Research

Food insecurity is one of the Sustainable Development Goals that the United Nation wants to end by 2030. The United Nations wants to end hunger and in order to end hunger we need to make sure that food is secure for the people. However with less than a decades remaining until the target date 2030, the progress is going very slow or even reversing. This brings the question where is food insecurity most severe? Which countries are succeeding in reducing food insecurity? How has food insecurity changed over time? How can we change it? The goal of this project is to examine global food insecurity patterns by identifying which countries are succeeding in reducing food insecurity and which are struggling using the data that are being provided by United Nations SDG Database. Then create a predicted map that shows the food insecurity percentage of the population based on the past years data trends for each country. This project assesses whether the world is on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 and what can be done in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 2.

Food Insecurity Interactive Map 2015 - 2023

Source : United Nations SDG Database

Global Food Insecurity Stages (2015-2023)

This interactive map shows the global prevalence of food of moderate or severe food insecurity from 2015 to 2023. The data source is from the United Nation SDG Database which targets the 17 Sustainable Goals. The map shows the different percentage of food insecurity based on genders and divides each country into different stages based on their food insecurity levels. There are a total of 5 stages, green, yellow, orange, red, and dark red.

  1. The first stage is the green countries where it means low level food insecurity which means those countries are identified as a stable food source for the people.

  2. The second stage is the yellow countries that are identified as having a low moderate level of food insecurity which means that 5% to 20% of people in that country are food insecure.

  3. The third stage is the orange countries, which means they are at a moderate stage of food insecurity which almost or at half of the people in that country are food insecure.

  4. The fourth stage is the red countries, which means this county is at risk of food source for the people. More than half of the people in those red countries are suffering from hunger.

  5. The fifth stage which is the final stage. This stage is the dark red countries, even though it’s hard to see them on the map, there are few counties at this stage. When a country is at this stage meaning is at high risk of food source for the people where they could be starving for many days or die of hunger.

North America

Countries in North America continents tend to be in the second stage or the third stage or they don’t have data. Canada, USA, and Costa Rica are the countries that are in the second stage where 5% to 20% of the population are food insecure. Countries like Mexico, El Salvador and the southern part of North America are in the third stage where they tend to have moderate food insecurity. Which means almost half of the population are food insecure. In 2019 when the United Nation got the data from Haiti, we found out that they are at high risk of food insecurity where they are the only county in North America being at the fifth stage. However there is good news where in 2023 Mexico becomes more stable and joins Canada, USA, and Costa Rica at the second stage.

South America

Countries in South America tend to be in the same situation where most counties are in the second stage or third stage. The only difference is that countries are doing worse as time goes. Countries like Argentina, Colombia, Guyana, and Suriname tend to be in the second stage at first but as times goes they went into the third stage where almost half of their population are food insecure. Especially in 2021 almost every country in South America is at the third stage. This could be due to Covid which led to economic downfall. However in 2023 many countries did lower the percentage a bit but still are in the third stage.

Europe

Countries in Europe tend to be at lower risk of food insecurity compared to any other continent. Europe has the most counties in the first stage where a very low percentage of the population are food insecure. Countries in Europe tend to do better and better as times goes in food insecurity than any other continents. Especially in 2023 where almost every country is at the first stage or very close to the first stage with a population percentage of 6% - 10%. This reflects how countries in Europe are highly valued on the foods that the people can access.

Africa

Countries in Africa tend to perform the worse out of every continent. Many countries are in the third stage or fourth stage or even at the fifth stage. This brings us to a concern for the people in Africa because many people are suffering from hunger or starve to death. Especially countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Malawi are in the fifth stage throughout 2015 to 2023. This brings us a warning and concerns for us to help them out if we can. The food insecurity percentage went up higher when Covid hit where more countries went into the fifth stage or getting close to the fifth stage. Another problem in Africa is that there are many countries that don’t show their data which means that they could be worse than the countries that are showing the percentages. Many countries can’t even provide the data or not allow the United Nation to collect the data. So Africa in reality could be worse than what is shown now. These signs inform the United Nation that Africa should get more help in food sources than other continents. 

Asia

Countries in Asia have the same problem as Africa where many countries have missing data. This means that either they can’t provide the data to the United Nation or they don’t want the United Nation to collect the data. Countries like China, India, and North Korea all have missing data which brings us a question: why can’t they provide the data? They should be able to provide the data to the United Nation, so it only left with one option which is that they don’t allow the United Nation to collect the data. This brings us the question: how will they deal with food insecurity? For the countries that provide the data such as Japan, South Korea, Iran, and etc. They tend to be over the place. Countries like Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand are either at first stage or very close to first stage. While some countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and etc are at the third stage or higher. Especially Afghanistan where they went into fourth stages in 2017 and later went into fifth stage in 2021 where it’s at high risk of food insecurity and become one of the highest countries in food risk of 81%. 

Oceania

Countries in Oceania tend to be doing better because most countries there are at the second stage where about 5% - 20% population are at food insecurity and many of them are actually closer to the first stage with a 12% food insecurity. However, as times goes New Zealand are getting closer to the third stage with 18%. This warns us that New Zealand is not doing well. One problem that countries in Oceania have is the data missing like Africa and Asia. Many countries are having missing data which means we can’t tell if they are doing good or not. So there is a concern like Africa and Asia countries where they could be doing bad in the food insecurity. 

Gender Difference

Most countries’ females tend to have a higher percentage of food insecurity compared to male. This could be because male tend to need to go out and work more than females which leads to eating more and starving the female that stays home. However there are a few countries that have male higher percentage of male food insecurity compared to females. Countries like Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, Algeria, Iran, and few others have higher food insecurity in 2023, but overall females tend to have a higher  percentage of food insecurity compared to male.

