Global Food and Hunger Challenges Projected to Increase Mortality, Disability by 2050

BY YING VISSER AND MARIËLLE KARSSENBERG

IFPRI’s recently-released 2021 Global Food Policy Report (GFPR) is published at a time when the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to grow. With the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit set for September, the global policy focus is on transforming food systems after COVID-19. An April 15 virtual event organized by IFPRI, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Netherlands Food Partnership explored insights from report, focusing on the challenges of food systems transformation post-pandemic.

“I am worried when I read this report about what is happening to food security. Not just in the short term, but especially in the long term,” Paul van de Logt, Head of Food and Nutrition Security, Dutc Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in his opening statement, But he said he is also hopeful that the GFPR can provide important scientific input to reach a turning point where policies are informed by science and their interventions ensure access to healthy diets. “Researchers can be the heroes to guide policies in what we need to do next,” he said.

Photo credit: IFPRI