Global Nutrition Report 2022

The Global Nutrition Report 2022 witnesses an increase in hunger and food insecurity. People affected by hunger leaped by 150 million since the Covid-19 outbreak, from 618 million in 2019 to 768 million in 2021, while those unable to afford a healthy diet rose by 112 million to 3.1 billion in 2020 alone.Almost a third (29.3%) of the world’s population, 2.3 billion people, were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021, up from 25.4% before the pandemic. At the same time, what we eat across the world continues to fall short of the minimum standards for healthy and sustainable diets with resulting obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on the rise and at epidemic levels – around 40% of all adults and 20% of all children are now overweight or obese. Policy interventions to date are failing to reverse these trends, while conflict around the world – including the recent war in Ukraine – and the impacts of climate change, which are key drivers of increases in malnutrition, continue unabated. It is countries faced with food and nutrition insecurity, and the most vulnerable populations, that are threatened the most.

The GNR initiated the Nutrition Accountability Framework (NAF) to list commitments by stakeholders in a verifiable way. The NAF enables all actions to improve nutrition across the world to be captured as SMART commitments that can be consistently monitored and reported on publicly. By capturing commitments from anyone at any time, it has the potential to improve our understanding of nutrition action like never before. Such a step change in accountability will equip all actors with the vital data and evidence they need to deliver greater nutrition action. The framework is aligned with key global nutrition targets on maternal, infant and young child nutrition. Although the 2022 Global Nutrition Report analyses commitments made before the war in Ukraine, its emphasis on stronger commitments, accountability and action has a heightened significance in the face of the war’s impact on food and nutrition security globally. The need for stakeholders to step up and take action to mitigate these impacts and improve nutrition for all has never been more urgent.