The number of people facing hunger around the world is trending down again for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, new data shows.
The sharp spike in inflation and hit on supply chains caused by the pandemic is starting to fade, putting the number of people facing hunger back on its long term positive trend, according to the UN’s annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report.
The authors warn, however, that hunger is still climbing in much of Africa and that the overall improvement is not enough for the UN to meet its target of “Zero Hunger” for 2030 – one of its 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs).
The report, published on Monday, was co-produced by five UN agencies, including the World Food Programme, and reveals that as many as 720 million people – equivalent to 8 per cent of the global population – faced hunger in 2024, with 307 million of affected people in Africa, more than 20 per cent of the continent.
“While some countries are making progress, others are sinking deeper into hunger,” said Kate Munro, director of advocacy at Action Against Hunger UK.
Maximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said a “perfect storm” of global disruptions between 2020 and 2024 “illustrate how fragile global agrifood systems remain.”
The report found that global food inflation, fuelled by the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and climate shocks – soared from around 2 per cent in December 2020 to nearly 17 per cent in early 2023.
The impacts were uneven, the report found, mostly affecting low-income and African countries.
Notable improvements were seen in Latin America and the Caribbean, which saw undernourishment fall to around five per cent in 2024, affecting around 34 million people, down from a peak of roughly 6 per cent in 2020.
Mr Torero Cullen highlighted the success of robust social protection programs across South America – such as cash transfers and employment schemes – in reducing hunger and food insecurity, particularly during the food price spikes.
He pointed to school meal programs in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Chile and now Paraguay, which used targeted food aid to fight undernutrition.
“I think it’s crucial for the African continent to focus on learning from what has happened in South America,” he told The Telegraph.
“Latin America and the Caribbean still have a possibility [to eliminate hunger by 2030], but there needs to be significant effort in Central America and especially in Haiti and the Caribbean islands,” he added.
The report says that by 2030, 512 million people in the world may still be chronically undernourished, with nearly 60 percent concentrated in Africa, more than double the global average.
In Asia, as well as in Latin America and the Caribbean, the prevalence of undernourishment will drop below five per cent by 2030, according to current projections.
Prioritising nutrition
During the peak of the food inflation crisis in January 2023, some low-income countries experienced food price inflation of up to 30 per cent compared to around 14 per cent globally.
Soaring food costs also shrunk access to healthy nutritious diets, as families responded by buying cheaper and less nutritious food and reducing meal frequency.
The report says that ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are “increasingly displacing more nutritious alternatives despite growing evidence of their adverse health impacts”, adding that by 2021, UPFs were around 47 percent less cheaper than minimally processed foods.
“Transforming food systems without addressing healthy diets and nutrition is like air without oxygen,” said Afshan Khan, an Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement.
“The global community must invest in a food system transformation that supports healthy people, grows economies and is environmentally sustainable,” she told The Telegraph.
A deepening gender gap
The report revealed persistent inequalities between genders, with food insecurity more prevalent among adult women than men in every region of the world.
In Africa, only 48 per cent of women and 25 per cent of children achieve minimum dietary diversity.
Women are the backbone of many farming communities across Africa, they make up two thirds of the continent’s small-scale agricultural workforce, yet they face many discriminatory barriers – both in terms of access to land, tools and fertilisers, but also in terms of power and decision making in the community.
Supporting women, by addressing their specific needs in agricultural productivity and wages, could add $1 trillion dollars to the global economy and reduce food insecurity by 45 million people, according to the FAO.
“Even though there was a slight improvement in terms of reducing global hunger, we are still not on track to meet Zero Hunger,” Ana Maria Loboguerrero, director of adaptive and equitable food systems at the Gates Foundation.
“But without really putting women’s needs in the center of the conversation, we will never be able to properly address the issue of hunger and nutrition around the world,” she told The Telegraph.
Looking ahead
Ms Munro highlighted the looming fallout from the deep aid cuts announced in early 2025, which threaten to undo decades of progress to tackle global health.
Global aid for nutrition, which treats severe wasting, the most lethal form of undernutrition, will fall by 44 percent in 2025 compared to 2022, according to research.
Wasting causes up to 20 per cent of deaths of children under the age of five years, and affects 13.7 million children a year globally. Left untreated, up to 60 per cent of affected children might die
“These figures [in the SOFI report] are alarming enough, but the worst may be yet to come. Cuts in international aid will hit the most vulnerable populations hardest,” said Ms Munro.
Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security
