Máximo Torero (FAO's Chief Economist) on the launch of the State of Food Security and Nutrition 2026 report - Press Conference

All right, good afternoon. We're going to start with the guests today. If we could put them all on the screen, that would be fantastic. I see Maximo. Great. And I see Paterno Bugard, right? And I see Jean-Martin. Maximo, if we could ask you to take out the blur in your background, that would be good. Given that you are the person with the most guest appearances at a noon briefing, we want you to look good. Jean-Martin, I think, is a close second. All right, excellent. Good afternoon. We're delighted to be joined virtually by our friends, Maximo Torero, who, as you well know, is the FAO's Chief Economist. He is briefing on the launch of the State of Food Security Nutrition 2026 report, co-authored by FAO, by IFAD, otherwise known as the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and UNICEF, as well as the World Health Organization and, of course, the World Food Programme. Joined online is, as I mentioned, Piet Ternel Boogaert from IFAD, who is the Managing Director in the Office of Technical Delivery and Jean-Martin Bauer from WFP, who is Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis. Maximo will present the report and then all 3 of them will be available to take questions. So please, Maximo, go ahead.

Thank you very much and a pleasure to be with you again. As you know, the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World provides an update on estimates of global hunger, food insecurity, diet affordability, and nutrition outcomes. It also examines factors behind the high cost of a healthy diet that we discussed last week. So let me focus today on the numbers that are coming out in the report. So we start with hunger. The latest estimates indicate that 7.8% of the global population was undernourished in 2025, equivalent to 645 million people, with a range between 608 and 696 million people. So the midpoint, 645 million people. This compares with 8.1% in 2024 and 8.6% in 2022, which means in terms of numbers that there has been a reduction of 40 million between 2024 and 2025 and 43 million compared with the 2022 peak. However, the numbers remain approximately 50 million higher than in 2050 when the SDGs were adopted. Now, the regional trends remain uneven. In 2025, Africa became the region with the largest number of undernourished people, with approximately 309 million people passing Aisha, and around 1 in 5 people in Africa face hunger. This partially reflects demographic trends. Africa's population is growing by approximately 2.3% per year and by around 2.4% in Sub-Saharan Africa, while Asia is 0.6%. But at the same time, it also reflects the the prolonged increase in hunger prevalence in Africa, which is because of conflicts and economic pressures and structural short-term shocks. Between 2024 and 2025, the prevalence of undernourishment declined, which is important. It moved down by 0.3 percentage in Africa and 0.4 percentage points in Asia and 0.3 percentage points in Southeastern Asia and 0.9 percentage points in Southern Asia And 0.2 percentage points in Latin America and the Caribbean. Western Asia was the only subregion where hunger clearly increased by 0.6 percentage points. So in all the regions, with the exception of Western Asia, we see a decline. And the reason of this is because of the rapid population growth in the case of Africa, as I mentioned before, that the number is bigger. Turning to another indicator that we report, which is the moderate or severe food insecurity, which looks at undernourishment and overnutrition. We find 2.1 billion people, or 25.8% of the global population, which experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025. And this represents approximately 135 million fewer people than in 2020 and nearly 86 million people fewer than in 2024. So it's important progress. Poorest has been recorded in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean since 2020. In Africa also registered an improvement in 2025 for the first time since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda. Nevertheless, 56.6% of Africa's population remained moderately or severely food insecure in 2025. The corresponding figures were 20.3% in Asia, 22.9% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 8.7% in North America and Europe. Important inequalities also persist. Moderate or severe food insecurity affected approximately 30% of the population in rural areas compared to 22% in urban areas, and it also affected 24% of women compared to 23% of men. Now, it's important to mention that the gender gap has narrowed between 2024-2025, especially when it has increased substantially during the COVID pandemic. The report also assesses if people can access a healthy diet, can afford a healthy diet. And what we found in 2025 is that 2.7 billion people, or 32.7% of the global population, were unable to afford one. The regional proportions were approximately 67% in Africa, 29% in Asia, 26% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 7% in Northern America and Europe and Oceania. Africa was the only region where the proportion unable to afford a healthy diet increased Compared with 2021. In 2025, 66.6% of the African population could not afford a healthy diet. We also present an indicator of dietary diversity, which remains still important and has shown problems still. Only 30.8% of the children aged 6 to 23 months consume a minimum diverse diet, meaning that 69.2% did not. Among women aged 15 to 49, 62.7% achieved a minimum dietary diversity, while 37.3% did not. And the significant data gaps remain, particularly for women and children in several regions. The world is currently off track to achieve all 7 Global Nutrition Targets for 2030. Although stunting declined from 26.4 percentage points in 2012 to 23.2% in 2024, compared with a target of 16.8%. Wasting declined from 7.4% to 6.6%, against the target of being below 5%. Overweight, on the contrary, has increased from 5.3% to 5.5%, while the target is again below 5%. Exclusive breastfeeding increased from 37% to 47.4%, compared with a target of 60%. Low birth weight declined 15.0% to 14.7% compared to a target of 10.5%. Surprisingly, anemia among women increased from 27.6% to 30.7% against a target of 13.8%, and adult obesity increased from 12.1% in 2012 to 16.2% in 2024. Finally, the global average cost of a healthy diet, reached $4.28 PPP dollars, purchasing power parity dollars, per person per day in 2025. This was 25% higher than in 2021. This is a result, of course, of food inflation. The cost was approximately 40% above the international extreme poverty line, which is $3 per day PPP, exceeding the $4.20 poverty line used to the lower middle-income countries. The report emphasized the importance of increasing the access to a healthy diet. And there are 3 elements that we look in the report. One is affordability, the number I reported, 2.7 billion people that cannot afford. The second one is the cost of the healthy diet. And the third one is essentially the behavioral change of people that can afford but also consume. Why it's so important? Because healthy diets are crucial to minimize undernutrition and overnutrition. And to minimize the $8.1 trillion of indirect, or what we call hidden costs, created on health because of non-communicable diseases and because of deaths in these respective sectors. So, in summary, the report brings for the first time a reduction for the 3rd year in terms of the prevalence of undernourishment, but it shows it is fragile. It shows that there is heterogeneity among regions in the world. It's the first time that the prevalence is reduced in Africa, which is good news, but the absolute numbers are increasing even more than Asia because of the population growth and the conflicts and the different problems that this region is facing. And of course, the report emphasized the importance of increasing the access and the affordability to healthy diets, because 2.7 billion people is creating significant problems to health because of undernourishment and overnutrition. Thank you very much.