Food Insecurity Prediction Interactive Map 2030

Source : United Nations SDG Database

New Stages Findings

This interactive prediction map shows the global prevalence of food of moderate or severe food insecurity in 2030 based on the trends that happened from 2015 - 2023. There are five stages that were mentioned earlier and now added two more stages. The 0-1% stage and 99-100% stage. Where 0-1% is the stage that almost no one in this country will be food insecurity in 2030. Countries that represent this are Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Armenia, and Mongolia where barely anyone will be food insecure by 2030. These countries are mainly located in Europe and Mongolia being the only country located in Asia. This shows that European countries have done well on food insecurity compared to any other continents. This would bring to the countries where it’s almost or 100% food insecurity which means almost or everyone in that country is food insecurity. Countries that represent this are Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Angola, and Afghanistan. These countries were already performing badly from 2015 - 2023. These countries are mainly located in Africa and Afghanistan being the only country located in Asia. This alerts us once again that countries in Africa are heavily food insecure, while Asian countries are in a mix of being good and bad on food insecure.

Prediction Findings

Countries in North America only have tiny changes like a few percentage higher or few percentage lower. Overall it stays at the same stages as they were in 2023. However, countries in North America tend to change. Based on the prediction map, most countries went up one stage which means countries in North America tend to get worse by the time 2030. This same goes to countries in Africa. Many countries will get worse and worse based on the prediction map. Many countries are in the 100% population food insecurity or went up one stage from 2023. This means that countries in Africa are in a horrible situation where people are not dying from natural disasters or being killed by others, but dying from hunger. This really alerts the United Nation that they have to do something to change this or there will be more people die of hunger in the future. The total opposite of Africa is Europe. Where most European countries have stable food sources. There are many countries where their food insecurity is at 0% based on the prediction map. This means that in these countries basically no one will be in starvations. This shows how well countries in Europe have done in food sources for the people. On the other hand, Asian countries are in a mix. One country went to 100% where everyone in that country is being predicted to be starving while another country is being predicted that almost everyone has a stable food source. This result can also bring an alert to the United Nation for some help to Asian countries. Countries in Oceania are just the same like North America countries where there’s not a big change but the United Nations should keep alert on countries there since there are countries that went up a stage of food insecurity.

Suggestions

Researchers and governments have been trying to reduce the food insecurity in their own country in the past decades. From my research, I found 3 suggestions that can have a higher impact to lower the food insecurity rate. The first suggestion is to reduce food waste which many countries around the world have been telling and warning their citizens about. I will be in more detail in the reduced food waste section. The second suggestion would be International cooperation. Many countries do have the ability to do international cooperation to increase their country’s economy which can help with reducing the food insecurity rate and I will discuss more in the International cooperation sections. The last suggestion that I came up with from my research is to create food systems. Food comes from agriculture and maintaining a healthy agriculture can produce more food which can help reduce the food insecurity rate around the world and I will discuss this in a more detailed way.

Reduce Food Waste

Food waste is one of the biggest problems that causes food insecurity to stay at a high percentage. So this would be the first problem we should solve. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, across all continents every household wasted over 1 billion meals a day in 2022 while up to 783 millions people are in hunger and one-third of the people are facing food insecurity. If we use the food that is being wasted and give it to the people that are in starvations then this could lower the percentage of people in starvations. So I believe we should send out more notices and videos on social media platforms to warn people to reduce food waste. The less food waste the more people can have food access.

International cooperation

One of the biggest problems about food insecurity is that this country is not strong economically, which has a low amount of food for the people to eat. According to the World Bank GDP map, countries that tend to have higher gdp have lower food insecurity rates. For example European countries tend to have a higher GDP which has a lower food insecurity rate compared to other continents. If European countries or other countries that have high GDP can cooperate with countries that have low GDP and help them increase their GDP then the food insecurity rate would be lower. High GDP countries can use money and the low GDP countries can trade with some goods which can bring in a win for both sides. This suggestion mainly focuses on African and South American countries. For examples, countries in Africa can use their natural resources like gold, diamonds, cobalt, and platinum to let European countries or higher GDP countries to buy the natural resource so it can help the African countries to build create a higher GDP which allows them to buy foods from other countries so it lowers their food insecurity. The same goes to South American countries. South American countries have iron ore, coopers, massive oil and gas reserves and many other more natural resources. These are all the natural resources that can be sold to get money and build a stronger GDP for countries in South America.

Create Food Systems

As I discussed earlier, creating a food system is the root of lowering food insecurity. Having healthy agriculture can produce a large amount of food sources for the people. This suggestions is for Asian countries because part of the lands in Asia are good for agricultures while agricultures is the root to solve food insecurity which means if South America and Africa countries can use the money that they sold natural resources to the high GDP countries to buy the agricultural produces from Asian countries with a lower prices then this would become a perfect cycle to lower the food insecurity rates. With that, Asian countries would be lowering their food insecurity rates and at the same time can increase their GDP.

Conclusion

In my research, I have discovered that in order for a country to have a low food insecurity rate, this country has to have a high GDP or not in a war. My suggestion is that the United Nations should try to prevent wars from happening and encourage high GDP countries to cooperate with the countries that have low GDP which can help the lower GDP countries to increase their GDP. Because a high GDP country tends to have lower food insecurity rates. This is because the country with higher GDP can allow more people to have access to food sources. So in order to reach the Zero hunger sustainable goal we need to solve the food access problem which is encouraging high GDP countries and low GDP countries to cooperate with each other and create a healthy agriculture to produce more food for the people.