TWN Info Service on UN Sustainable Development (Jul26/03)
23 July 2026
Third World Network

UN: Global hunger stays stubbornly high as Africa becomes new epicentre
Published in SUNS #10488 dated 23 July 2026  

Penang, 22 Jul (Kanaga Raja) -- An estimated 645 million people, or 7.8 percent of the global population, faced hunger in 2025, with Africa for the first time overtaking the Asian continent in hosting the largest number of hungry people, according to a new report by five United Nations specialized agencies.

In their "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026" report, released on 21 July, the UN agencies said that while global hunger declined for a third consecutive year in 2025, improvements remain fragile, unevenly distributed and insufficient to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

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

The report estimates that 7.8 percent of the global population faced hunger in 2025, down from 8.1 percent in 2024 and 8.6 percent in 2022, confirming a sustained, albeit slow, improvement.

This means that around 645 million people were affected by hunger in 2025, representing a reduction of nearly 14 million compared to 2024 and 43 million compared to 2022, said the UN agencies.

However, they said despite global progress, recovery remains uneven across regions. Asia, together with Latin America and the Caribbean, has recorded steady improvements in recent years. In contrast, Africa is now home to approximately 309 million hungry people, compared with 292 million in Asia.

The report also said that in 2025, an estimated 25.8 percent of the global population (around 2.1 billion people) experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, meaning they were at times forced to compromise on the quality or quantity of the food they ate.

Responding to the findings in the report, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES- Food) said global hunger remains stubbornly high - 645 million people faced hunger in 2025, 61 million more than before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019.

Despite some marginal progress, one in four people worldwide - 2.1 billion - were food insecure, lacking regular access to sufficient food for an active and healthy life, it added.

In its analysis of the findings in the report, IPES-Food said that Africa is now the global epicentre of hunger.

One in five Africans - a record 309 million people - now face hunger, an increase of 81% since 2010, driven by conflict, climate shocks, debt and dependence on food imports. Two-thirds of Africans cannot afford a healthy diet, more than double the share in Asia and Latin America, it pointed out.

In a press release, the IPES-Food experts warned that conflict, trade tensions, fertiliser disruptions and climate shocks could trigger another surge in food prices in 2026 - reinforcing the need to reduce dependence on volatile global markets by building more resilient, self-reliant food systems.

IPES-Food also underscored that healthy diets are out of reach for many. One in three people worldwide (2.7 billion) were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2025, after the cost of healthy eating rose by 45% since 2017.

Around 70-75% of what consumers pay is added by traders, processors, distributors and retailers after food leaves the farm, pointing to where action is most urgently needed.

Worryingly, IPES-Food said that the outlook for 2026 is even more alarming. The 2025 figures may soon be overtaken by war, fertiliser disruptions, aid cuts, trade disputes, and intense climate shocks linked to El Nino and the climate crisis, which together threaten another global food price crisis.

However, IPES-Food said rising hunger is not inevitable. Asia and Latin America saw continued improvements - thanks in part to the success of anti-hunger programs like those in Brazil, which has eradicated hunger through a program of cash transfers to vulnerable families, universal school meals, city public food provision, and public procurement from family farmers.

With the right policies, countries can build resilient food systems and bolster their food security, it stressed.

Importantly, IPES-Food said that the findings reinforce the conclusions of its recent report, titled "The New Geopolitics of Food", which argues that today's food systems have become dangerously exposed to geopolitical conflict, trade disruptions, climate shocks and corporate concentration.

It said the answer is more resilient, self-reliant food systems that strengthen local and regional production, reduce reliance on volatile imports, curb excessive corporate concentration, and protect people's access to healthy food.

GLOBAL TRENDS

The assessment of global hunger in 2025, based on the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU), shows continued gradual progress for the third consecutive year, said the report.

The proportion of the world population facing hunger decreased from 8.6 percent in 2022 to 8.1 percent in 2024 and 7.8 percent in 2025. It is estimated that hunger affected between 608 and 696 million people in the world in 2025.

Considering the point estimate of 645 million, that is nearly 14 million fewer people in 2025 compared to 2024 and 43 million fewer than in 2022, it added.

However, the estimated number of people facing hunger is still above levels recorded in 2019, prior to the sharp increase in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it stressed.

Compared to 2015, when the 2030 SDG Agenda was launched, the prevalence is lower (7.8 percent in 2025 compared to 8.0 percent in 2015), but the estimated number of people facing hunger has increased by about 50 million.

Pointing to stark regional differences that persist, the report said it is estimated that one out of five people in Africa (20.0 percent), faced hunger in 2025, compared to 6.0 percent of the population in Asia, 4.8 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, 8.0 percent in Oceania, and less than 2.5 percent in Northern America and Europe.

Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean have been showing steady recovery over several consecutive years since the spike in hunger following the COVID-19 pandemic, it added.

In contrast, the PoU in Africa had been on the rise since 2017 - until the most recent estimates, which point to signs of a turnaround in 2025.

