Goal 2: Zero Hunger

Goal 2: Zero Hunger2022-11-07T09:39:43-05:00

Sustainable Development Goal 2 is about creating a world free of hunger by 2030.  In 2020, between 720 million and 811 million persons worldwide were suffering from hunger, roughly 161 million more than in 2019. Also in 2020, a staggering 2.4 billion people, or above 30 per cent of the world’s population, were moderately or severely food-insecure, lacking regular access to adequate food. The figure increased by nearly 320 million people in just one year. Globally, 149.2 million children under 5 years of age, or 22.0 per cent, were suffering from stunting (low height for their age) in 2020, a decrease from 24.4 per cent in 2015.

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

Photo: Two and a half million people in the Central African Republic (CAR) are facing hunger.

COVID-19 response

The World Food Programme’s food assistance programme provides a critical lifeline to 87 million vulnerable people across the world. Their analysis of the economic and food security implications of the pandemic outlines the potential impact of COVID-19 on the world’s poorest people

In light of the pandemic’s  effects on the food and agricultural sector, prompt measures are needed to ensure that food supply chains are kept alive to mitigate the risk of large shocks that have a considerable impact on everybody, especially on the poor and the most vulnerable.  

In order to address these risks, the Food and Agriculture Organization urges countries to:

  • Meet the immediate food needs of their vulnerable populations, 
  • Boost social protection programmes, 
  • Keep global food trade going, 
  • Keep the domestic supply chain gears moving, and 
  • Support smallholder farmers’ ability to increase food production.

The UN’s Global Humanitarian Response Plan lays out steps to fight the virus in the world’s poorest countries and address the needs of the most vulnerable people, including those facing food insecurity.

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