Maximo, we'll go to Edith. Please go ahead, Edith.

Thank you very much, Maximo, on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association for doing this briefing. My name is Edith Lederer from the Associated Press, as you know. 2 follow-ups and a question. I think you said that the African region now has the largest number of undernourished people. What region had the largest number before? And also, when you said that West Africa had the— big— a 0.6% increase, which apparently was the only one. Could you shed some light on why it increased? And my question before listening is, what impact has the cuts in— In the budget? US and other international aid had on these figures on undernourishment? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Evian. Very nice seeing you again. Look, in terms of the numbers, in terms of Africa, as I said before, it was Asia, the one that had the absolute number higher in terms of hunger in the world. Now it's Africa, and these 309 million people in hunger. And the reason of the increase is because of the population growth and also because— so Africa is 2.4% population growth in sub-Saharan Africa relative to 0.6% in Asia. So this trend we were already observing now is realized in surpassing the number in the case of of Asia. Now, to your second question, West Asia, we see that there is a significant increase on undernourishment, and the reports elaborates a little bit on it, but the major increase is driven by conflict and displacement. That's the major issue that is affecting these countries, together with the problem of high prices, high prices and macroeconomic instability and depreciation, which is creating significant challenges. And dependence on food import. So that's why the reason is increasing in this, in this region. Now, your final question regarding the ODA. So we know that ODA in Africa, for example, has decreased in around 24 to 26% in 2025, which is the year of the report. Now, the way to look at this is a little bit different and where we need to be careful, because the way to look at it is, okay, what will be the counterfactual? The counterfactual will be a case in which we have the ODA. And potentially what could have happened is that the numbers would have been a lot better than the 0.3% reduction in prevalence. We don't know what are the impacts now because these impacts will, will take time. But clearly we are losing that opportunity of having those resources to be able to allocate. Now, how it will be so difficult to assess the net impact because countries are also adapting and changing, and there are other sources of funding that are coming through other mechanisms. But of course, there is an absolute reduction, but the net effect will be very difficult to disentangle. But let me pass the floor to my colleagues because this has impacted them, especially WFP and IFAD, so they can elaborate a little bit more on that.

Jean-Martin, please go ahead.

Thank you. And if I could elaborate on what Maximo was saying about the impacts of lower ODA numbers in 2025, One of the impacts that that's had on institutions like FAO and WFP has been the ability to collect data on the ground. Now, data systems have been weakened, have been fragile, and the risk is that we're not able to pick up the impacts and we're not able to answer the question that you asked, Edie. So one of the key things we're saying to those who support us, to our donors, to our constituencies, is that we need to safeguard data systems in this day and age.

Thank you, uh, thank you very much. Um, Piet Törnel, did you want to add something?

Yeah, no, sure. And, um, it's, it's exactly as Jean-Martin was already alluding to, the data issue is, is a big issue. Uh, we don't have the evidence, uh, uh, to say one-on-one what the effect has been of the, uh, consequences of lower ODA. We will see that in the, in the near future. What we need to do in general, for that matter, is what we are focusing on, is to see how we can also involve the private sector in different ways to fill the gaps where possible. And we've seen in our investments that if we involve and engage with the private sector, the impact is actually also 4 times bigger than without. So there's also a very compelling argument from that perspective to increase the number of actors active in development and not just— not only the public side.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions for our guests online or in person? Going once, twice. Thank you very much to the 3 of you. Appreciate it. We hope to see you back very soon. Thank you.

Thank you. Bye-bye.