TWN Info Service on UN Sustainable Development (Jul25/10)
30 July 2025
Third World Network

UN: Global hunger declines, but Africa and West Asia see rise
Published in SUNS #10272 dated 30 July 2025

Penang, 29 Jul (Kanaga Raja) — An estimated 8.2 percent of the global population, or about 673 million people, faced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5 percent in 2023 and 8.7 percent in 2022, according to a new report by five specialized agencies of the United Nations.

In their “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025” report, the UN agencies said that the progress seen at the global level is driven by notable improvement in South-eastern Asia and Southern Asia – which reflects new data from India – and in South America.

Unfortunately, this positive trend contrasts with the continuing rise in hunger in most sub-regions of Africa and in Western Asia, they added.

The prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) in Asia fell from 7.9 percent in 2022 to 6.7 percent, or 323 million people, in 2024, said the report.

Additionally, Latin America and the Caribbean as a region saw the PoU fall to 5.1 percent, or 34 million people, in 2024, down from a peak of 6.1 percent in 2020.

However, this positive trend contrasts sharply with the steady rise in hunger across Africa and western Asia, including in many countries affected by prolonged food crises, it said.

The proportion of the population facing hunger in Africa surpassed 20 percent in 2024, affecting 307 million people, while in western Asia an estimated 12.7 percent of the population, or more than 39 million people, may have faced hunger in 2024, it added.

It is projected that 512 million people could be chronically undernourished by 2030. Almost 60 percent of those will be in Africa, highlighting the immense challenge of achieving SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), said the UN agencies.

The flagship report was published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

“While it is encouraging to see a decrease in the global hunger rate, we must recognize that progress is uneven. SOFI 2025 serves as a critical reminder that we need to intensify efforts to ensure that everyone has access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food,” said FAO Director-General, Qu Dongyu.

“To achieve this, we must work collaboratively and innovatively with governments, organizations, and communities to address the specific challenges faced by vulnerable populations, especially in regions where hunger remains persistent,” he added.

“In times of rising food prices and disrupted global value chains, we must step up our investments in rural and agricultural transformation. These investments are not only essential for ensuring food and nutrition security – they are also critical for global stability,”said Alvaro Lario, President of IFAD.

“Every child deserves the chance to grow and thrive. Yet, over 190 million children under the age of 5 are affected by under-nutrition, which can have negative consequences for their physical and mental development. This robs them of the chance to live to their fullest potential,” said UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell.

“The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report for 2025 underscores the need to act urgently for the world’s youngest and most vulnerable children, as rising food prices could deepen nutrition insecurity for millions of families,” she added.

“We must work in collaboration with governments, the private sector and communities themselves to ensure that vulnerable families have access to food that is affordable and with adequate nutrition for children to develop.”

“That includes strengthening social protection programs and teaching parents about locally produced nutritious food for children, including the importance of breastfeeding, which provides the best start to a baby’s life,” said Ms Russell.

“Hunger remains at alarming levels, yet the funding needed to tackle it is falling. Last year, WFP reached 124 million people with lifesaving food assistance. This year, funding cuts of up to 40 percent mean that tens of millions of people will lose the vital lifeline we provide,” said WFP Executive Director, Cindy McCain.

“While the small reduction in overall rates of food insecurity is welcome, the continued failure to provide critical aid to people in desperate need will soon wipe out these hard-won gains, sparking further instability in volatile regions of the world,” she added.

“In recent years, the world has made good progress in reducing stunting and supporting exclusive breastfeeding, but there is still much to be done to relieve millions of people from the burdens of food insecurity and malnutrition. This report provides encouraging news, but also shows where the gaps are and who is being left behind, and where we must direct our efforts to ensure that everyone has access to a healthy and nutritious diet,” said WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

According to the report, it is estimated that between 638 and 720 million people (7.8 to 8.8 percent of the global population) faced hunger in 2024.

