The 2023 SOFI Report – Growing Challenges in Addressing Global Hunger

A new year brings forth the 2023 report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) to emphasize once again the challenges we face in addressing global hunger.

It is good to see that there is progress on several key issues, including particularly child wasting. There is hope in the continued leveling-off of hunger levels, despite several extraordinary shocks to the agrifood system. The Chief Economist of FAO, Maximo Torero, spoke to the commitment of farmers throughout the pandemic and the way in which that allowed food to continue to be delivered despite extraordinary upsets to our food system.

At the same time, we also saw the SOFI report focus on urban areas, even though we continue to see rural areas are those most left behind. President of IFAD, Alvaro Lario, said during the launch that rural areas remain a priority for IFAD, and we hope the UN system will continue to look at the spaces where interventions are often needed the most.

This isn’t an urban/rural divide; it is a reality that we need to be getting equal attention from the UN on both key areas.

Read on to see more of the key facts from the SOFI report:

• It is estimated that between 691 and 783 million people in the world faced hunger in 2022 – about 122 million more people than in 2019.
• It is projected that nearly 600 million people may be chronically undernourished in 2030 – 119 million more than what was projected pre-pandemic.
• Nearly 2.4 billion people lacked regular access to adequate food in 2022 – 30% of the global population were moderately or severely food insecure – more women than men, and more people living in rural areas than in urban areas.
• Healthy diets are out of reach for more than 3.1 billion people – 78% of people in Africa were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021, compared to 44% in Asia, 23% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 3% in Oceania.
• Stunting in children under five years of age and exclusive breastfeeding have improved and some progress has been made on wasting, while low birthweight and overweight in children under five years have not changed.
• The world is not on trach to achieve the global nutrition targets.

Read the full report