Food security and nutrition initiatives often fail due to fragmentation, a lack of consensus on priorities, and the prevalence of numerous actors delivering mostly small, short-term projects, according to this year’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, due to be released next week.

More targeted and less risk-averse finance, as well as better alignment and synergy amongst different funding sources, is critical to scaling up assistance more effectively in hunger-stricken areas of the world, said Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. 

He was speaking this week during an event on Finance to End Hunger and Food Insecurity, held on the sidelines of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) High-Level Political Forum in New York City.

“I call on funders and partners across agri-food systems to enhance coordination and consensus on what and where it is essential to finance and to better target financing for the ones most in need,” said the FAO Director-General in a video-taped address. 

The annual report, a collaboration of FAO, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN agencies, analyses the progress made in addressing SDG2, No Hunger. The full document is due to be launched July 24 at a G20 ministerial task force meeting.

“Every year we report on progress towards the SDG targets towards ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition,” said WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “And every year we report that progress has been insufficient.”

There were between 691 and 783 million people facing hunger in 2022, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report – an increase of 122 million people compared to 2019.

Blurry definitions impede action

Counting people who lack reliable and sufficient nutrition is easier than estimating the costs to address their needs, raising funds and delivering aid that makes a difference long-term and not only in emergencies, according to FAO’s preview of key SOFI report findings. 

Depending on the definitions and scope of planned interventions, the sum needed to ‘feed the world’ could amount to anything between $77 and $15,400 billion, one of the report’s authors, David Laborde, noted at the side event.

No clear definition is “obviously […] a bad starting point,” Laborde pointed out, especially as it obscures accountability. “It’s not that we’re lacking progress, it’s that we’re moving in the wrong direction,” he added. As per the SOFI report, despite continuing efforts, countries that face the most acute malnutrition are also the ones that have the least access to funding.

Need to tackle root drivers of hunger

Funding is also aimed too narrowly, addressing core needs like emergency food supplies – but failing to tackle the roots of the problem and improve the situation in the long run. The current structure is also at fault. Fragmented and dispersed, mostly consisting of small, short-term projects of varying priorities, the funding remains ineffective, Maximo Torero Cullen, FAO Chief Economist assessed at the ECOSOC Forum event.

The report proposes a common definition for food support programmes and encourages agencies to work together and ensure they are communicating about mapping areas of progress.

Electricity or vaccines are also food interventions

A more holistic view on food security could be key to achieving the “no hunger” SDG goal, the Forum’s speakers also highlighted. “Nutrition is a smart investment with significant health and economic returns,” Tedros said, stressing also the economic benefits to resilient food systems. And building those requires diverse funding in various fields.

Rather than a stand-alone problem, malnutrition is a result of several health factors caused by structural problems, Laborde reminded, and as such, needs a broader problem-solving vision.

Expanding energy access in a rural area can be a boost for the local farmers, now able to use electricity-powered irrigation equipment or access food cleaning and cooling technologies.

Investment in community-based animal health services and livestock vaccinations can also serve as a driver for a stronger food system, as demonstrated in areas of conflict in South Sudan and Sudan.

Overcoming uncertainty

The main improvements needed to achieve SDG2 are better coordination – also in terms of targeting and definitions – increased donor risk tolerance and more blended finance, FAO’s Director-General Dr Qu Dongyu said.

Agrifood systems operate under risk by definition, he highlighted, and the uncertainty is even rising with climate-change-induced extreme weather conditions and irregular rainfall. Donors need to understand the nature of the sector and invest despite the risks.

It’s still a bet worth taking, and “financing zero hunger today is investing in a better future tomorrow,” Qu said.

SOFI 2024 estimates that achieving SDG2 “could amount to several trillion USD,” though it is difficult to calculate the exact cost. The sum is beyond the scope achievable for the public sector, which then points to the need for blended, private-public financing.

Depending on the country’s access to financial flows, different instruments are most appropriate. The report recommends grants and concessional loans for those with limited access, domestic tax revenue, especially linked to food security and nutrition outcomes for those with moderate access. High-access countries can use bonds or similar instruments to embed specific food security and nutrition objectives.

“It’s time to rethink financing food security and nutrition,” Tedros said. The change needs to be treated “as an investment in a healthier, safer, and fairer world.”

Food crises also aggravated by conflict 

Along with the longer-term solutions, conflicts in numerous regional hotspots continue to fuel hunger crises, the WHO has underlined over and again. 

More than one million children are at risk from acute malnutrition in Democratic Republic of Congo as rising violence drives up needs amongst millions of displaced people, WHO said on Friday.

The DRC now had the highest number of people in need of humanitarian aid in the entire world, with 25.4 million people affected, Dr Adelheid Marschang, WHO Senior Emergency Officer, said at the press briefing. Despite this, the situation in DRC remains one of the world’s most underfunded and forgotten crises.

In the most affected provinces, Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, 5.4 million people are food insecure, while almost three million children across the country are severely malnourished, according to the WFP. With floods destroying crops, the prospect for next year is even more severe food insecurity. Unless immediate action is taken, over one million children will suffer from acute malnutrition, the WHO alarms.

In Sudan, 26.6 million people, more than half of the population, are food insecure, according to the World Food Programme (WFP) data. Continued fighting between the country’s army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), going on since April 2023, continue to impede the operations of aid organisations. Over 10 million people are internally displaced and 2 million abroad – the largest number in the world, according to a WHO update this week.  

In Khartoum, free kitchens operating there announced July 13 they were forced to shut down due to a lack of funding and food supplies.

In Gaza, where Israel continues its nine-month military campaign to crush the Islamic Hamas organisation following Hamas’ deadly October 7 2023 raids on Israel, WHO officials have warned that one in four people faces starvation risks – even if previous forecasts of widespread famine by July did not yet materialise. Some 96% of the enclave’s 2 million residents are facing crisis levels of hunger – or worse – according to the World Food Programme. 

Israel’s closure of the Rafah crossing into Gaza in mid-May has paralysed the flow of health supplies and humanitarian aid from Egypt – forcing exclusive reliance on Israeli aid crossing points.  Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) said Wednesday that it had been forced to reduce food rations in Gaza City to ensure broader coverage for people who have been newly displaced after new Israeli incursions in the North and South. In July so far, WFP has provided more than 600,000 people in Gaza with food assistance, and more than 500,000 people with food parcels and wheat flour.