The global fight against hunger has seen a third consecutive year of decline in 2025, a trend that underscores the possibility of significant progress. However, the latest findings from The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026 (SOFI 2026) report, jointly released by five United Nations specialized agencies, paint a picture of improvements that are precarious, unevenly distributed, and ultimately insufficient to meet the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2030 deadline. The report, unveiled on Tuesday, highlights a complex global landscape where pockets of advancement coexist with persistent challenges, particularly in Africa, and where the rising cost of healthy diets poses a significant barrier to food security for billions.
A Slow but Steady Decline in Hunger
According to the SOFI 2026 report, an estimated 7.8 percent of the global population, or approximately 645 million people, faced hunger in 2025. This represents a marginal but important decrease from 8.1 percent in 2024 and 8.6 percent in 2022. The reduction translates to nearly 14 million fewer people experiencing hunger in 2025 compared to the previous year, and a more substantial 43 million fewer than in 2022. This sustained, albeit slow, improvement offers a glimmer of hope, demonstrating that concerted efforts can yield positive outcomes.
However, the report cautions against complacency. The global recovery from the multifaceted crises of recent years – including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate-induced extreme weather events, and geopolitical conflicts – is far from complete. The progress achieved is described as "fragile," meaning it is susceptible to reversal by unforeseen shocks.
Regional Disparities: Africa Faces Mounting Challenges
The uneven distribution of progress is a central theme of the SOFI 2026 report. While Asia, along with Latin America and the Caribbean, has shown consistent improvement in food security over recent years, Africa presents a starkly different picture. The continent is now home to the largest absolute number of hungry people, with an estimated 309 million individuals facing hunger in 2025, surpassing Asia’s 292 million.
Although Africa’s previously escalating hunger trend is showing signs of stabilization, with the proportion of its population experiencing hunger decreasing slightly from 20.3 percent in 2024 to 20.0 percent in 2025, the sheer scale of the problem is magnified by a rapidly growing population. This means that even as the percentage dips, the absolute number of hungry people continues to be a significant concern. The report indicates that nearly 56.6 percent of Africa’s population faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, a figure dramatically higher than the global average.
Food Insecurity: A Broader Measure of Concern
Beyond outright hunger, the report examines broader measures of food access, revealing a similarly complex and concerning landscape. In 2025, an estimated 25.8 percent of the global population, translating to around 2.1 billion people, experienced moderate or severe food insecurity. This means these individuals were at times forced to compromise on the quality or quantity of the food they consumed to meet their basic needs.
While this figure shows a decline from 27.1 percent in 2024 and 28.7 percent in 2020 – representing a reduction of approximately 86 million fewer people compared to 2024 and 135 million fewer than in 2020 – it remains stubbornly above pre-pandemic levels. This persistent food insecurity highlights the long-term impact of recent global disruptions on household access to adequate and nutritious food.
The regional disparities in food insecurity are profound. In Africa, over half the population (56.6 percent) grappled with moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025. This stands in stark contrast to Asia (20.3 percent), Latin America and the Caribbean (22.9 percent), and Northern America and Europe (8.7 percent). The report also reiterates that food insecurity disproportionately affects rural areas compared to peri-urban and urban settings. Furthermore, while the gender gap in food insecurity narrowed slightly in 2025, women continue to bear a disproportionate burden.
The Shadow of Conflict: Hunger Projections in the Middle East
A significant new element introduced in the SOFI 2026 report is an updated analysis of hunger projections for the next five years, specifically in light of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The report warns that the protracted crisis, with its ripple effects on global food inflation driven by elevated energy and fertilizer prices, could significantly impact future hunger figures.
Depending on the duration and intensity of the conflict’s impact on these economic factors, the projection for 2030 indicates that between 510 to 520 million people may still be facing hunger. This is a higher figure than the pre-conflict scenario projection of 503 million. While the global number of undernourished people is still expected to decrease by approximately 20 percent by 2030 in the baseline scenario, the Middle East conflict introduces a substantial upward risk.
