Cairo, Egypt – Hunger and malnutrition have reached critical levels in the Arab region as access to basic foods has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, says a UN report.

FAO, IFAD, WFP, WHO, Unicef and ESCWA released the 2022 Near East and North Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition: Trade as an Enabler for Food Security and Nutrition report on the weekend, examining the state of regional food security and providing analysis and recommendations on how to mitigate the situation.

The report reveals that an estimated 53.9mn people suffered from severe food insecurity in the Arab region in 2021, accounting for a 55 per cent increase since 2010. This is also an increase of 5mn people from the previous year. Moderate or severe food insecurity has also continued its upward trend, affecting an estimated 154.3mn people in 2021, an increase of 11.6mn people over the previous year, the report also warned.

In addition, it stated that more than half the population in the Arab States, or 162.7mn people, could not afford a healthy diet in 2020. The cost of a healthy diet in the Arab region has been increasing each year since 2017, reaching US$3.47 per person per day in 2020.

The Arab region continues to suffer from multiple forms of malnutrition. While the prevalence of stunting of 20.5 per cent, affecting one out of every five children under five years of age, was lower than the global average, the report indicates that the regional indicators for wasting, 7.8 per cent, is higher than the global average of 6.7 per cent. The prevalence of overweight among children under five years of age has shown a steady increase since 2000 reaching 10.7 per cent in 2020.

In addition, the report highlights that the latest available estimates show that 28.8 per cent of the adult population (18 years and above) of the Arab region is obese, which is more than double the global average.