Flagship report paints a bleak picture of global hunger

6 July 2022 – There was a dramatic worsening of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in 2021, with the number of people affected by hunger globally rising to 828 million, an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the State of Food Security and Nutritionin the World 2022 (SOFI) report.

This annual report, which is jointly prepared by FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), provides information on progress towards ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition. The findings of the latest report were presented during the 2022 High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development held on 6 July in New York,.

The FAO Liaison Office in Brussels streamed the event in real time and organized a parallel virtual press event from Brussels. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions to a panel of experts drawn from all five contributing United Nations agencies and programmes, as well as a representative of the European Commission.

This was the second year that a simultaneous, multilingual launch of the SOFI report has been organized by the FAO Liaison Office in Brussels.

The briefing was opened by FAO Brussels Director Raschad Al-Khafaji, who highlighted the rising numbers of hungry people in the world, as well as the trend of repurposing of governmental support to agriculture.

He was joined by Tisorn Songsermsawas, Economist Research and Impact Assessment Division and technical coordinator of the SOFI 2022 report at IFAD, Saul Ignacio Guerrero Oteyza, Senior Adviser Emergency Nutrition at UNICEF, Mariko Kawabata, Partnerships Officer at the WFP Office to the EU and Belgium, Luz Maria De-Regil, Unit Head, Multisectoral Action in Food Systems, Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at WHO, and Leonard Mizzi, Head of Unit for Sustainable Agri-Food Systems and Fisheries, European Commission Directorate-General for International Partnerships INTPA.

As in 2021, the Brussels Briefing benefitted this year again from the presence of two of SOFI’s authors: Jose Rosero Moncayo, Director FAO Statistics Division and Marco Sánchez, Deputy Director, FAO Agrifood Economics Division, both of whom fielded questions from an audience that included 87 members of the press.

A recording of the event can be found here and can be viewed using the passcode: SOFI2022+

You can consult the digital SOFI report here.