Sustainable Development Goal 2
"End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture"
Linkage with other SDGs
Achieving zero hunger means ensuring access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food for all while promoting sustainable agricultural practices. Hunger and food insecurity are closely tied to multiple dimensions of development, making this goal crucial for progress across economic, social, and environmental sectors.
The following direct and indirect interlinkages exist between SDG 2 and all other SDGs:
SDG 1 - No Poverty: Hunger is both a cause and a consequence of poverty. Food insecurity exacerbates poverty by limiting productivity and income opportunities. Addressing hunger boosts economic resilience and lifts communities out of poverty. Example: Cash transfer programs in Ethiopia have enabled poor families to access food, reducing malnutrition and poverty simultaneously.
SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being: Malnutrition, including undernutrition and over-nutrition, weakens immune systems, reduces life expectancy, and increases vulnerability to diseases. Ensuring food security improves public health outcomes. Example: Fortified food programs in India have significantly reduced stunting and micronutrient deficiencies among children.
SDG 4 - Quality Education: Hunger negatively affects children’s ability to concentrate and perform well in school, undermining educational outcomes. Conversely, school feeding programs improve both health and academic performance. Example: The school meal program in Brazil has incentivised attendance and improved learning outcomes for children from low-income families.
SDG 5 - Gender Equality: Hunger disproportionately impacts women and girls due to cultural and economic inequalities. Empowering women in agriculture strengthens food security, as women farmers often reinvest in their families and communities. Example: Women-led agricultural cooperatives in Kenya have enhanced local food supplies and household nutrition.
SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation: Access to clean water is essential for food production, including irrigation and livestock farming. Poor water quality also worsens food insecurity by increasing crop loss and disease prevalence. Example: Irrigation projects in South Asia have enabled farmers to grow more crops, reducing hunger in water-scarce regions.
SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy: Modern energy solutions are critical for food processing, storage, and distribution. Energy poverty limits access to refrigeration and post-harvest storage, exacerbating food waste and hunger. Example: Solar-powered cold storage facilities in Uganda have reduced post-harvest losses and improved food availability.
SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth: Sustainable agriculture drives economic growth by creating jobs and increasing rural incomes. Hunger limits productivity, while addressing food security enhances workforce potential. Example: Agricultural innovation hubs in Nigeria have trained farmers in sustainable practices, boosting yields and livelihoods.
SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities: Hunger is often concentrated in marginalised populations, including women, ethnic minorities, and rural communities. Equitable access to food reduces inequalities and enhances social cohesion. Example: Targeted food assistance programs in Latin America have reduced hunger disparities between urban and rural areas.
SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production: Unsustainable food systems drive hunger through resource inefficiencies and environmental degradation. Transitioning to circular agriculture practices reduces waste and enhances food availability. Example: Composting initiatives in European cities have created nutrient-rich soil for urban farming, improving local food security.
SDG 13 - Climate Action: Climate change is a major driver of hunger, causing droughts, floods, and crop failures. Climate-smart agricultural practices are vital for ensuring food security in vulnerable regions. Example: Farmers in Bangladesh have adopted salt-tolerant rice varieties to combat the impacts of rising sea levels.
SDG 14 - Life Below Water: Marine ecosystems are critical for global food security, providing protein for billions of people. Overfishing and pollution threaten fisheries, exacerbating hunger. Example: Sustainable fishing policies in Indonesia have replenished fish stocks, improving food supplies for coastal communities.
SDG 15 - Life on Land: Healthy terrestrial ecosystems support agriculture, ensuring food security. Deforestation and soil degradation disrupt food production systems, deepening hunger. Example: Agroforestry projects in Tanzania have improved crop yields while conserving biodiversity and soil health.
SDG 16 - Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions: Conflict is a leading driver of hunger, as wars disrupt food production and distribution systems. Strong institutions and peaceful societies are essential for ensuring access to food. Example: Post-conflict agricultural recovery programs in Colombia have restored food production and improved security.
SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals: Achieving zero hunger requires coordinated efforts across governments, private sectors, and civil society. Partnerships drive innovation, funding, and knowledge-sharing to strengthen food systems. Example: The World Food Programme's collaboration with local governments has enhanced food distribution networks in crisis-hit regions.
Consquence of failing to reach targets
Failure to achieve zero hunger creates widespread ripple effects:
- Poverty (SDG 1) persists as malnutrition reduces productivity and economic potential.
- Health outcomes (SDG 3) worsen due to increased disease vulnerability, undermining well-being.
- Education (SDG 4) falters, as hungry children struggle to learn, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality.
- Climate adaptation (SDG 13) remains difficult, as food systems collapse under environmental stress.
Hunger eradication is not only essential for survival but also for fostering resilience, equity, and sustainable development.
SDG 2: Targets, Indicators, Progress and Data
By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.
2.1.1: Prevalence of undernourishment.
2.1.2: Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).
After a sharp increase following the COVID-19 pandemic, global hunger stabilized at around 9.2% of the population from 2021 to 2022. Between 691 and 783 million people faced hunger in 2022. Considering the midrange (735 million), 122 million more people faced hunger in 2022 than in 2019, when the prevalence stood at 7.9%. Additionally, an estimated 29.6% of the global population – 2.4 billion people – were moderately or severely food insecure in 2022.
By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.
2.2.1: Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age
2.2.2: Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight).
2.2.3: Prevalence of anaemia in women aged 15 to 49 years, by pregnancy status (percentage).
Globally in 2022, an estimated 22.3% of children under age 5 (148 million) were affected by stunting, down from 24.6% in 2015 and 26.3% in 2012 (baseline year of WHO nutrition targets). Based on current trends, 1 out of 5 (19.5%) children under age 5 will be affected by stunting in 2030. Overweight affected 37.0 million children under age 5 (or 5.6%) and wasting affected 45 million (or 6.8%) in 2022.
By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment.
2.3.1: Volume of production per labour unit by classes of farming/pastoral/forestry enterprise size.
2.3.2: Average income of small-scale food producers, by sex and indigenous status
The income gap between small-scale and non-small-scale food producers remains significant. In 95% of countries with available data, the average annual income of small-scale producers is less than half that of nonsmall-scale producers. Among small-scale food producers, units headed by men typically generate higher incomes compared to those headed by women.
By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.
2.4.1: Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture.
No progress reported.
By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed.
2.5.1: Number of (a) plant and (b) animal genetic resources for food and agriculture secured in either medium- or long-term conservation facilities.
2.5.2: Proportion of local breeds classified as being at risk of extinction.
No progress reported.
Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries.
2.A.1: The agriculture orientation index for government expenditures
2.A.2: Total official flows (official development assistance plus other official flows) to the agriculture sector.
In 2022, global public expenditures reached $36 trillion, of which $749 billion went towards agriculture—an all-time high. Agriculture represented 2.1% of total government expenditure, a recovery from the pandemic, and is only marginally below the 2019 level. Government expenditure on agriculture relative to the agriculture sector’s contribution to GDP, measured in terms of the agriculture orientation index, declined from the 2015 baseline of 0.50 to 0.43 in 2021, but rebounded to 0.48 in 2022.
Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round.
2.B.1: Agricultural export subsidies.
Total notified annual agriculture export subsidy outlays fell from its peak of $ 6.7 billion in 1999 to $33 million in 2022. As of 1st January 2024, only least developed countries (LDCs) and net food importing developing countries are allowed to use certain forms of export subsidies.
Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility.
2.B.1: Indicator of food price anomalies.
In 2022, the share of countries facing moderately to abnormally high food prices reached a new record-high of 58.1% after falling by more than half in 2021 from the previous historical peak of 48% in 2020. The 2022 share represented a nearly four-fold increase from the 2015-19 average levels of 15.2%. Major disruption to logistics and food supply chains, following the breakout of the war in Ukraine, resulted in higher food and energy prices, particularly during the first half of 2022.