Addressing high food price inflation for food security and nutrition

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI), is an annual report co-authored by five UN agencies: the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN Children’s Fund.

It is a crucial stocktake of global progress to achieve SDG2.1: Zero Hunger and SDG2.2: End all forms of malnutrition and identify where further effort is needed to accomplish these goals. It was launched during the Second UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake (UNFSS+4) in Addis Ababa.

The report presents the latest data and analysis on hunger, food security and nutrition worldwide, including updated estimates on the cost and affordability of healthy diets.

This year's edition examines how rising food prices are shaping access to healthy diets and driving food insecurity and malnutrition. Key findings include:

Global hunger declined slightly for a second year, but the gains are modest and uneven. Africa and Western Asia continue to see hunger rise. High and persistent prices for nutritious foods are putting quality diets further out of reach, especially for children in low-income settings. The world will not achieve SDG2 with 512 million hungry people projected in 2030 – of whom, 60% will live on the African continent.
Despite declines in hunger in South America, and South-eastern and Southern Asia there is a continued increase in Africa where hunger was experienced by 307 million people or 20.2% of the population in 2024. Globally and in every region of the world, women are more likely to be hungry than men.
Food price inflation affects every country in the world. Over the last five years, food price inflation peaked at 30% in May 2023 but wages have not kept pace. This has driven up the cost of a healthy diet and forced low-income households to make difficult choices between food and other life essentials with severe impacts for food security and nutrition.

The report calls for coordinated action including:

Targeted fiscal measures
Stronger social protection
Investment in food systems for healthy diets
Alignment of monetary and fiscal policies
Improvement of data and information systems
Use price controls and trade restrictions cautiously.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025