Crucially, these projections do not account for other potential disruptors. The report explicitly mentions the possibility of weather extremes, such as El Niño events anticipated in 2026 and 2027, which could further exacerbate the situation and compound the effects of the conflict. The joint authors of the report – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO) – issue a stern warning: the Middle East conflict, coupled with climate variability and a potential decline in official development assistance and humanitarian funding, poses a serious threat to the progress made in eradicating global hunger.
Stalled Progress on Global Nutrition Targets
Beyond the prevalence of hunger, the SOFI 2026 report also casts a critical eye on global nutrition targets, revealing that progress in this crucial area remains significantly insufficient. International commitments, including those outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, are at risk of being missed.
Key indicators related to maternal and child nutrition show only marginal improvements, with progress deemed too slow to meet the set targets. Indicators such as child stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), overweight, low birthweight, and exclusive breastfeeding rates are not advancing at the required pace.
Compounding these concerns, anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 years is reported to be worsening. Simultaneously, the prevalence of adult obesity continues its steady upward trajectory, increasing from 12.1 percent in 2012 to 16.2 percent in 2024. This trend runs directly counter to the target of halting the rise in obesity by 2025. The report also highlights that a mere 30.8 percent of children aged 6 to 23 months globally consume a minimally diverse diet, and a staggering 150 million children under five years of age are still stunted.
As with hunger and food insecurity, regional disparities are evident in nutrition outcomes. While child stunting is declining in Africa and is on track to meet the 2030 target in Asia, exclusive breastfeeding rates are improving across most regions with available data. However, anaemia among women is a growing concern in nearly all regions, and child overweight is rapidly increasing in Oceania.
The Prohibitive Cost of a Healthy Diet
This year’s SOFI report dedicates a significant section to examining the cost of a healthy diet, a crucial determinant of nutritional outcomes. A healthy diet, defined by the FAO and WHO as adequate, balanced, diverse, and moderate, requires the expenditure of locally available foods that meet energy and most nutrient requirements. The report identifies the cost of such a diet as a major impediment to achieving SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), even while acknowledging that reducing costs alone will not guarantee improved dietary quality.
In 2025, the average global cost of a healthy diet rose to 4.28 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day. This represents an increase from 3.44 PPP dollars in 2021 and 2.94 PPP dollars in 2017. Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the highest regional cost at 4.91 PPP dollars per day.
Concurrently, the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet has declined, falling from 2.97 billion (37.4 percent of the global population) in 2021 to 2.69 billion (32.7 percent) in 2025. Despite this numerical reduction, the trend masks severe regional disparities. In Africa, affordability has worsened markedly, with a staggering 66.6 percent of the population unable to afford a healthy diet in 2025 – more than double the levels observed in Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The report attributes these wide variations in healthy diet costs to structural differences in agrifood systems. Animal source foods, fruits, and vegetables constitute the largest share of costs, while starchy staples are relatively less expensive. In Africa, animal source foods are the primary driver of healthy diet costs, whereas vegetables represent the largest component in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Reforming Food Value Chains to Lower Costs
The report emphasizes the critical role of food value chains in determining prices. Post-farmgate activities, encompassing processing, logistics, and wholesale, account for a substantial 70 to 75 percent of what consumers ultimately pay, with up to 40 percent of total costs stemming from these segments. Therefore, enhancing efficiency in these areas is deemed essential, particularly for reducing the cost of perishable, nutrient-rich foods.
Achieving a reduction in the cost of a healthy diet necessitates context-specific policy interventions. These should focus on expanding the supply of nutritious foods while simultaneously lowering structural costs across agrifood value chains. This includes strategic investments in infrastructure, research and development, irrigation systems, and cold chains. Reforms in subsidy schemes, trade facilitation, and regulatory frameworks are also identified as crucial components.
Furthermore, the report advocates for targeted interventions that boost productivity, minimize food losses, and promote sustainable agricultural practices. Such measures can have a dual benefit: improving nutrition outcomes while simultaneously strengthening resilience to climate shocks and supporting global climate goals.
The SOFI 2026 report concludes with a powerful statement: "The work that lies ahead over the years to 2030 is immense. However, a world in which a healthy diet is no longer out of reach for nearly one in three people is a world worth building."
