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STORY: UN / FAO SOFI REPORT PRESSER
TRT: 2:57
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 21 JULY 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
21 JULY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room dais
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Máximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“The latest estimates indicates that 7.8 percent of the global population was undernourished in 2025, equivalent to 645 million people, with a range between 608 and 696 million people. So, the midpoint 645 million people. This compares with 8.1 percent in 2024 and 8.6 percent in 2022. Which means in terms of numbers, that there has been a reduction of 40 million between 2024 and 2025 and 43 million compared with a 2022 peak. However, the numbers remain approximately 50 million higher than in 2015, when the SDGs were adopted.”
4. Med shot, press room dais
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Máximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“Important inequalities also persist. Moderate or severe food insecurity affected approximately 30 percent of the population in rural areas, compared to 22 percent in urban areas, and it also affected in the 24 percent of women, compared to 23 percent of men. Now, it's important to mention that the gender gap has narrowed between 2024 and 2025, especially when it has increased substantially during the Covid pandemic.”
6. Wide shot, press room dais
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Máximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“It is the first time that the prevalence is reduced in Africa, which is good news, but the absolute numbers are increasing even more that Asia because of the population growth and the conflicts and the different problems that this region is facing. And of course, the report emphasises the importance of increasing the access and affordability to healthy diets, because 2.7 billion people is creating significant problems to health because of undernourishment and overnutrition.”
8. Wide shot, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Pieternel Boogaard, Managing Director, Office of Technical Delivery, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD):
“One of the impacts that that's had on institutions like FAO and WFP has been the ability to collect data on the ground. Now data systems have been weakened, have been fragile. And the risk is that we're not able to pick up the impacts and we're not able to answer the question that you asked. So, one of the key things we're showing to those who support us or donors, to our constituencies, is that we need to safeguard data systems in this day and age.”
10. Med shot, press room dais
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean-Martin Bauer, Director, Food Security and Nutrition Analysis, World Food Programme (WFP):
“We don't have the evidence to say one on one what the effect has been of the consequences of lower ODA. We will see that in the in the near future. What we need to do in general, for that matter, is what we are focusing on is to see how we can also involve the private sector in different ways to fill the gaps where possible. And we've seen in our investments that if we involve and engage with the private sector, the impact is actually also four times bigger than without.”
12. Wide shot, end of presser
Briefing reporters in New York on the findings of the 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Chief Economist Máximo Torero today (21 Jul) said, “the latest estimates indicates that 7.8 percent of the global population was undernourished in 2025, equivalent to 645 million people.”
Torero said these figures compare with 8.1 percent in 2024 and 8.6 percent in 2022, “which means in terms of numbers, that there has been a reduction of 40 million between 2024 and 2025 and 43 million compared with a 2022 peak.”
However, he noted “the numbers remain approximately 50 million higher than in 2015, when the SDGs were adopted.”
The FAO official noted that “important inequalities also persist” and said, “moderate or severe food insecurity affected approximately 30 percent of the population in rural areas, compared to 22 percent in urban areas, and it also affected in the 24 percent of women, compared to 23 percent of men.”
He told reporters that for the first time the prevalence in Africa has been reduced, which he said, “is good news,” but pointed out that “the absolute numbers are increasing even more that Asia because of the population growth and the conflicts and the different problems that this region is facing.”
Torero emphasized “the importance of increasing the access and affordability to healthy diets, because 2.7 billion people is creating significant problems to health because of undernourishment and overnutrition.”
Joining Torero, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Director of Food Security and Nutrition Analysis, Jean-Martin Bauer, responded to a journalist’s question and said one of the impacts of a reduction of funding from the United States and other countries has been “the ability to collect data on the ground,” as “data systems have been weakened, have been fragile.”
Bauer said, “the risk is that we're not able to pick up the impacts.”
Responding to the same question, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Managing Director, Pieternel Boogaard, said, “we don't have the evidence to say one on one what the effect has been of the consequences of lower ODA. We will see that in the in the near future. What we need to do in general, for that matter, is what we are focusing on is to see how we can also involve the private sector in different ways to fill the gaps where possible. And we've seen in our investments that if we involve and engage with the private sector, the impact is actually also four times bigger than without. “
The SOFI report, released today in Rom, was co-authored by FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
Despite sustained, gradual improvement in recent years, global hunger and food insecurity remain far above the targets set by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