The report said the PoU in Africa decreased from a peak of 20.3 percent in 2024 to 20.0 percent in 2025, still nearly 4 percentage points higher than in 2015 when the SDG Agenda was launched.

However, it said this marginal improvement in prevalence from 2024 to 2025 did not translate into a decrease in the absolute number of people facing hunger, due to the growing size of the population in Africa.

It said that about 309 million people faced hunger in 2025, based on the PoU. Improvements from 2024 to 2025 in Eastern Africa, Middle Africa and Western Africa contributed to the slight overall decline in the PoU in the region, enough to offset a marginal increase in Southern Africa.

However, there was no change in Northern Africa, which had the lowest PoU in the region in 2025 - 9.8 percent, compared to 12.3 percent in Southern Africa, 16.9 percent in Western Africa, 25.6 percent in Eastern Africa, and 28.9 percent in Middle Africa.

In Asia, steady progress has been made on reducing hunger since 2021, based on the PoU trend. The estimated proportion of the population facing hunger in Asia decreased from 7.9 percent in 2021 to 6.0 percent in 2025 - a decrease of more than 80 million people, said the report.

The estimated number of people facing hunger in Asia in 2025 was about 292 million. The PoU in Eastern Asia has remained below the 2.5 percent threshold since the launch of the 2030 Agenda, and Central Asia has been close to achieving this goal since 2024, at 2.8 percent, it added.

The reduction in hunger in the region has been driven by improvements in South-eastern Asia and Southern Asia, the report noted.

"The PoU in South-eastern Asia decreased from 5.6 percent in 2021 to 5.1 percent in 2025, and from 13.9 to 9.3 percent in Southern Asia in the same period."

The prevalence is highest - and still increasing - in Western Asia, where it reached 13.0 percent in 2025, up from 9.3 percent in 2015 when the 2030 Agenda was launched.

Asia is the region that has shown the most progress since the launch of the 2030 Agenda, with a PoU that was 25 percent lower in 2025 than in 2015, said the report.

Additionally, the downward trend observed since 2021 represents a full recovery from the peak reached in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it further said.

The report said that steady progress has also occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a decrease in the PoU from 6.1 percent in 2020 to 4.8 percent in 2025, which is below pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.

The latest estimate is slightly lower than in 2015, at the outset of the 2030 Agenda, when the PoU for the region was 5.1 percent, it noted.

About 32 million people were estimated to be facing hunger in 2025 based on the PoU, down by more than 1 million from 2024, and by 7.5 million from 2020.

The sub-region with the lowest PoU, and with the most marked improvement, is South America, where the PoU decreased from a peak of 5.5 percent in 2020 to 3.5 percent in 2025.

The report said modest progress has also been made in Central America in recent years, with a decrease in the PoU from 5.7 percent in 2023 to 5.1 percent in 2025.

The Caribbean is the most affected sub-region, with an estimated 16.6 percent of the population facing hunger in 2025, said the report.

"While some improvement was seen in the Caribbean from 2022 to 2024, the new estimate points to a stagnation in progress between 2024 and 2025."

It is estimated that 8.0 percent of the population of Oceania may have faced hunger in 2025 based on the PoU, a slight improvement compared to a peak of 8.4 percent in 2023, but relatively unchanged compared to 2024, said the report.

Focusing on the number of people estimated to be facing hunger in each region, the report said the number rose in Africa from 171 to 309 million between 2010 and 2025 and decreased in Asia from 396 to 292 million in the same period, resulting in a substantial change in the share of the global number of people facing hunger in each region.

"The share living in Africa increased from 28 percent in 2010 to 48 percent in 2025, while the share in Asia decreased from 65 to 45 percent. The share living in Latin America and the Caribbean has remained relatively constant over the 15-year period at around 5 percent."

The report also offered updated hunger projections for the next five years in light of the conflict in the Middle East.

Depending on the length of the impact of the crisis on food inflation - which is driven by higher energy and fertilizer prices - approximately 510 to 520 million people may still be facing hunger in 2030 (compared to the lower projection of 503 million in the pre-conflict scenario), with the global number of undernourished people expected to decrease by 20 percent, said the UN agencies.

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

The report said by 2030, an estimated 56 percent of the undernourished people in the world will be in Africa, or nearly 17 percent of the region's population. In Asia, as well as in Latin America and the Caribbean, the PoU is projected to fall below 5 percent.

The 2026 conflict in the Middle East is projected to have heterogeneous impacts across continents and countries, largely driven by their status in terms of net energy trade, the report underlined.

In particular, it said Asia is the region with the largest negative impact, followed by Africa, with about 10 million more people projected to be facing hunger in 2030 in Asia and 8 million more in Africa under the lasting crisis scenario compared to the pre-conflict scenario.

It said Latin America and the Caribbean, a net energy exporter, will benefit from higher energy prices, and some countries in the region that still have high levels of hunger, but strong oil or natural gas exports, are projected to experience accelerated growth.

