"Recent global events, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the climate crisis, multiple conflicts around the world and the war in Ukraine, have all heavily affected agrifood systems in multiple ways," Qu told the G20 Sherpa meeting of senior government representatives.
Qu cited the recently launched 2022 edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) Report, which confirms that world hunger has increased again in 2021, reflecting growing inequalities across and within countries.
It says 828 million people suffered from hunger in 2021, an increase of 46 million from 2020, and 150 million from 2019 before the pandemic.
Global Challenges
The war in Ukraine has added to an already challenging situation and could lead to an increase of 13 million more chronically undernourished people this year, and 17 million more in 2023, according to FAO estimates.
Another global challenge is rising inflation, with world food prices increasing since mid-2020 due to many factors.
The FAO Food Price Index at 160 points, reached an all-time high in March 2022.
Last month, the index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of commonly-traded food commodities, averaged 154.2 points, down 2.3 percent from May, but it remained 23.1 percent higher than in June 2021, Qu noted.
FAO calculates that the increase in the food import bill for the 62 most vulnerable countries amounts to 24.6 billion US Dollars in 2022, and it affects 1.79 billion people.
In response to this growing challenge, FAO has developed a proposal for a global Food Import Financing Facility, which aims to assist countries in financing their food purchases to minimize any risk of social unrest.
"This proposal should be implemented by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) under their balance of payments financial mechanism,” the FAO Director-General said.
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