Official Responses and Expert Commentary
The release of the SOFI 2026 report has been met with strong reactions from the leaders of the involved UN agencies, emphasizing the urgency and complexity of the challenges ahead.
QU Dongyu, Director-General of the FAO, stated, "The report shows that progress is possible, but we must move faster. Ending hunger and making healthy diets affordable requires political commitment, sustained investment and enabling policies. Recent crises – from natural disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic to man-made disasters like hotspots of conflicts, the war in Ukraine, the Gaza crisis, and the recent Strait of Hormuz disruption – have demonstrated both the resilience of agrifood systems and the need to strengthen them further to better serve the world’s most vulnerable people, farmers and consumers."
Alvaro Lario, President of IFAD, highlighted the affordability issue: "SOFI tells us that the cost of a healthy diet continues to rise and that nearly 2.7 billion people may still be unable to afford a healthy diet. Resilient value chains must be a central part of the answer. Our task now is to turn the evidence SOFI provides into investment – and to do so through partnership. Together, we can build the value chains, market systems and rural economies that make healthy food affordable for all."
Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF, underscored the impact on children: "Every child deserves the chance to grow and develop to their full potential, and this starts with access to nutritious, affordable food. This report is a stark reminder that food systems fail millions of children and families. Food, health, education and social protection must go hand in hand to protect the most vulnerable children and women from global shocks."
Carl Skau, Acting Executive Director of the WFP, drew attention to the human cost of food insecurity: "Behind every number in this report is a family counting the cost of food. Conflict and climate shocks push them further beyond their means. We must continue working with partner agencies, governments and communities to build food systems that hold up under shock, so families can afford nutritious diets, even in times of crisis. We now need sustained investment to match the scale of the challenge."
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, emphasized the link between nutrition and health: "While we welcome the clear progress we have made in reducing hunger, a healthy diet still remains unaffordable for one in three people globally. Obesity is rising and progress on maternal and child nutrition is stalling. But we know what works: policies that make healthy food the easy choice, promoting breastfeeding, front-of-pack labelling, taxing unhealthy products, and protecting children from harmful marketing. Healthy diets are not a luxury – they are the foundation of health and must be within everyone’s reach."
Analysis and Implications
The SOFI 2026 report presents a complex and sobering assessment of the global food security and nutrition landscape. While the decline in hunger is a welcome development, it is tempered by the significant fragility of this progress and the widening regional disparities. The report’s findings have several critical implications:
- The SDG 2030 Target Remains Elusive: The current trajectory suggests that the goal of eradicating hunger and malnutrition by 2030 is increasingly unlikely without a dramatic acceleration of efforts and a fundamental shift in global policy and investment.
- Africa’s Vulnerability Requires Targeted Intervention: The concentration of hunger and food insecurity in Africa demands a robust and sustained response, focusing on resilient agricultural systems, economic development, and social protection measures tailored to the continent’s specific challenges.
- Conflict as a Major Threat Multiplier: The report’s analysis of the Middle East conflict underscores the devastating impact of geopolitical instability on food security. Addressing the root causes of conflict and ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access are paramount.
- The Cost of Healthy Diets as a Public Health Crisis: The rising cost of nutritious food is creating a dual burden: undernutrition due to lack of access to sufficient food, and the rise of diet-related non-communicable diseases (like obesity) due to the consumption of cheaper, less nutritious alternatives. Policy interventions must address both affordability and accessibility of healthy foods.
- Climate Change and Food Systems Interdependence: The looming threat of climate-induced weather extremes, such as El Niño, highlights the urgent need for climate-resilient food systems and investments in adaptation and mitigation strategies.
The SOFI 2026 report serves as a critical call to action for governments, international organizations, and civil society. It emphasizes that while progress is achievable, it requires unwavering political will, substantial and sustained investment, and coordinated, context-specific policies to ensure that no one is left behind in the pursuit of a hunger-free and nourished world. The insights provided offer a roadmap, but the journey ahead demands urgency and collective commitment.
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