FOOD INSECURITY

The report said new estimates of the global prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) show a continuous five-year downward trend following the sharp increase from 2019 to 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe.

The period from 2024 to 2025 saw an acceleration of this progress, driven by improvements in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, it added.

In 2025, an estimated 25.8 percent of the global population - 2.1 billion people - were moderately or severely food insecure, down from 27.1 percent in 2024 and 28.7 percent in 2020.

"That is the equivalent of nearly 86 million fewer people in 2025 compared to 2024, and 135 million fewer compared to 2020. However, the observed decrease was not enough to reach pre-pandemic levels."

Of the 2.1 billion people facing moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, more than one-third were severely food insecure - 778.6 million people, or 9.5 percent of the global population. Compared to 2024, this is nearly 25 million fewer people facing severe food insecurity, said the report.

Such progress would normally be grounds for optimism, but the impacts of the conflict unfolding in the Middle East in 2026 and the potential consequences of global cuts in official development assistance raise concerns regarding the prospects for continued improvement in global food security, it emphasized.

Highlighting some regional trends, the report said that the level of food insecurity varies widely from region to region, highlighting stark regional disparities.

In 2025, more than half the population of Africa (56.6 percent) faced moderate or severe food insecurity based on the FIES, compared to 20.3 percent in Asia, 22.9 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 8.7 percent in Northern America and Europe, it said.

It said that while there has been steady progress in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean since 2020, this is the first year that improvement has been seen in Africa since the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was launched in 2015.

The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in Africa decreased significantly from 58.5 percent in 2024 to 56.6 percent in 2025 - a decrease equivalent to 8.6 million fewer people. There was also a decrease in severe food insecurity in Africa in the same period, from 21.8 to 20.6 percent, it added.

Improvements were seen in all sub-regions of Africa, with significant progress in Northern Africa, where the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity decreased from 35.1 percent in 2024 to 31.4 percent in 2025.

Since the 2030 Agenda was launched in 2015, moderate or severe food insecurity has increased by more than 25 percent in Africa (11.6 percentage points), with an especially notable 57 percent increase in Western Africa (22.4 percentage points), said the report.

The recent progress seen across all the sub-regions of Africa from 2024 to 2025 is encouraging, putting the region back on course towards narrowing the gap to achieving SDG Target 2.1, it added.

Progress was also seen in Asia, where the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity has been decreasing steadily since 2020, according to the latest estimates.

The prevalence decreased from 22.1 percent in 2024 to 20.3 percent in 2025, equivalent to nearly 77 million fewer people facing moderate or severe food insecurity in Asia, said the report.

"The proportion of the population facing severe food insecurity also decreased, from 8.5 percent in 2024 to 8.1 percent in 2025."

The sub-region with the lowest prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025 was Eastern Asia - 6.3 percent, compared to 12.8 percent in South-eastern Asia, 16.0 percent in Central Asia, 31.9 percent in Southern Asia and 35.1 percent in Western Asia.

The trend in recent years is relatively unchanged in Central Asia, Eastern Asia and Western Asia, while it is improving in South-eastern Asia and Southern Asia, said the report.

In 2025, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in Asia fell below the level estimated for 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, but is still a few percentage points higher than in 2015 when the 2030 Agenda was launched.

If the current momentum can be maintained or accelerated, significant progress will be made towards the achievement of SDG Target 2.1, the report suggested.

Steady progress is also being made in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the proportion of the population facing moderate or severe food insecurity decreased for the fifth consecutive year, from 23.8 percent in 2024 to 22.9 percent in 2025, it said.

It said about one-third of the population was moderately or severely food insecure in 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2025, the proportion fell to less than one-quarter, which is even below the 2015 level at the outset of the 2030 Agenda.

However, the report said most of the progress has been in South America, where the trend started to improve in 2021.

The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity has fallen by 35 percent (nearly 11 percentage points) in South America since 2021.

In 2025, the prevalence in South America was 20.3 percent, down from 21.3 percent in 2024 and from its peak of 31.1 percent in 2021, it added.

Improvement has also been seen in recent years in Central America, where the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity peaked at 34.1 percent in 2020 and decreased by nearly 12 percentage points to 22.2 percent in 2025.

The report said the prevalence is highest in the Caribbean, where more than half the population (52.0 percent) was estimated to be moderately or severely food insecure in 2025, and half of this share (24.5 percent of the population) was facing food insecurity at severe levels - a situation which has persisted for several years with little change.

Oceania did not show any progress in 2025 compared to 2024, with the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity remaining above 26 percent in both years, and far above the prevalence of 21.3 percent in 2015 when the 2030 Agenda was launched.

Levels of food insecurity are lowest in Northern America and Europe, with little change in the past several years, said the report.

It said the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity was 8.7 percent in 2025, higher than the prevalence of 6.8 percent in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The prevalence in Europe was 7.7 percent in 2025, compared to 10.7 percent in Northern America, while within Europe, levels ranged from 6.1 percent in Southern Europe to 8.5 percent in Eastern Europe, said the report. +