2021, the hunger pandemic
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In the shadow of the pandemic, hunger has increased. Zero Hunger is a very distant goal. Hunger will not be eradicated by 2030 unless bold action is taken and inequality in access to food is addressed.
In fact, in 2020 there was a dramatic worsening of hunger and malnutrition in the world. About a tenth of the world's population is undernourished. Nearly one in three people did not have access to adequate nutrition, with an increase of nearly 320 million people in a single year. About 3 billion people lack access to healthy diets, which are increasingly economically unsustainable.
The impact of the pandemic on children, in terms of malnutrition, stunting and obesity, is severe and in all probability underestimated. Welcome to the second pandemic on the planet, that of hunger and malnutrition exacerbated by the mix of climate crisis, conflicts, economic and health emergency.
Sofi 2021, food security and nutrition in the world
Food safety millions of people are at risk. And the pandemic has only exacerbated all of this. This year's edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (Sofi 2021) represents the first global assessment of its kind in the era of the pandemic.
The EFSA and ECDC's One Health report was published on 12.7.21 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Program (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Zero Hunger walks away
Even before the pandemic since Covid-19 the planet was not on track for Zero Hunger, to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030 as required by the UN's goal 2 of sustainable development. The coronavirus has exacerbated and exacerbated the effect that conflicts, economic crises and extreme climate events have on the state of nutrition in the world.
Already in the mid-2010s hunger had slowly begun to rise, shattering hopes of an irreversible decline. Last year there was then a sudden increase in absolute and proportional terms. In 2020, undernourished people represented around 9,9% of the world population - up from 8,4% in 2019.
Fame 2021, the numbers of the disaster
Sophie 2021 estimates that in 2020 between 720 and 811 million people in the world faced hunger. The mid-term estimate is 768 million people. And in any case it is a significant increase compared to the intermediate value of 2019 (which was 650 million). In 2020, around 118 million more people faced hunger than in 2019, which is 161 million more, considering the upper limit of the range.
More than half of the undernourished people in the world are found in Asia (418 million) and more than a third in Africa (282 million). Compared to 2019, around 46 million more people in Africa, 57 million more in Asia and around 14 million more in Latin America and the Caribbean were affected by hunger in 2020.
Hunger it will not be eradicated by 2030 unless we act courageously to tackle the great issue of inequality in access to food. In that 2030 that marks a sustainable development goal that is probably no longer achievable, some 660 million people could still find themselves in a situation of hunger due to the lasting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on world food security. That is 30 million more people than in the no-pandemic scenario.
Hunger and malnutrition they are a problem of access to food. According to Sofi 2021, almost one in three people in the world, around 2 billion and 400 million, did not have access to adequate nutrition in 2020, with an increase of almost 320 million people in a single year. Almost 12% of the world population suffered from hunger in 2020, finding themselves in a situation of severe food insecurity. There are 928 million people, 148 million more than in 2019.
Unsustainable healthy diets
Follow a healthy diet it is increasingly unsustainable from an economic point of view, because nutritious and healthy food costs money. And so the high cost of healthy eating, coupled with persistent and high levels of income inequality, had already made a healthy diet out of reach for some 2019 billion people, especially the poor, by 3. It is a figure that in all likelihood will increase due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The high cost of nutritious foods and low incomes make the cost of healthy diets more unsustainable, due to external factors (such as shock climatic) or internal (such as low productivity or inefficient food supply chains) that weigh on food systems.
The pandemic it also accentuated gender inequality in access to food. In 2020, food insecurity affected 11 women for every 10 men (an increase compared to 2019). It is estimated that 29,9% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 in 2019 worldwide are affected by anemia.
Children, 149 million are the first victims
Shopping children are the main contributors to this humanitarian, health, social and economic disaster.
In 2020 it is estimated that 22% of children under the age of 5 have been affected by stunted growth (height too low for their age): they are more than 149 million children.
6,7% of children under the age of five in the world (45,4 million) have suffered from wasting. About 39 million, or 5,7% worldwide, are overweight.
The situation it is probably even more serious, especially for the forms of wasting and growth problems, precisely because of the effects of the pandemic, still to be estimated with precision. Most malnourished children live in Africa and Asia. These regions account for more than nine out of ten of all stunted children, more than nine out of ten of wasting children, and more than seven out of ten of overweight children worldwide.
The pandemic in short, it has been grafted as an aggravating factor especially in those contexts that are already fragile. Conflicts and wars, climate variability and extreme weather events, economic slowdown and economic crisis - all factors exacerbated by the Covid pandemic - are the main factors of food insecurity and malnutrition. And they continue to increase in both intensity and frequency, often together. A social, health and humanitarian bomb that makes the promises of leaving no one behind empty.
Sabrina Bergamini
Note
(1) FAO (2021). The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021.
http://www.fao.org/3/cb4474en/online/cb4474en.html
(2) UN (2021). Report 'a year of pandemic marked by a sharp surge in world hunger'
http://www.fao.org/news/story/it/item/1415609/icode/
