SDG 2: Zero Hunger
There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets - check out my video explaining the SDGs to understand the framework and what it is trying to achieve. SDG 2 is focused on achieving zero hunger. It is comprised of 8 targets, 5 of which explain what we want to achieve and 3 that explain how to achieve it, these types of targets are referred to as Means of Implementation.
Hunger is defined as a condition in which a person cannot eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for a sustained period. SDG 2 covers a range of topics related to ending hunger including achieving food security, improving nutrition, empowering small-scale farmers, and promoting sustainable agriculture. Hunger occurs in both developing and developed countries but the dynamics of the problem are very different in each of those contexts.
As you will see when we dive into SDG 2, it is closely linked with many other goals such as SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work), SDG 12 (Sustainable Consumption and Production) and environmentally-related goals 13, 14, 15 (Climate Action, Life Below Water, and Life on Land).
Target 2.1
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.
What it means
You can think of this target as being about access to a sufficient amount of food, it is measured by both the prevalence of undernourishment and food insecurity in populations. Undernourishment means that a person is not able to acquire enough food to meet the daily minimum dietary energy requirements, over a period of one year (FAO). Food insecurity is defined as the disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of lack of money and other resources (USDA), this is where links to poverty become very clear. The USDA breaks food insecurity into two categories (ODPHP):
Low food security: reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet; little or no indication of reduced food intake.
Very low food security: disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.
While food insecurity is normally due to lack of resources to acquire food, in some cases it can also be caused by physical barriers as well. For example, living in a remote community where food is not readily available or in extreme cases like a famine where food is literally unavailable. Changing weather patterns and natural disasters due to climate change are making this issue increasingly more common.
Where we are currently
More than 690 million people or 8.9% of the world population were undernourished in 2019, this was up by 10 million people from 2018 and by nearly 60 million over five years (FAO). This points to an interesting and worrying dynamic globally, after nearly a decade of improvement combatting hunger, in 2015 there was an increase and that has continued since. This has been attributed mainly to conflicts and climate change. If this trend continues the number of people affected by hunger will surpass 840 million by 2030 (UN).
Most of the world’s undernourished people live in Asia and Africa. It is estimated that 2/3 of people (381 million) living in hunger are in Asia. In Africa, 19 per cent of the total population is undernourished (250 million people), this represents the highest prevalence of undernourishment among all global regions and undernourishment is growing faster in Africa than anywhere in the world.
Women and girls represent more than 70 per cent of people facing chronic hunger (UNOCHA).
In 2019, 2 billion people in the world did not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food an dclose to 750 million – or nearly one in ten people in the world – were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity. It is still unknown how COVID will impact global hunger rates but the World Food Programme believes it could push as many as 121 million more people into acute food security.
Target 2.2
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
What it means
Unlike the first target, which focuses on getting a sufficient quantity of food to meet energy requirements, this target looks at the state of nutrition in the population. Food insecurity can lead to hunger but it can also lead to poor diets of cheap food with low nutritional value. This is why, this target also looks at all forms of malnutrition, including obesity. The World Health Organization explains this best, when they say:
Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. The term malnutrition covers 2 broad groups of conditions. One is ‘undernutrition’—which includes stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), underweight (low weight for age) and micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies (a lack of important vitamins and minerals). The other is overweight, obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer). - WHO
Where we are currently
Malnutrition affects every single country around the globe. Approximately 1.9 billion adults worldwide are overweight, while 462 million are underweight. An estimated 41 million children under the age of 5 years are overweight or obese, while some 159 million are stunted and 50 million are wasted. 528 million or 29% of women of reproductive age around the world affected by anaemia (iron deficiency). Poor nutrition causes 45% of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children each year.
Target 2.3
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
What it means
The dynamics related to small-scale food producers further highlight the connections between SDG 2 and SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 5 (Gender Equality). 500 million small farms worldwide provide up to 80 per cent of food consumed in a large part of the developing world (UNDP). There is evidence that small farms are more efficient than large farms (Hazell).
Agriculture is the single largest employer in the world, providing livelihoods for 40 per cent of today’s global population. It is the largest source of income and jobs for poor rural households (UNDP). For many in developing countries, land is their sole asset, not only providing sustenance for their families but also their income source. Unfortunately, continued population growth has led to the shrinking of small farms, making it harder to support a family from farming alone and they often struggle to access global food supply chains (Hazell). With a trend toward industrialized and consolidated agriculture, it is important that smallholder farmers are protected from consolidation and involved through inclusive business models, not only for prevention of hunger but also for poverty alleviation
Women farmers, while often not recognized for their efforts, make up 60% of the workforce small scale farms. The UNDP suggests that if women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million.
Where we are currently
This target is measured by these indicators but there is no global data available:
Volume of production per labour unit by classes of farming/pastoral/forestry enterprise size
Average income of small-scale food producers, by sex and indigenous status
Target 2.4
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
What it means
Like the general definition of sustainability, sustainable agriculture ultimately comes down to balancing economic, social and environmental dimensions. The economic dimension refers to the productivity and profitability of the agriculture system to provide a livelihood for farmers and other agricultural workers. The social dimensions focuses on the wellbeing of workers on farms and in the food supply chain, as well as the benefits to rural and local communities. The environmental dimension includes promoting soil health, minimizing water use, and lowering levels of pollution (pesticides and fertilizers) associated with agriculture.
Where we are currently
This target is measured by this indicator but there is no global data available:
Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture
Target 2.5
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
What it means
According to the IDRC, modern agriculture is concentrated on a small number of varieties designed for intensive farming. The world’s food supply depends on about 150 plant species. Of those 150, just 12 provide three-quarters of the world’s food. More than half of the world’s food energy comes from a limited number of varieties of three “mega-crops”: rice, wheat, and maize.
Genetic diversity is the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species and is an important consideration when it comes to the fight against hunger but the reasons may not be very apparent at first. Here are a few key reasons why we must protect genetic diversity:
Resilience - as we experience more of the effects of climate change, genetic diversity in plants becomes increasingly important so that they can create improved crop varieties that are resistant to pests, and can cope with changing temperatures and water conditions.
Quantity and Quality of Food - genetic diversity allows for creation of crop varieties with higher nutritional value as well as higher yields.
Resource Efficiency - better resource-use efficiency on farms reduces the need to clear forests and cultivate on marginal areas, protecting important biodiversity.
It is also important to protect the livelihoods of small holder farmers and allow them to benefit from the genetic diversity found in nature and the traditional knowledge around crop variation. While companies have rights over genetically modified seeds they may produce, those produces through traditional methods of variation must be protected and the diversity of natural resources must be protected in order to ensure this can continue to occur.
Where we are currently
Since the 1900s, some 75% of crop diversity has been lost, of the remaining 25%, one third is expected to become extinct by 2050. (FAO)
At the end of 2019, genebank holdings under medium or long-term conditions in 103 countries and 17 regional and international research centres were estimated at 5.43 million accessions, about a one percent increase on the previous year.
Means of Implementation
Target 2A 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
Target 2B 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
Target 2C 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
Keep Learning
Here are a few great resources for further reading and learning:
Goal 2 Overview (2020, United Nations)
Statistics for SDG 2 (2020, United Nations)
Ending Hunger: What Would It Cost? (2016, IISD)
Importance of Smallholder Farms as a Relevant Strategy to Increase Food Security (2020, Hazell)
Importance of Genetic Diversity in Agriculture (2018, Krug)
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