The report focuses on eight of the SDGs (1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 12, 14 and 15).

Contrary to early expectations, the COVID-19 pandemic kept its grip on the world economy well into 2021, further exacerbating an already alarming situation in terms of hunger and food insecurity.

Among the areas in which the world is falling behind or making negligible progress: 

• The latest estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) put the global hunger figure for 2021 between 702 and 828 million people (with a point estimate of 768 million). These estimates imply that, since 2015, the increase in the number of undernourished people in the world has practically eroded all progress that had been made during the preceding decade, bringing the world back to hunger levels that prevailed in 2005.

• Severe food insecurity has increased significantly from 10.9 percent of the global population in 2020 to 11.7 percent in 2021, pushing millions of those at moderate levels of food insecurity into severe food insecurity and – possibly – hunger.

• International prices of food items soared in the second half of 2020; they are expected to continue rising as a result of the war in Ukraine, which has had an adverse impact on several food-importing countries. The share of countries afflicted by high food prices rose sharply from 16 percent in 2019 to 47 percent in 2020.

• The percentage of food lost after harvesting on farms and at transport, storage, wholesale and processing levels continues to increase. It is estimated at an unacceptable level of 13.3 percent globally, compared to 13 percent in 2016.

• The world is still far from maintaining the genetic diversity of farmed and domesticated animals, either in the field or in gene banks.

• In most countries with available data, both the average annual income and the average productivity of small-scale food producers lag behind those of their large-scale counterparts. Within the group of small-scale food producers, women’s incomes are systematically and significantly lower than those of men in half of the countries with data.

• Water stress remains alarmingly high in many regions, threatening progress towards sustainable development

• The world’s forest area continues to decrease, although at a slightly slower rate compared to previous decades. The proportion of forest area fell from 31.9 percent of total land area in 2000 to 31.2 percent in 2020.

The report also points to several areas in which progress is being made. These include implementing measures against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and sustainable forest management.

The report stresses the need to: take urgent actions to avert the increase in world hunger; build more resilient agricultural systems to achieve a healthy and sustainable food future for all; make substantial progress towards the establishment and implementation of legal frameworks that protect women’s land rights; tackle the growing challenges linked to degraded water-related ecosystems, water scarcity caused by climate change, underinvestment in water and sanitation, and insufficient cooperation on transboundary waters; improve market access conditions for exports from LDCs; support small-scale fishery communities and ensure the sustainable management of oceans; urgently implement instruments designed to conserve, restore and sustainably use forests and biodiversity to ensure healthy, resilient societies.