Sustainable Development Goal 2
Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2 or Global Goal 2) aims to achieve "zero hunger". It is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015. The official wording is: "End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture".[1][2] SDG 2 highlights the "complex inter-linkages between food security, nutrition, rural transformation and sustainable agriculture".[3] According to the United Nations, there are around 690 million people who are hungry, which accounts for slightly less than 10 percent of the world population.[4] One in every nine people goes to bed hungry each night, including 20 million people currently at risk of famine in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria.[5]
Sustainable Development Goal 2
"End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture"
No
Global
2015
SDG 2 has eight targets and 14 indicators to measure progress.[6] The five outcome targets are: ending hunger and improving access to food; ending all forms of malnutrition; agricultural productivity; sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices; and genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals; investments, research and technology. The three means of implementation targets[7] include: addressing trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets and food commodity markets and their derivatives.[6][8]
Under-nutrition has been on the rise since 2015, after falling for decades.[9] This majorly results from the various stresses in food systems that include; climate shocks, the locust crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Those threats indirectly reduce the purchasing power and the capacity to produce and distribute food, which affects the most vulnerable populations and furthermore has reduced their accessibility to food.[10]
The world is not on track to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030. "The signs of increasing hunger and food insecurity are a warning that there is considerable work to be done to make sure the world "leaves no one behind" on the road towards a world with zero hunger."[11] It is unlikely there will be an end to malnutrition in Africa by 2030.[12][13]
Data from 2019 showed that "globally, 1 in 9 people are undernourished, the vast majority of whom live in developing countries. Under nutrition causes wasting or severe wasting of 52 million children worldwide".[14]
Criticism[edit]
According to a group of researchers at Wageningen University, the SDG 2 targets ignore the importance of value chains and food systems. They note that SDG 2 addresses micronutrient and macronutrient deficiencies, but not overconsumption or the consumption of foods high in salt, fat, and sugars, ignoring the health problems associated with such diets. It calls sustainable agriculture without clarifying what sustainable agriculture entails exactly. The researchers argue that substantial number of indicators currently used for SDGs monitoring are not specifically developed for the SDGs, so the information needed for SDGs monitoring is not necessarily available and is not appropriate to reflect the interconnected nature of the SDG. The lack of connected or coordinated action from food production to consumption at all levels hinders progress on SDG 2.[42]
Links with other SDGs[edit]
The SDGs are deeply interconnected. All goals could be affected if progress on one specific goal is not achieved.
Climate change and natural disasters are affecting food security. Disaster risk management, climate change adaptation and mitigation are essential to increase harvests quality and quantity. Targets 2.4 and 2.5 are directly linked to the environment.[43]
Organizations, programmes and funds that have been set up to tackle hunger and malnutrition include:
International NGOs include: