World ‘far off track’ on hunger targets, UN warns

The world is at risk of failing to meet its self-imposed obligation to see hunger eradicated by 2030, the UN warned on Wednesday.

About 735 million people worldwide faced chronic hunger last year, an estimated 122 million more than in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, the UN has said, in its latest report on food security.

While countries in South America and many regions of Asia saw a decline in hunger rates thanks to economic recovery from the pandemic, the document reports, hunger is still on the rise in Western Asia, the Caribbean, and in all subregions of Africa. Among the main issues threatening progress towards the global goal to end hunger are conflicts, including the conflict in Ukraine, as well as weather-related events.

According to the projections presented in the document, 600 million people globally will be living undernourished by 2030, meaning that the world is “far off track” to meet the United Nations’ goal of eradicating hunger.

The pledge was made in 2015 when the UN adopted its Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes 17 goals to be achieved, among them “creating a world free of hunger by 2030.”

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