Conflict and protracted crises in a handful of countries in the Near East and North Africa are hamstringing efforts to eradicate hunger in the region by 2030, according to this new FAO report.
The 2017 edition of the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) highlights in particular how an ongoing intensification of violence is opening a wide "hunger gap" between countries being affected by conflicts and those that are not.
In NENA countries directly impacted by conflict, 27.2 percent of all people were chronically hungry – or undernourished – during the 2014-16 period. That's six times higher than the share of the population that was undernourished in countries not affected by strife (4.6 percent, on average). Meanwhile, "severe food insecurity" – another metric used by FAO to measure hunger – in conflict-affected countries now is double that in non-conflict countries.
These trends are casting a dark shadow on the broader NENA region's ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Zero Hunger by 2030, today's report warns. (Full list of NENA countries below)
In a region largely made up of developing, middle-income countries – where chronic hunger typically affects less than 5 percent of their populations – violence in an unfortunate few has seen the proportion of chronically hungry people in conflict zones shoot up to levels comparable with the world's poorest countries, which is exercising a strong drag effect on hunger reduction in the full NENA area.
This will make realistic progress towards eradicating hunger in the region using traditional tools of policymaking difficult, unless decisive steps towards peace and stability are taken, the report cautions.