Chapter 1 Sustainable Development Goal 2.1: Undernourishment and Food Insecurity
Key messages- The continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine on the affordability of food are exacerbating hunger and food insecurity.
- Progress in eliminating hunger in Asia and the Pacific1 has continuously slowed during the past few years, as undernourished people increased by 26 million between 2020 and 2021. 1 Please refer to Annex IV for the country coverage of this report. In particular, Central Asia and Western Asia are not included.
- In 2021, 396 million people in Asia and the Pacific were undernourished, and most (331.6 million) were living in Southern Asia.
- The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that 460 million people in the region suffered from severe food insecurity in 2021, while an additional 586 million suffered moderate food insecurity.
