Foreword

The 2022 Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in Europe and Central Asia is the eighth Europe and Central Asia (ECA) report monitoring regional trends and progress made towards reaching SDG 2 (Zero Hunger)¹ food security and nutrition targets. The report includes studies on repurposing policies and incentives to make healthy diets more affordable and agrifood systems more environmentally sustainable. ¹ SDG 2, often referred to as the “Zero Hunger” goal, aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

Seven years after the world committed to ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, neither the world as a whole nor the ECA region in particular is on track to achieve this objective by 2030. There are many obstacles to making progress and achieving the SDGs. Previous editions of the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in Europe and Central Asia and The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World have shown that extreme climate variability, war and conflicts, economic slowdowns and downturns, and the rising costs of nutritious foods undermine efforts to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.

In March 2022, the FAO Food Price Index (FPI) capped a steady rise through the previous two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and rose to the highest level since its inception. Since then the FPI has fallen somewhat but remains significantly higher by 28 percent over 2020. High agricultural input prices, concerns about the weather and climate, and increased market uncertainties stemming from the continuing war in Ukraine, are leading to a tightening of food markets. Food import bills are likely to touch a new record of USD 1.94 trillion this year, according to FAO’s latest Food Outlook published in November. Without doubt, this will exacerbate hunger and poverty in the Asia-Pacific, the world’s most populous region.

In 2022, food security and nutrition throughout the world and in the ECA region have been challenged by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Both the pandemic, which started in early 2020, and the war in Ukraine, which began in early 2022, have been undermining efforts to end hunger and improve food security and nutrition. Causes include higher food, agricultural input and energy prices; increased production, transportation and transition costs; higher unemployment; reduced incomes; and the rising costs of healthy diets. Many of these costs are at all-time highs. Consistent with previous reports, the most recent estimates for 2021 generally reveal that the ECA region has enjoyed a low prevalence of hunger and food insecurity compared to the world average. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has added 25.5 million people in the region to the ranks of the moderately or severely food insecure, leaving them without access to safe, nutritious and adequate food.

Progress has been made in reducing various forms of malnutrition in most countries of the ECA region, including child stunting, child wasting and low birthweight. However, the region is in a worse position overall regarding the prevalence of childhood overweight, exclusive breastfeeding and adult obesity. In particular, the region is seeing alarmingly high – and rising – rates of overweight and obesity. The evidence shows that nearly 27 percent of children aged 6–9 years were overweight in 2015–2017, a much higher prevalence than among children under 5 years of age. Adult obesity is on the rise in all subregions and all countries in the ECA region. This report shows that more work must be done for the ECA region to fully reach the SDG 2.2 targets to end malnutrition.

Healthy diets that contain balanced, diverse, nutritious and appropriately selected foods protect against the effects of malnutrition in all its forms and against non-communicable diseases. This 2022 edition of the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in Europe and Central Asia provides updates on the cost and affordability of a healthy diet for 2020 in the region. The evidence shows that the ECA region and almost all ECA subregions were experiencing increased costs and reduced affordability of healthy diets in 2020 because of inflation in consumer food prices, stemming from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures implemented along food supply chains to contain it. The situation is even worse in 2022 due to the added impacts of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

While ECA countries are working to achieve the SDGs, the promotion of healthy diets has been challenging. The 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit provided global momentum to act to achieve the SDGs through an agrifood system lens while ensuring that all people are able to enjoy their right to a decent and safe life. One of the necessary building blocks in the agrifood systems transformation is the repurposing of food and agricultural policies to make them better suited to addressing the “triple challenge” of current agrifood systems: achieving food security and good nutrition for a growing world population and for better health; providing livelihoods to farmers and others connected to the sector; and reducing the nature and climate footprint of the sector.

Government support to food and agriculture in the ECA region has been increasing, in particular in middle-income countries, affecting the availability, accessibility, diversity and prices of foods. However, a significant portion of this support distorts market prices – which may impact the affordability of a healthy diet – and is destructive to the environment and harmful to small-scale producers and Indigenous Peoples. Making agrifood systems more environmentally sustainable will require more support for agricultural research and development, education, extension, pest and disease control actions, and public food safety control systems. It also is necessary to develop, disseminate and adopt climate-smart agriculture and more emission-efficient technologies, policies and practices to reduce overall emission from agriculture. While 20 percent of total support to food and agriculture globally was for general services, which can create an enabling environment, the figure was just 11 percent among high-income countries and 15 percent among middle-income countries in the ECA region. Moreover, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the goal of self-sufficiency in agrifood commodities has been getting more attention in many countries in the region, and this has led to import and export restrictions that have imposed extra costs on food for consumers. Policies need to be reshaped to apply a more balanced approach to designing agrifood trade polices without undermining people’s access to healthy diets.

A healthy, sustainable, equitable and efficient agrifood systems transformation will need policy options, interactions and the coordination of multisectoral policies within and outside of agrifood systems. Some farmers – especially small-scale farmers and women – who are facing resource constraints and do not have access to markets are not in a position to specialize in the production of “high-priority” foods for healthy diets. Therefore, policy measures will be needed to protect the poor and vulnerable and promote their market access and specialization when considering repurposing agricultural support.

It is important to take into account synergies and trade-offs between the affordability of a healthy diet and the environmental sustainability of agrifood systems when considering the implications of agricultural policies. The Global Framework for Climate Services can help accelerate, coordinate and promote the development and application of climate services to assist decision-making at all levels in support of addressing climate-related risks. The Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System can support decision-makers with information to guide valuable and additional emission-reduction actions and build confidence in the role of atmospheric composition measurements.

The current state of food security and nutrition in the ECA region requires holistically developed regional and national programmes and projects to make healthy diets more affordable while making agrifood systems more environmentally sustainable. These programmes should encompass agrifood systems, health, nutrition education, climate, trade, investment, innovation, social protection and state support for acceleration towards achieving the SDGs.

As with previous editions of the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in Europe and Central Asia, we hope that this report provides valuable knowledge and evidence and contributes to identifying options for informed dialogue and concerted action by all partners as we work together to accelerate progress towards the goal of a hunger-free and healthy Europe and Central Asia. Our organizations stand firmly committed and ready to support governments and bring additional allies on board to achieve policy coherence at regional and national levels.

Vladimir Rakhmanin
Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia
FAO

Dina Saleh
Regional Director, Near East, North Africa and Europe Division
IFAD

Marina Walter
Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS
UNDP

Olga Algayerova
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and ECE Executive Secretary
UNECE

Philippe Cori
Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia
UNICEF

John Aylieff
Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific
WFP

Corinne Fleischer
Regional Director for the Middle East and Northern Africa
WFP

Hans Henri P. Kluge
Regional Director for Europe
WHO

Petteri Taalás
World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General
WMO