Backward steps in the fight against hunger and malnutrition
The recently published State of Food Security and Nutrition Report 2022 of the United Nations leaves no doubt that the world is moving in the wrong direction in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. Eight years before the deadline that the international community set itself with Agenda 2030, the achievement of SDG 2 is moving further and further away, the report states. In 2021, 828 million people were suffering from hunger, 46 million more than the previous year and 150 million more than in 2019, it said, adding that efforts to ensure food security worldwide were being thwarted by the acutely uncertain and challenging world situation - conflict, the climate crisis and economic shocks. Inequalities in access to quality nutrition would also become more acute, for example between men and women. Against this backdrop, the report's authors call for a transformation of agriculture to make it more resilient and able to provide the world's population with nutritious and healthy food in a cost-effective and sustainable way in the future.