The situation is stark and alarming: as global hunger and hardship increase, the financial contributions from the world’s wealthiest nations are declining. According to the United Nations, this imbalance means they will only have sufficient funds to assist about 60% of the 307 million people expected to require humanitarian aid next year. Consequently, at least 117 million individuals will go without food or essential support in 2025.
The global hunger crisis has been deepening for years but has accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The world faces a record level of hunger and food insecurity, with 43 nations facing famine or famine-like conditions — the most severe form of food insecurity where people have run out of food or gone days without eating.
Many of these hunger hot spots are places where conflict, drought, climate disasters, and economic instability have combined to put people at risk of a severe food emergency. These include Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti. In sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to most of the world’s hungry people, food insecurity has risen sharply since 2015.
While some progress has been made in some regions—including Asia and Latin America—the overall trend is worrying. Unless governments, donors, and other partners take urgent action, the global situation will worsen even further in 2020.
Hunger is a leading cause of malnutrition, stunted growth, and other health problems. But it can also devastate communities and drive broader political and social unrest, as seen recently in protests against price increases in Lebanon and Chile, for example. A lack of food can lead to chronic shortages that are difficult to manage or even impossible to recover from.
That’s why the world needs more than just food aid. It needs to invest in longer-term food system reforms, which can provide both nutritious meals and economic opportunity for millions of the world’s most vulnerable people. It must ensure safe and unrestricted access for food aid to be delivered across borders and into war zones and fragile states where food is most needed. It must address the root causes of hunger by investing in peace and development alongside agriculture, nutrition, and climate change efforts.
These challenges are not insurmountable, but they will require leaders to work with urgency and commitment to avoid the catastrophic consequences of a more profound, longer-lasting global hunger crisis. The international community must step up to reduce the risk of a catastrophic hunger catastrophe that could threaten to unravel decades of progress in global health, poverty reduction, and human rights. It must also take decisive steps to prevent the worst consequences of climate change.
