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The world is off track to meet its own goal of ending hunger by 2030, and it’s not clear if anyone in power will ever be held accountable for the shortfall.
Just over two years ago, the international community committed to ending hunger as the second of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Since then, there have been a few individual successes and reforms, but there is little overall evidence that developed and developing country governments are mobilizing to make the end of hunger a reality.
The most recent official statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) indicate that the number of undernourished people in the world increased in 2016, from 777 million to 815 million. The share of the population undernourished increased for the first time since 2002, from 10.6 to 11 percent.
The child stunting rate in low-income countries was 36. percent in 2016, a modest decrease of 0.6 percentage points from the previous year. SDG2 calls for the end of malnutrition by 2030; based on the current pace of progress, more than 25 percent of children in low-income countries will still suffer from stunting in 2030.
The takeaway from this analysis is that without stronger accountability systems, we are unlikely to see the policy improvements and increased investments that will be needed to achieve SDG2.