The latest State of Food Security and Nutrition report concludes that global efforts to end hunger and malnutrition are inadequate.

A United Nations report reveals new data that shows the world is moving further away from its goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030.

In 2021, 828 million people were affected by hunger – 46 million more than in the previous year and 150 million more than in 2019.

The proportion of starving people has remained relatively constant since 2015, but increased in 2020 and continued to rise in 2021, reaching 9.8% of the world’s population. In comparison, this share was 8% in 2019 and 9.3% in 2020.

In 2021, approximately 2.3 billion people (29.3%) experienced moderate or severe food insecurity worldwide – 350 million more than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 924 million people (11.7% of the world’s population) suffered from severe food insecurity, up 207 million from two years ago.

The gender gap in food insecurity continued to widen in 2021, with 31.9% of women experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity globally. At 27.6% men, the gap is over 4 percentage points, compared to 3 percentage points in 2020.

Nearly 3.1 billion people were unable to afford healthy food in 2020, an increase of 112 million from 2019, due to consumer food price inflation driven by the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to contain it.

An estimated 45 million children under the age of five suffered from emaciation, the most dangerous form of malnutrition, which increases a child’s risk of death by 12 times. In addition, 149 million children under the age of five were stunted due to a chronic lack of essential nutrients, while 39 million were overweight.

Progress has been made in breastfeeding: in 2020, nearly 44% of infants under six months of age worldwide were exclusively breastfed. This is still not enough to reach the 50 percent target by 2030. It is extremely worrying that two thirds of children do not receive the varied diet they need for healthy growth and full development.

It is predicted that in 2030, despite the recovery of the global economy, around 670 million people (8% of the world population) will still be affected by hunger. The number corresponds to that of 2015, when the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development set the goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition by the end of this decade.

Additionally, the ongoing war in Ukraine, involving two of the world’s largest producers of staple foods, seeds and fertilizer, is disturbing. International supply chains and increased prices for grains, fertilizers, energy and ready-to-eat medicines make it difficult to feed children and lead to severe malnutrition.

However, raw material supply chains are already being negatively impacted by the increasing frequency of extreme climate events, particularly in low-income countries, which could have serious consequences for global food security and nutrition.

For this reason, members of the “Connected Hearts” association pool resources that can change the situation for the better by ensuring global food security and providing systemic food support to vulnerable populations, especially children and the elderly.