AFRICA Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2023: Statistics and Trends

The current estimates for 2021 show that the average cost of a healthy diet in Africa (3.57 PPP dollars per person per day) is almost the same as the cost at the global level (3.66 PPP dollars per person per day). Across the subregions, the cost of a healthy diet is highest in Southern Africa (4.06 PPP dollars) followed by Western Africa (3.71 PPP dollars), Central Africa (3.55 PPP dollars), Northern Africa (3.47 PPP dollars) and Eastern Africa (3.29 PPP dollars).

The average cost of a healthy diet increased by 5.6 percent between 2020 and 2021 in Africa, and is higher than the increase at the global level (4.3 percent). All subregions except Northern Africa experienced rising costs. Across the subregions and compared to 2019 that marked the pre-COVID 19 pandemic year, Western Africa and Eastern Africa recorded the highest cumulative cost increase of 10.3 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively, followed by Southern Africa (9.4 percent) and Central Africa (7.6 percent) (results not shown in tables). Western Africa is the subregion reporting the highest increase in the cost of a healthy diet between 2020 and 2021 (7.6 percent). On the contrary, the cost of healthy diets in Northern Africa declined by 3.4 percent from 2019 to 2021, with the highest decrease of 2.8 percent reported between 2020 and 2021 (TABLE 14 and FIGURE 24).

In 2021, more than three-quarters (77.5 percent) of the population in Africa — more than one billion people — were unable to afford a healthy diet. This number represents about one-third of the global population that was in such situation. Eastern Africa and Western Africa were home to almost 70 percent of Africa’s population who were unable to afford a healthy diet. At subregional level, 362 million people (84.6 percent of the population) in Eastern Africa and 350 million people (85.4 percent of the population) in Western Africa were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021. Relatively fewer people were affected in Southern Africa (46 million), Northern Africa (128.5 million) and Central Africa (154.5 million), although they represent more than half of the total population in these subregions (TABLE 15).

Compared to 2019, there were 51 million more people unable to afford a healthy diet in Africa, suggesting that the increased cost of a healthy diet has been a major contributing factor. The increase in Africa is driven by developments in Western Africa and Eastern Africa with the largest cumulative increases of 22.5 million and 20.6 million people, respectively, while Southern Africa had the lowest increase of 2.2 million, and Northern Africa witnessed a reduction by 2.8 million people (FIGURE 25).

The percentage of the population unable to afford a healthy diet varied to a large extent among the 46 countries in Africa where data were available for the estimates, from the lowest of 7.3 percent in Seychelles to the highest of nearly 98 percent in Madagascar. In 25 countries, more than 75 percent of the population was unable to afford a healthy diet. Out of these countries, the percentage is at least 90 percent in ten countries, a condition that is very alarming for achieving food security and better nutrition (FIGURE 26).