Key Messages:

• Africa is not on track to meet the food security and nutrition targets of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 – and the Malabo targets of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2025. After a long period of improvement between 2000 and 2010, hunger has worsened substantially and most of this deterioration occurred between 2019 and 2022.
• In 2022, nearly 282 million people in Africa were undernourished, an increase of 57 million people since the COVID-19 pandemic.
• An estimated 868 million people were moderately or severely food-insecure in Africa in 2022 and more than one-third of them – 342 million people – were severely food-insecure. More than two-thirds of the population in Central Africa, Eastern Africa and Western Africa faced moderate or severe food insecurity, meaning they did not have access to adequate food.
• In Africa, the prevalence of stunting among children under five years of age was 30 percent in 2022, which is high despite the substantial improvement achieved during the past two decades.
• The prevalence of wasting in children in the region remained just below the global estimate of 6.8 percent in 2022 and was relatively high in all subregions except Southern Africa.
• The overall prevalence of overweight in children under five years of age in Africa was below the global estimate in 2022, although higher levels were observed in Northern Africa and Southern Africa. Since 2020, overweight levels have remained the same in most subregions.
• The prevalence of anaemia among adult women remains high in Africa, above the global estimate, and especially so in Western Africa and Central Africa.
• The prevalence of adult obesity in Africa in 2016 was very similar to the global estimate, relatively low in all subregions except for Northern Africa and Southern Africa, where the prevalence was about twice the global estimate.
• The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in Africa was very similar to the global estimate in 2021, and it is specifically high in Eastern Africa with considerable progress made in Central Africa and Western Africa since 2012.
• Despite a modest progress in Africa in the reduction of the prevalence of low birthweight during the last two decades, the prevalence was still high on the continent in 2020 compared to the global estimate.
• Diet quality is a critical link between food security and nutrition. Poor diet quality can lead to different forms of undernutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies, but also to overweight and obesity.
• In 2021, the average cost of a healthy diet in Africa was 3.57 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day, an increase of 5.6 percent from its 2020 level.
• The cost of a healthy diet was much higher than the extreme poverty threshold of 2.15 PPP dollars per person per day, meaning that not only the poor but also a large proportion of people defined as non-poor could not afford a healthy diet.
• More than three-quarters of the population in Africa, approximately one billion people, were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021, about 51 million more people since the COVID-19 pandemic. Western Africa and Eastern Africa had the largest cumulative increases between 2019 and 2021.
• The steady increase in the cost of a healthy diet in Africa and in all the subregions except Northern Africa is compromising food security and nutrition. The number of people unable to afford a healthy diet is on the rise.