Sustainable Development Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

The aim is to ensure that everyone everywhere has enough good-quality food to lead a healthy life. Achieving this Goal will require better access to food and the widespread promotion of sustainable agriculture. 

This entails improving the productivity and incomes of small-scale farmers by promoting equal access to land, technology and markets, sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices. It also requires increased investments through international cooperation to bolster the productive capacity of agriculture in developing countries.

Statistics 

Despite progress, more than 790 million people worldwide still suffer from hunger

The fight against hunger has seen some progress over the past 15 years. Globally, the proportion of undernourished people declined from 15 per cent in 2000-2002 to 11 per cent in 2014-2016. However, more than 790 million people still lack regular access to adequate food. If current trends continue, the zero hunger target will be largely missed by 2030. 

The persistence of hunger is no longer a matter of food availability. Rather, in many countries that failed to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) hunger target, natural and human-induced disasters or political instability have resulted in food insecurity affecting large swathes of the population. 

Preliminary estimates from the Food Insecurity Experience Scale available for about 150 countries in 2014 and 2015 reveal that food insecurity is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. More than half of the adult population in that region faced moderate or severe levels of food insecurity, and one-quarter faced severe levels. Southern Asia had the second highest prevalence: around 25 per cent of adults there experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, and 12 per cent experienced severe levels.

Chronic undernutrition, or stunted growth, still affects one in four children under age 5

In 2014, an estimated 158.6 million children under age 5 were affected by stunting, a chronic form of undernutrition defined as inadequate height for age. Chronic undernutrition puts children at greater risk of dying from common infections, increases the frequency and severity of infections, and contributes to delayed recovery. 

It is also associated with impaired cognitive ability and reduced school and work performance. Globally, the proportion of stunted children has fallen in all regions except Oceania. Southern Asia made the most progress between 2000 and 2014, but the region is still home to the largest number of stunted children in the world 63.9 million. 

In sub-Saharan Africa, population growth outpaced progress: the number of stunted children increased from an estimated 50.1 million in 2000 to 57.3 million in 2014. Together, Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounted for three quarters of children under 5 affected by stunting in 2014.

The number of overweight children under age 5 has increased to 41 million.

Worldwide, the proportion of children under age 5 who are overweight increased from 5 per cent in 2000 to 6 per cent in 2014. Overweight is a growing problem affecting nearly every region. Northern Africa has the highest prevalence of overweight children under 5 (16 per cent), followed by the Caucasus and Central Asia (12 per cent). Globally, 41 million children in this age group are overweight; almost half of them live in Asia and one quarter live in Africa.

Agriculture’s share of government expenditures increasingly lags behind its economic contribution

The productive capacity of agriculture depends on investments from public and private, domestic and foreign sources. Recent trends in government spending have not been favorable. 

The agriculture orientation index (AOI) the agriculture share of government expenditures divided by the agriculture share of GDP fell from 0.37 to 0.33 between 2001 and 2013 in developing countries. The decline was interrupted only during the food price crisis of 2006 to 2008, when governments boosted agricultural spending. 

Since the late 1990s, aid to agriculture in developing countries has languished at around 8 per cent of the total, down from a high of 20 per cent in the mid-1980s, when donors began focusing more on improving governance, building social capital and bolstering fragile states.

Target	Indicators
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.	2.1.1 Prevalence of undernourishment 2.1.2 Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)
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	2.2.1 Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age 2.2.2 Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight)
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	2.3.1 Volume of production per labour unit by classes of farming/pastoral/forestry enterprise size 2.3.2 Average income of small-scale food producers, by sex and indigenous status
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	2.4.1 Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture
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	2.5.1 Number of plant and animal genetic resources for food and agriculture secured in either medium or long-term conservation facilities 2.5.2 Proportion of local breeds classified as being at risk, not-at-risk or at unknown level of risk of extinction
2.a 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	2.a.1 The agriculture orientation index for government expenditures 2.a.2 Total official flows (official development assistance plus other official flows) to the agriculture sector
2.b 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	2.b.1 Producer Support Estimate 2.b.2 Agricultural export subsidies
2.c 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	2.c.1 Indicator of food price anomalies

Libraries support this goal by providing:
1. Agricultural research and Data on how to make crops more productive and sustainable
2. Public access for farmers to online resources like local market prices, weather reports, seeds, crop and pest control, new equipment and many others.

“Together, let’s end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture in our communities” 

Email:haumban@gmail.com