a significant indicator of misery. Africa’s population grew from 864 million to little over 1 billion within the same time span, while the world total decreased from 2.76 billion in 2019 to 2.6 billion in 2024.
That implies that across the 1.5 billion-person continent, the great majority of Africans cannot eat healthily.
Conflicts, economic instability, and climate shocks, together with a decrease in financing for emergency food and farm aid, are contributing to the worrisome levels of acute food insecurity in 22 hunger hot spots, the United Nations warned in a study released in October.
Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, Mali, and the Palestinian territories were listed as having the highest level of concern in that FAO and WFP study.
Many people in Chad, Lebanon, Myanmar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Syria, and Yemen experienced or were expected to experience severe food insecurity, making these countries hotspots of extremely high concern.
According to FAO Chief Economist Torero, the situation in Africa is alarming, partly because agricultural output in many regions has not been able to keep up with population increase.
He added that climate change is causing setbacks and violent strife in many parts of Africa.
In reference to the most recent U.N. report, he stated that these shocks interact and reinforce one another, undermining already fragile agrifood systems. Particularly difficult situations exist in conflict areas like the Sahel and Sudan. Furthermore, the climate is a major hazard, especially to the most vulnerable groups.
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