About the Report

• The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) is an annual flagship report, jointly prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
• It reports on progress towards ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition and to provide in-depth analysis on key challenges for achieving this goal in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Why in News?

• The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 report was released recently.

Highlights of the Report

• Between 8.3 crore and 13 crore people globally are likely to go hungry this year due to the economic recession triggered by COVID-19.
• Estimates drawn from data available till March 2020 show that almost 69 crore people went hungry in 2019 — up by 1 crore in 2018.
• The heads of the five agencies warn that “five years after the world committed to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, we are still off track to achieve this objective by 2030.”

On the rise

• The report underlines, hunger continues to be on the rise since 2014 and the global prevalence of undernourishment, or overall percentage of hungry people, is 8.9%.
• Asia remains home to the greatest number of undernourished (38 crore). Africa is second (25 crore), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (4.8 crore).
• The report highlights that a healthy diet costs more than ₹143 (or $1.90/ day), which is the international poverty threshold. The number of people globally who can’t afford a healthy diet is at 300 crore people, or more than the combined population of the two most populous countries in the world, i.e. China and India.