Considering the point estimate (673 million), this indicates a decrease of 15 million people compared to 2023 and 22 million compared to 2022.

Notwithstanding the progress in recent years, the global estimates for 2024 are still far above pre-pandemic levels and even further above 2015 levels, when the 2030 Agenda was launched, said the report.

About 96 million more people in the world are estimated to have been facing chronic hunger in 2024 compared to 2015, it noted.

The PoU in Africa surpassed 20 percent in 2024. It is estimated that more than one in five people living in Africa are facing chronic hunger, equivalent to nearly 307 million people.

Hunger is on the rise in all sub-regions except Eastern Africa, with the most notable increases in Middle Africa, which had the highest PoU in Africa and the world in 2024 (30.2 percent), and in Northern Africa, where the PoU increased from 7.8 percent in 2022 to 10.7 percent in 2024, said the report.

The PoU also continued to rise in Southern Africa and Western Africa in this period, although at a slower pace, reaching 11.4 and 16.5 percent, respectively.

The number of people facing chronic undernourishment in Africa has increased by 113 million since 2015, when the 2030 Agenda was launched, it added.

It said the most progress towards reducing hunger in recent years has been made in Asia,  driven by the above- mentioned notable decrease in Southern Asia, which includes India.

It said that the PoU in Asia decreased from 7.9 percent in 2022 to 7.3 percent in 2023, and further to 6.7 percent (323 million people) in 2024 – a decrease of 52 million people in two years. The PoU of Southern Asia decreased from 13.9 to 11.0 percent in the same period.

However, the report noted that progress in Asia is due to improvements in many countries, as the PoU for Asia excluding India also showed a slight decline from 2022 to 2024.

“Some progress was also made in South-eastern Asia, where the PoU had been gradually declining for several years and reached 4.9 percent in 2024.”

No change occurred from 2023 to 2024 in Central Asia, which has the lowest PoU in the region (2.8 percent) except for Eastern Asia, where the PoU has remained below 2.5 percent since 2015, said the report.

On the other hand, it said the situation is very different in Western Asia, which is the only sub-region in Asia where chronic undernourishment has been steadily on the rise since 2015, reaching 12.7 percent in 2024.

According to the report, this sub-region includes some of the countries most affected by persisting crises and for which lack of solid data poses a challenge for estimating the PoU.

Progress towards the Zero Hunger target was also made in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the latest estimates show the PoU decreasing to 5.1 percent in 2024 after peaking at 6.1 percent in 2020, it said.

There was no improvement in the Caribbean, where for the last three years, around 17.5 percent of the population may have faced hunger, it added.

“This period of stagnation followed a sharp increase in 2022, such that the PoU in the Caribbean in 2024 was more than three times the regional average.”

South America, on the other hand, has made progress for several consecutive years, with a steady decline in the PoU from 5.5 percent in 2020 to 3.8 percent in 2024, said the report.

No change occurred in Central America from 2023 to 2024 following a period of gradual improvement during the previous three years.

In 2024, an estimated 7.8 million people in the Caribbean, 9.1 million in Central America and 16.7 million in South America faced chronic hunger, it added.

“The PoU has changed little in recent years in Oceania, where 7.6 percent of the population was estimated to be chronically undernourished in 2024.”

According to the current projection, 512 million people, or 6 percent of the global population, may be chronically undernourished in 2030, highlighting the immense challenge of achieving SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), the report said.

“It is projected that by 2030, the number of undernourished people will have fallen by only 65 million – from 577 million to 512 million – since the 2030 Agenda was launched in 2015.”

While improvements are expected in all regions over the next five years, significant differences remain, it noted.

It said by 2030, 60 percent of the undernourished people in the world will be in Africa, where 17.6 percent of the population will be facing chronic hunger.

Meanwhile, it said in Asia, as well as in Latin America and the Caribbean, the prevalence of undernourishment will fall below 5 percent. +