Chapter 1 Sustainable Development Goal 2.1: Undernourishment and food insecurity
Key messages- While the global prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) increased from 8.4 percent in 2019 to 9.3 percent in 2020 and to 9.8 percent in 2021, the PoU in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region has remained below 2.5 percent for nearly two decades. However, in the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Western Balkans, the PoU is above 2.5 percent but still well below world average. The latest result shows the persistence of undernourishment in countries of the region that are the most vulnerable in terms of food security to various shocks.
- After increasing sharply in 2020, the regional prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity increased again in 2021 (9.8 percent in 2019, 11.3 percent in 2020 and 12.4 percent in 2021), reflecting a deteriorating situation for people already facing serious hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 116.3 million people in the ECA region were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021, an increase of 10.7 million (10.1 percent) from 2020. In all, that is 25.5 million (28.1 percent) added to the numbers from 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase was across all subregions but most prevalent in Central Asia and the Western Balkans.
- Compared to the world average, the ECA region has a relatively low prevalence of severe food insecurity, similar to the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity. However, severe food insecurity rose in 2021 from 2020, after an earlier increase from 2019 to 2020. An estimated 27.4 million people in Europe and Central Asia experienced severe food insecurity in 2021, a jump of 5.9 million people (27.4 percent) from 2020 and 13.1 million people (91.6 percent) from 2019.
- Sex-disaggregated estimates across the region show that moderate or severe food insecurity was experienced more by women (12.5 percent) than by men (10.3 percent) in 2021.
Note
Another crisis is unfolding as this report is being written with potentially sobering implications for global food security and nutrition: the war in Ukraine. Although the statistics presented in this report refer to the period up until 2021 and, therefore, represent the state of food security before the onset of the war, it is likely that the direct and indirect effects of the war will have multiple implications for global agricultural markets through the channels of trade, production and prices over time. Ultimately, this casts a shadow over the state of food security and nutrition for many countries – in particular those that are already facing hunger and food crisis situations – and poses an additional challenge for achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 targets of ending hunger and ensuring access to adequate food for all (SDG Target 2.1) and eliminating all forms of malnutrition (SDG Target 2.2).
