UN warns of “global crisis” as nearly 2 billion people in urban areas face food insecurity

03 Jul 2024 --- Around 1.7 billion people in urban and peri-urban areas face “moderate or severe” food insecurity issues, accounting for three-quarters of the world's food-insecure population, according to a new UN report.

The report, delivered by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) of the UN Committee on World Food Security, dispels misconceptions that such issues are only confined to rural areas. It calls urban and peri-urban — areas on the outskirts of cities — “epicenters of multiple burdens of malnutrition” and urges localities to work quickly to improve their food systems. 

“Although urban areas have a lower prevalence of stunting [impaired growth of children] compared to rural areas, further disaggregation of urban areas by poverty shows that urban poor have very high stunting rates, as high as those in rural areas,” says the document, titled “Strengthening urban and peri-urban food systems to achieve food security and nutrition, in the context of urbanization and rural transformation.”

The UN explains that the urban focus is significant as more than half of the world’s population live in cities and this will likely reach 70% by 2050. Around 70% of the world’s food is also consumed in these areas. 

Contributing factors
Contributing factors to the challenges faced in these regions include socio-economic disparities, such as youth unemployment, a lack of infrastructure and vulnerability to epidemics. 

The UN highlights food insecurity as being unevenly distributed within slums and peri-urban areas with the highest incidence. Women, children, marginalized ethnic groups and migrants are highlighted as being disproportionately affected in the findings. 

The report outlines the critical challenge of urban and peri-urban residents’ realization of their right to food, “particularly in the context of climate change, political instability, increased inequality, internal conflicts and rapidly increasing urban populations.”

Strengthening food systems
It concludes food systems in these areas have the power to shape their countries’ entire food system and stresses there is an urgent need to strengthen such infrastructures in these localities.

“With 1.7 billion people facing food insecurity in urban and peri-urban areas, we can no longer ignore the need for targeted interventions and investments,” says Jane Battersby, lead author of the report and team leader at HLPE-FSN.

“This report underscores the urgent need for specific policies to address the complexities of urban food systems and provides a roadmap for policymakers to ensure no one is left behind in our urbanizing world.”

The UN recommends integrating food systems into urban planning, ensuring urban food policy focuses on affordable and healthy diet needs for low-income groups. It also urges cities to acknowledge the support of informal sectors and organizations to help make improvements.

“The right to food is a fundamental human right, yet, due to socio-economic disparities, food insecurity is high and highly unequal in urban and peri-urban settings,” says Akiko Suwa-Eisenmann, chairperson of the HLPE-FSN.

 The report adds that investing in IT digital systems to improve the evidence base for policy making while protecting decent work and employment in food systems should also be considered. 

By Sade Laja