Goal 2: Zero hunger

Between 2014 and the onset of the pandemic, the number of people going hungry and suffering from food insecurity had been gradually rising. The COVID-19 crisis has pushed those rising rates even higher. The war in Ukraine is further disrupting global food supply chains and creating the biggest global food crisis since the Second World War. The COVID-19 crisis has also exacerbated all forms of malnutrition, particularly in children.

In 2020, between 720 and 811 million persons worldwide were suffering from hunger, as many as 161 million more than in 2019. Also in 2020, over 30 per cent – a staggering 2.4 billion people – were moderately or severely food-insecure, lacking regular access to adequate food. This represents an increase of almost 320 million people in the course of just one year.

Globally, 149.2 million children under five years of age, or 22.0 per cent, were suffering from stunting (low height for age) in 2020², the proportion having decreased from 24.4 per cent in 2015. These numbers may become higher, however, owing to continued constraints on accessing nutritious diets and essential nutrition services during the pandemic, with the full impact possibly taking years to manifest itself. To achieve the target of a 5 per cent reduction in the number of stunted children by 2025, the current rate of decline of 2.1 per cent per year must double through global efforts to 3.9 per cent per year.

In 2020², wasting (low weight for height) affected 45.4 million children under five years of age (6.7 per cent) and overweeight affected 38.9 million children under five years of age (5.7 per cent). Wasting will be one of the conditions most impacted by COVID-19 pandemic in the short term; about 15 per cent more children than currently estimated may have been suffering from wasting, owing to deterioration in household wealth and disruptions in the availability and affordability of nutritious food and essential nutrition services. Childhood overweight may also be on the rise in some countries where unhealthy food replaced fresh, nutritious food and movement restrictions have constrained opportunities for physical activity for long periods of time.

In women, anaemia increases the risk of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. Since 2015, the prevalence of anaemia in women of reproductive age has been stagnant globally, with over half a billion women aged 15-49 years with anaemia in 2019, representing a prevalence of 29.9 per cent (29.6 per cent in non-pregnant women and 36.5 per cent in pregnant women).

Source: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal2