**: Market information.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has released its World Food Security and Nutrition Report 2023. The assessment of the state of global food security and nutrition in 2022 reflects that the world is still recovering from a global pandemic. Encouraging signs of economic recovery from the pandemic and expectations of reduced poverty and hunger have been impacted by food and energy***.
The cost and affordability of a healthy diet.
In 2020, nearly 3.2 billion people worldwide could not afford a healthy diet; The situation improved slightly in 2021 (by 52 million people). Between 2019 and 2021, the global cost of a healthy diet increased by 67%, of which the single-year increase in 2021 is significant, reaching 43%。Between 2020 and 2021, costs in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania increased by more than 5%, but not much in North America and Europe.
Nutritional status: progress towards global nutrition goals.
SDG 2 specifically mentions nutrition, but it is critical to achieving all 17 SDGs.
Urbanization is transforming agrifood systems and impacting access to affordable and healthy diets across urban and rural areas.
Urbanization is the result of urban population growth, urban sprawl, and migration from rural to urban areas.
Urbanization, coupled with other factors such as rising incomes, increased employment and changing lifestyles, is driving change in agrifood systems across the rural-urban continuum.
The interplay between food supply and demand and the cost and affordability of healthy diets.
Understand the food** and needs of the rural-urban continuum.
Urbanization, combined with rising incomes, increasing work-related opportunity costs, changing lifestyles, and demographic changes, are all altering food demand.
the cost and affordability of healthy diets, and food security and nutrition across the rural-urban continuum.
In the 11 African countries analysed, the cost of a healthy diet in urban centres was much higher than in peri-urban areas (on average 12 times). The smaller the city and the closer it is to the countryside, the lower the cost of a healthy diet.
Policies and solutions that leverage agrifood systems transformation to promote healthy diets across the rural-urban continuum.
The increased linkages between the rural-urban continuum, coupled with closer interaction between the components of agrifood systems, create both opportunities and challenges for the availability and affordability of healthy diets.
Policies and investments to promote healthy diets in urban and rural areas.
Supporting healthier food points of sale is key for people to access healthy diets, as this has been shown to have a positive impact on the quality of the diet.
Technology and innovation: key enablers for agrifood systems transformation in the context of urbanization.
In an urbanizing world, the strategic deployment of technology and innovation can be a key catalyst for the transformation of agrifood systems.
Urban-rural integration planning and governance mechanisms.
Transformative policies, technologies and innovations require appropriate governance mechanisms that engage multiple stakeholders and address the challenges and opportunities presented by agrifood systems in the context of urbanization in a coherent manner.
Conclusion. Between 2021 and 2022, global hunger has not worsened, but hunger numbers are rising in many parts of the world, and people are still struggling to make up for lost income post-pandemic, or being hit by food and energy***, or having their lives and livelihoods disrupted by conflict, or by extreme weather events. Progress on key indicators of child nutrition is cause for celebration, with some regions on track to meet some nutrition targets by 2030. In many countries, an increase in overweight and obesity predicts an increased burden of noncommunicable diseases.