NEAR EAST AND NORTH AFRICA Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2024: Statistics and trends

The prevalence of undernourishment reached a new height in the Arab States in 2023 with 14 percent of their population (66.1 million people) facing hunger. Malnutrition, such as wasting, overweight among children, and obesity among adults, continues to be a high concern. The cost of a healthy diet has significantly increased in recent years, and almost one-third of the region’s population could not afford a healthy diet in 2022.

The gloomy food security and malnutrition indicators highlight the intensification of major drivers of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the region, such as conflict, climate extremes and variability and economic slowdowns and downturns, combined with growing inequalities and the unaffordability of healthy diets. These major drivers are not only increasing in frequency and intensity, but they are occurring more often in combination, resulting in record-high food-insecure people.

The region remains far from achieving the goal of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition. In addition, it is facing the intensification of multiple major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition. This calls for a complete transformation of agrifood systems that improve food security and nutrition, promote livelihoods, and protect the planet. For such a transformation, financing must be stepped up.

This report maps current financing for food security and nutrition in the Arab States and highlights the need to better use existing public resources and deploy additional funding to improve food security and nutrition and transform agrifood systems. Furthermore, it presents sources of capital and innovative financial instruments that help close the food security and nutrition funding gap.

Unfortunately, the region’s food security and nutrition indicators are expected to deteriorate further in the near future due to conflicts in Gaza and the Sudan and persistent droughts in many parts of the region. This calls for further and more intensive cooperation among international partners to support regional Member States in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2.1 and 2.2.

Abdul Hakim Elwaer
Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Dina Saleh
Regional Director for the Near East, North Africa, Central Asia and Europe, International Fund for Agriculture Development

Corinne Fleischer
Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, World Food Programme

Ahmed Al Mandhari
Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, World Health Organization

Adele Khodr
Regional Director of UNICEF in the Middle East and North Africa

Rola Dashti
Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia