FAO Flags Slow Progress on Global Food SDGs
Rome: Several global targets on food security, gender equality, clean water, and biodiversity are unlikely to be met by 2030, with progress in many cases reversing since 2015, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has warned.
In its new assessment released today, FAO reviewed 22 indicators under its custodianship spanning six Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Zero Hunger, Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Responsible Consumption and Production, Life Below Water, and Life on Land. The report introduces the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women as an official SDG indicator, approved earlier this year by the UN Statistical Commission.
According to the findings, the world is on track to achieve only one-quarter of relevant targets, while another quarter remains far or very far from completion. For the remaining half, countries are positioned at a moderate distance from success.
FAO claimed that the report is based on the most comprehensive data so far, with the availability of food and agriculture-related SDG indicators rising to 65 per cent in 2025, compared to 62 per cent in 2023 and 32 per cent in 2017.
“We need to redouble our efforts to achieve food security, improved nutrition and sustainable agriculture, while ensuring the sustainability of our natural resource base,” said FAO Chief Statistician José Rosero Moncayo. “This report sheds light on which objectives and which regions have achieved the most progress and which have seen a deterioration, and can therefore serve as a guide for galvanising efforts on those areas lagging furthest behind.”
The evidence paints a sobering picture. Food insecurity remains far above 2015 levels: nearly 2.3 billion people – or 28 per cent of the global population – faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2024, compared with 1.6 billion (21.4 per cent) in 2015. Hunger affected an estimated 8.2 per cent of the global population in 2024, moving the world further away from the target.
Between 2019 and 2023, only 65 per cent of women of childbearing age achieved minimum dietary diversity, with sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and Southern Asia trailing. The situation has deteriorated since 2015.
Food price anomalies remain a major challenge, running at three times the 2015–2019 average despite a modest decline in 2023. FAO attributes this to geopolitical tensions and climate-related disruptions, rating the world as “very far” from the target with a worsening trend.
Small-scale food producers in low- and middle-income countries remain disadvantaged, earning less than half of their non-small-scale peers, with average agricultural incomes below USD 1,500. Women also face systemic inequities: in nearly 80 per cent of surveyed countries, fewer than half enjoy secure land rights, and men are at least twice as likely to own land.
Some areas show limited progress. Water-use efficiency rose by 23 per cent between 2015 and 2022, though water stress remains high, particularly in Western Asia and Northern Africa. The number of animal genetic resources conserved has grown, but only 4.6 per cent of local breeds and 17.2 per cent of transboundary breeds are backed by sufficient material for reconstitution.
Meanwhile, the share of global fish stocks at biologically sustainable levels continued to shrink, falling to 62.5 per cent in 2021, compared with 90 per cent in 1974, despite broader adoption of measures against illegal and unregulated fishing. Forest cover also continued its gradual decline, dropping from 31.9 per cent in 2000 to 31.2 per cent in 2020, though the pace of loss has slowed.
FAO concluded that while there are isolated signs of improvement – such as in water efficiency and sustainable agriculture – the overall trajectory underscores how far the world remains from building a resilient and sustainable food system.
– global bihari bureau
