Livelihoods

Food security is increasingly challenging for people around the world. Rising food and energy prices, armed conflicts, and the effects of climate change are all magnifying hunger and malnutrition worldwide. An estimated 281.6 million people in 59 countries are facing high levels of acute food insecurity—countries like Somalia, Senegal, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Malawi. That’s an increase of 23.8 million people since 2023.

Approximately nine million people die every year of hunger and hunger-related diseases—more than the deaths from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Over three million of those deaths are children under five.

Geopolitical conflicts also continue to impact food security. Even though food prices were increasing before the war in Ukraine, studies found that the conflict would lead to a 60 per cent trade drop and 50 per cent increase in wheat prices. This would, in turn, drive severe food insecurity with decreased purchasing power for wheat, especially among countries that rely on wheat imports.

Although global food prices declined in 2023, easing pressures on most international food markets,
domestic food inflation and acute food insecurity remain important challenges, especially for low-income countries. Moreover, protracted conflicts in many countries are impeding food and nutrition security for children, women and other community members.

Women and girls continue to be most affected by food insecurity. Gender inequality is a major cause and effect of hunger and poverty, with six out of every 10 chronically hungry persons being female. The gender gap in food insecurity continued to rise in 2023, with 26.7 per cent of women experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity, compared to 25.4 per cent of men. These disparities have long-term negative implications for young women’s growth, cognitive development and future opportunities.

Large-scale food and nutrition crises can and should be a thing of the past. To make this a reality, we need strong collective leadership, political will and the right financing, with short-term emergency responses and longer-term commitments that address the underlying issues driving hunger. These efforts must support human rights, climate finance, peaceful resolutions to conflict, and the gender-responsive transformation of food systems to become inclusive, sustainable and more resilient.

Extreme poverty was recently in global decline, dropping from 10.1 per cent to 8.6 per cent between 2015 and 2018. However, the effects of conflict, climate change and inflation have severely stunted the gains. The global economy shows slow recovery with global output for 2023 estimated to be 3.4 per cent below pre-pandemic projections; emerging markets and developing economies show even weaker recovery, especially low-income countries, where output losses average more than 6.5 per cent.

Formal and informal financial services are part of the solution for addressing this challenge. These tools can help people rise out of poverty by providing access to credit and savings, the ability to invest in education or businesses, and safety nets to weather financial emergencies. However, many people living in poverty lack access to formal financial services like bank accounts. As of 2021, 1.4 billion adults were “unbanked” around the world, most of them from developing economies.

Young women are three times more likely than their male counterparts to be unemployed or out of school. According to to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the global number of out-of-school children has risen by six million since 2021 and now totals 250 million. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that in low-income countries, the “jobs gap” (all people who want employment but do not have a job) stands at 24.3 per cent for women and 17.4 per cent for men.”

Approximately one billion children live in the 33 countries classified as “extremely high-risk” for climate change impacts. Between climate change, urbanization and an overall lack of disaster preparedness worldwide, natural hazards such as droughts, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis are becoming increasingly catastrophic, causing death and economic losses. The impact of disasters caused by natural hazards is rising. Women and girls are often disproportionately affected by these events because they are more vulnerable to threats and less able to access information or assistance.

May, June and July 2024 comprised the hottest three-month period in recorded history. The July global surface temperature was 1.21 degrees Celsius above the 20th-century average of 15.8 degrees Celsius. Countries like Chile, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan are facing the worst droughts in decades. In 2023, there were 399 natural hazards and disasters recorded around the world, affecting 93.1 million people and costing an estimated US$202.7 billion in economic losses.

The practice of disaster risk reduction (DRR) reduces vulnerability to disasters by identifying risks and making community-based and systemic changes that mitigate them. This requires identifying and decreasing the underlying drivers of risk, including poor economic development, environmental degradation, poverty, inequality and climate change. This work is vital to prevent needless deaths and to ensure that development work is sustainable.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development affirms the need to reduce the risks and effects of disasters. By doing so, there are opportunities to achieve the SDGs through reducing vulnerability among the poor and building resilient infrastructure.