2017 Global Food Policy Report

The year 2016 saw important signs of resolve and commitments to sustainable development and food security. Yet the year also witnessed growing uncertainties linked to stagnant growth in the global economy, growing income inequalities everywhere, worsening refugee crises, increased polarization and populism among major donor countries, and rapid changes in the political landscape.
These uncertainties and persistent challenges will prove to be a major test of whether the momentum created will propel the new sustainable development agenda forward and whether action will be taken to improve the lives of millions of people who continue to lack the most basic necessities— namely, food, shelter, and security.

LOOKING BACK AT 2016: A GLIMMER OF HOPE

Despite experiencing a sixth year of global economic stagnation in 2016, some positive signs emerged of better things to come. Take poverty, for example. World Bank projections suggest that for the first time in history, the number of people living in extreme poverty fell below 10 percent of the global population. While the rates may have fallen, the numbers of extremely poor people in the world remain too high—hundreds of millions of people still live on less than US$1.90 a day (the current benchmark for extreme poverty).

Global hunger rates are also expected to have fallen in 2016, with less than 11 percent of the world suffering from undernourishment—a drop from 19 percent in 1990. Advancements were made in countries such as Bangladesh, which cut hunger from 33 percent to 16 percent between the periods 1990–1992 and 2014–2016. Ethiopia made even more dramatic progress, reducing hunger from 75 percent to 32 percent over the same time frame. Among other broad strategies and programs to reduce hunger and malnutrition, efforts to improve crop production and diversification coincided with the improvements seen in these countries. Along with Bangladesh and Ethiopia, many other countries also witnessed significant reductions in undernutrition, particularly in child stunting—a condition of low height-for-age that is irreversible and associated with impaired physical and cognitive ability. To take one research result released in 2016, Peru rapidly reduced child stunting from 28 percent to 18 percent in just four years (2008–2012), a remarkable sign of progress that included the poor and reached all of Peru’s diverse regions.

Global food prices fell for the fifth straight year in 2016 due to increased supply, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The FAO’s December 2016 Crop Prospects and Food Situation report forecast world cereal production of 2,578 million metric tons for 2016, 1.7 percent above 2015 cereal output.