World's target of zero hunger is ´off track´: UN chief

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Wednesday that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) -- the world's target of zero hunger -- "is off track," reported Xinhua.

In a video message to the launch of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024, Guterres said the report contains two important messages.

"The first is that hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition remain a global crisis," meaning that SDG 2 -- the world's target of zero hunger -- "is off track," the UN chief said.

Around 733 million people, or some 9 percent of the world population, faced hunger in 2023, and some 582 million people will be chronically undernourished by 2030, more than half of them in Africa alone, according to the report.

The report's second message is that "we can solve this crisis," Guterres stressed, adding that finance is "the key."

Finance is just one piece of the "puzzle" in transforming food systems, but is an essential piece, critical to helping countries build and upgrade food systems at the pace and scale required, he pointed out.

Noting that only about one-third of all low- and middle-income countries have adequate financing options for food and nutrition, the UN chief said all low- and middle-income countries are also vulnerable to economic shocks, conflicts and extreme weather events.

He called for justice to help hard-hit countries invest in resilient, innovative and sustainable food systems, to ensure access to short and long-term concessional finance, investments, budget support and debt relief, and to reform the global financial architecture, so developing countries are better represented and can access adequate financing to achieve their goals.

"Hunger has no place in the 21st century," he emphasized, noting that the world of zero hunger envisioned by SDG 2 is not only necessary, but also achievable.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024: Financing to End Hunger, Food Insecurity and Malnutrition in All Its Forms, published by five UN agencies -- the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Children's Fund, the World Food Program, the World Health Organization, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development -- was launched on Wednesday.