In Cooperation with the University of Cantabria

Hunger is the most dramatic manifestation of the socio-economic, governance, and environmental problems faced by humanity. The United Nations (UN) has been trying for decades to mobilize international community support to end this problem. Thus, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, approved by the UN General Assembly held in New York in 2015, identified a measurable set of international development goals (the so-called Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs) among which is the ambitious and necessary goal of eradicating hunger in the world by 2030.

However, the evolution of the hunger problem is not encouraging. Although the number of malnourished people decreased in the early years of the 21st century, it began to increase slowly in 2015. According to estimates by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), around 690 million people suffered from hunger in 2020 (8.9% of the world population), an increase of some 60 million since 2015. Consequently, humanity is backtracking SDG-2 of "zero hunger". According to FAO estimates, the current trend leads us to a world with more than 840 million hungry people in 2030 as a result of the interaction of three simultaneous global crises: the COVID-19 pandemic (which especially affects the poorest countries and those with the lowest vaccination rates), the war in Ukraine (which has generated an inflationary spiral in the food market) and climate change (which especially affects the most vulnerable countries).

You can find more information on the current seminar offered by the research project here.