Hunger levels remain high three years in a row.  With its focus on finance, the new report calls for better coordination among private, philanthropic and public investors, alongside efforts to tackle the root causes of food insecurity and malnutrition. 

The latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) UN flagship report is a grim reminder that global hunger levels continue to stay unacceptably high, following the steep uptick during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2023, for a third year in a row, around 733 million people faced hunger, that’s about 1 in 11 people globally. Nearly 30% of the global population are moderately or severely food insecure and 2.8 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2022. The report warns that current trends could leave 582 million people chronically undernourished in 2030, with over half in the African continent. The world is not on track to achieve any of the seven global nutrition targets by 2030.

Behind these staggering numbers are people’s lives, livelihoods, and aspirations for their overall well-being. The goal to end hunger is now a race against time. But as the report emphasizes, inaction and delay will not just compound the costs towards achieving zero hunger, but the social, economic, and environmental consequences of ignoring this reality could run into the trillions, weighing down progress across other development goals.

It’s not just the financial costs, there is a moral obligation to do all we can to end hunger in all forms. Besides the finance to address hunger, there is a need to double-down and address the root causes driving hunger and malnutrition, from conflicts, debt, and economic uncertainty to intensifying climate and ecological disasters.

Zooming in on finance—a fragmented landscape

This year’s report puts the spotlight on ‘Financing to end hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition’. The stand-out message from every chapter in the 290-page document is: the world is way off track to eliminate hunger by 2030 (Sustainable Development Goal 2, SDG2) and bridging the finance gap is critical to achieving progress.

While there is a clear a need to mobilize more money, the lack of clarity on where finance is currently going, where it’s needed the most, by whom, and in what amount poses a challenge. This is further complicated by the absence of common definitions and guidelines to measure financing for food security and nutrition. The result: poor estimates, lack of accountability, and no clear picture of the real finance gap—which could potentially be in the trillions. Given the urgency of the situation and the millions of lives impacted by this crisis, the lack of clarity and accountability is unacceptable.

Coordination among philanthropic and private investors

While public domestic funding and overseas development aid is easier to track for food security and nutrition, the landscape is fragmented when it comes to private sector investors and philanthropic funding.

In the case of philanthropy, the report highlights that philanthropic flows to food security and nutrition were about USD 4 billion a year on average between 2017 and 2021, with two-thirds going toward food consumption and health and the rest for addressing the major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition.

The report makes a strong case for a blended finance approach, backed by robust coordination, and agreement on a common understanding of definitions and methodology to map and track financial flows. This can avoid a proliferation of investors, many of whom operate without a clear mandate of what is needed of them in different contexts. Situations vary across the world with Latin America and the Caribbean showing improvement, hunger levels plateauing in Asia, and food insecurity worsening in Africa with 1 in 5 people in the continent facing hunger last year. Large donors could co-invest with smaller investors and philanthropic foundations must align their priorities with those of recipient countries.

From our own work in the Global Alliance, one such initiative is the Transformational Investing in Food Systems Initiative on Mobilizing Money and Movements. It showcases six food-focused initiatives that have incorporated unique investment strategies that blend a spectrum of financial capital to both stimulate social enterprise and achieve sustainable, equitable, and secure food systems.

On philanthropy, the report goes on to say: “…Philanthropic foundations are important stakeholders in the financing architecture for food security and nutrition. Compared to private investors, philanthropic foundations have more chances to focus on impacts than on financial returns and are more tolerant regarding the risks that are often part of development finance.”

Acting as catalytic, early risk-takers, philanthropies can commit to longer term investments into social enterprises, invest into basic infrastructure, and address the major drivers of food insecurity. With the ability to pilot projects, absorb risk and lay the groundwork for future investors, they can work in alignment with countries and communities that require the initial resources.

The Global Alliance is leading one such coordination effort through a growing alliance of philanthropic foundations to scale out out support for transitions to agroecologically and regenerative food systems. This aims not just to increase overall finance but to align efforts across the philanthropic movement to bridge gaps in funding in consultation with countries and communities.

Talk of finance across the board

The report is a hard reality check but finance for food security and nutrition is gaining prominence across multilateral spaces. The G20 this year, led by Brazil, has launched the Task Force for a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty to galvanize resources and consolidate knowledge towards ending global hunger. In parallel, they have unrolled a proposal to tax the ultra rich to tap into new sources of finance.

Similarly, the UN Climate Summit, COP29, this year aims to adopt a new long-term climate finance goal. Climate funds must prioritize food systems transformation and help communities adapt to climate shocks which are a major driver of food insecurity. Currently a mere 3% of climate finance goes towards food systems despite over 90% of national climate plans mentioning adaptation and mitigation in agriculture among their priorities, and food systems accounting for more than one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions.