UN agencies warn that conflicts and climate change threaten progress against global hunger

Five UN specialised agencies reported on Tuesday that global hunger rates declined for the third consecutive year in 2025, but the distribution of these improvements remain uneven across regions in addition to the persistence of significant impediments to progress due to energy shocks and armed conflicts.

The UN agencies released a report entitled ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report (SOFI 2026)’, which found that the global progress in reducing hunger and malnutrition remains fragile and insufficient to achieve the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDG) by 2030.

In their report, UN agencies noted a slow but steady decline in global hunger rates compared to previous years. However, recovery is uneven across world regions. While Asia and Latin America recorded a steady improvement, Africa still has the highest number of people facing hunger, with more than half of its population facing moderate or severe food insecurity. Additionally, food insecurity is more prevalent in rural regions than in urban ones.

Furthermore, the report highlighted that projections indicated that hunger rates are likely to increase over the next five years due to multiple factors, including the conflict in the Middle East, which has significant impacts on food inflation by driving up energy and fertiliser prices. These findings align with those of the World Food Programme (WFP), which indicated that escalating hostilities in the Middle East could lead to record levels of food insecurity and the largest disruption in the global economy since the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, extreme weather events, such as El Niño effects, are expected to worsen drought, flood, and heat, which severely affects agricultural conditions and food prices.

SOFI 2026 also underscored that the cost of a healthy diet, which is the average minimum expenditure required to afford locally available foods that meet energy and nutrient requirements, is another barrier that prevents the elimination of food insecurity. The report revealed that while the global cost of a healthy diet recorded a global rise, the number of people able to afford a healthy diet declined in 2025 compared to previous years. Nevertheless, these results are also marked by regional disparities, with Africa having the lowest affordability rates compared to other continents.

In response, the UN agencies emphasised the need to reduce the cost of a healthy diet to all populations, despite the fact that this measure alone is insufficient to improve nutrition quality. Numerous rights groups and international organisations have previously warned of alarming levels of food insecurity in the world, particularly in regions affected by armed conflicts and poverty such as Gaza, Afghanistan, and Haiti. However, the African continent remains the most impacted by malnutrition. In January 2026, the UN warned that millions in Somalia faced hunger and acute food insecurity due to political instability, armed conflicts, and climate change.

Additionally, the WFP stated that over a million people in Nigeria faced food insecurity and lacked humanitarian assistance amid funding shortfalls. Another African country dealing with emergency-level hunger is Djibouti due to many factors, such as high food prices.