Cairo, Egypt - Today FAO, IFAD, WFP, WHO, UNICEF, and ESCWA have released the 2023 Near East and North Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition.

According to the report, the number of undernourished people was 59.8 million in 2022, or 12.9 percent of the population, well above the world average of 9.2 percent. This represents a 75.9 percent increase since 2000. Hunger was the highest in low-income countries and the least developed Arab countries, where almost every third person suffered from undernutrition.

Undernourishment in conflict countries was almost four times higher than in non-conflict countries.

Moderate or severe food insecurity affected 170.1 million people, 36.6 percent of the population, in 2022, a slight decrease from 2021, when 173.3 million people, 37.9 percent of the population were food insecure. However, in 2022, 61.0 million people suffered from severe food insecurity. This is an increase of 3.8 million people from the previous year.

The triple crises of climate change, conflict and the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic were affecting the region in 2022. Droughts decreased yields in many countries while the war in Ukraine pushed higher global food prices. As the region depends heavily on imported foods with many countries relying on imported staples from the Black Sea region, food inflation reached record level amid depreciating local currencies. Higher food prices impact the poor more because they spend a larger share of their income on food.

The Arab region continued to suffer from the triple burden of malnutrition; undernutrition, child overweight/adult obesity and micronutrient deficiencies, such as anaemia. The prevalence of overweight among children (9.5 percent) and anaemia among women (33.2 percent) are higher than the world average. The downward trend of child stunting has slowed down, and recent high food prices might even reverse it. Obesity among adults (27.6 percent in 2016) is more than double the global average. In addition, several nutritional trends have shown deterioration recently. For example, there are upward trends in overweight among children, obesity among adults and anaemia among women.

Food price inflation undermines not only food security but also threatens nutrition and health. Since 2017, the cost of a healthy diet in the Arab States has increased annually, making healthy and diverse diets less affordable. The cost of a healthy diet in the region has been increasing in recent years, and healthy diets were out of reach for 43.8 percent of the region’s population in 2021.

To combat hunger and to reverse the deteriorating trends in food security and nutrition situation, the region has to transform its agrifood systems, making them more resilient to shocks and emerging crises and more efficient, inclusive and sustainable to reach Sustainable Development Goal 2 targets.

“The increasing number, frequency and extent of external and internal challenges has severely impacted the pursuit of food security in the Arab Region. We need to accelerate the transformation of agrifood systems, and ensure sustainability and resilience, through collaborative and transformative leadership and policies and adopt more creative and climate-smart solutions”, said Dr. Abdulhakim Elwaer, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.