RIYADH: Global food insecurity is much worse than previously thought. That's the conclusion of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 report published this week by a coalition of UN agencies, which found that efforts to tackle malnutrition had suffered serious setbacks.
As countries around the world fall short of achieving the UN's second Sustainable Development Goal of “zero hunger” by 2030, the report notes that climate change is increasingly recognized as a critical factor exacerbating hunger and food insecurity.
As a major food importer, the Middle East and North Africa region is considered particularly vulnerable to climate-induced crop failures in countries of origin and the resulting imposition of protectionist tariffs and fluctuations in commodity prices.
“Climate change is a driver of food insecurity for the Middle East, where both the global shock and the local shock play a role,” David Laborde, head of the Agrifood Economics and Policy Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, told Arab News.
“Now, especially for the Middle East, I think the global angle is important because the Middle East imports a lot of food. Even if you don't have a (climate) shock at home, if you don't have a drought or flood at home — if it's happened in Pakistan, if it has happened in India, if it has happened in Canada – the Middle East will feel it.”
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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report has been compiled annually since 1999 by FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization to monitor global progress towards ending hunger.
During a recent event at UN headquarters in New York, the report's authors emphasized the urgent need for creative and equitable solutions to address the financial deficit to help nations experiencing severe hunger and malnutrition exacerbated by climate change.
In addition to climate change, the report found that factors such as conflict and economic downturns are becoming more common and severe, affecting the affordability of a healthy diet, unhealthy food environments and inequality.
In fact, food insecurity and malnutrition are intensifying due to persistent food price inflation, which has undermined economic progress globally.
“There is also an indirect effect that we should not neglect – how climate shock interacts with conflict,” Laborde said.
In North Africa, for example, negative climate shocks can lead to more conflicts, “either because people start competing for natural resources, access to water, or just because you might also have some people in your area who have nothing else to do,” he said.
“There are no jobs, they can't work on their farm, and so they can join rebellions or other elements.”
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Up to 757 million people endured hunger in 2023 – corresponding to one in eleven in the world and one in five in Africa.
The global prevalence of food insecurity has remained unchanged for three consecutive years, despite progress in Latin America.
There has been some improvement in the global prevalence of stunting and wasting among children under five.
By the end of 2021, G20 countries pledged to take $100 billion worth of unused special drawing rights held by high-income countries' central banks and allocate them to middle- and low-income countries.
Since then, however, this pledged amount has dropped to $13 billion, and the countries with the worst economic conditions have received less than 1 percent of this aid.
Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that has exceeded its 20 percent pledge, along with Australia, Canada, China, France and Japan, while others have failed to reach 10 percent or have ceased engagement altogether.
“Saudi Arabia is a very large state in the Middle East, so what they are doing is important, but they also have a financial capacity that many other countries do not have,” Laborde said.
“It could be through their SDR. It could also be through their sovereign fund because where you invest is important and how you invest is important to make the world more sustainable. So I will say yes, prioritizing investment in low- and middle-income countries on food and safety and nutrition-related programs can be important.
Although the incidence of malnutrition in Saudi Arabia has declined in recent years, the report shows that the rate of stunting in children has actually increased by 1.4 percent over the past 10 years.
There has also been an increase in overweight children, obesity and anemia in women as the population continues to grow. In this sense, it is not so much a lack of food as a lack of healthy eating habits.
“Saudi Arabia is a good example where I would say that traditional hunger and lack of food … is becoming less and less of a problem, but other forms of malnutrition are actually becoming what's important,” Laborde said.
By 2023, around 2.33 billion people worldwide faced moderate or severe food insecurity, and one in eleven people faced hunger, exacerbated by various factors such as economic decline and climate change.
The affordability of healthy diets is also a critical issue, especially in low-income countries where more than 71 percent of the population cannot afford adequate nutrition.
In countries like Saudi Arabia where overeating is a growing problem, Laborde suggests proper investment in nutrition and health education as well as policy adaptation may be the way to go.
While the Kingdom continues to provide support to countries in crisis, including Palestine, Sudan and Yemen, through its humanitarian arm KSrelief, these states continue to grapple with difficult conditions. Gaza in particular has suffered as a result of the war with Israel.
“Even before the conflict started, especially at the end of last year, the situation in Palestine was complicated, both in terms of agricultural systems (and) population density. There was already a problem with malnutrition, says Laborde.
“Now, something that is true everywhere, in Sudan, in Yemen, in Palestine, when you start adding conflicts and military operations, the population suffers a lot because you can actually destroy production. You destroy the supply of water. But people also cannot go to the grocery store when the truck or ship bringing food is disrupted.”
Although Palestine and Sudan are the extreme cases, there are still around 733 million people worldwide facing hunger, marking a continuation of the high levels observed over the past three years.
“On the ground, we work with the World Food Program (and) with other organizations, which aim to provide food to the needy in Palestine,” Laborde said of FAO's work. “Before the conflict and after, we will also work on building up things that need to be built up again. But without peace there are limited things we can do.”
FAO helps food secure nations by bringing better seeds, animals, technology and irrigation solutions to develop production systems, while working to protect livestock from pests and diseases by providing veterinary services and creating incentives for countries to adopt better policies.
The report's projections for 2030 suggest that some 582 million people will continue to suffer from chronic malnutrition, half of them in Africa. This mirrors levels observed in 2015 when the SDGs were adopted, indicating a plateau in progress.
The report underlines the need to create better systems of financial distribution according to this year's theme: “Financing to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition.”
“In 2022 there were a lot of headlines about global hunger, but today this has more or less disappeared when the number and people who are hungry have not disappeared,” Laborde said, referring to the damaging effects of the war in Ukraine. on food prices in the world.
“We have to say that we are not keeping the promises that the politicians have made. The world today produces enough food, so it is much more about how we distribute it, how we provide access. It is an artificial problem, and so it should be a artificial solution.”
