Conflict remains the most destructive force driving hunger across the planet, according to the 2025 Global Hunger Index (GHI).
Armed violence fuelled 20 food crises affecting nearly 140 million people in the past year, while wars in Gaza and Sudan “illustrate how conflict devastates both livelihoods and lifelines”, it says.
Global famine-level food insecurity, concentrated largely in those two settings, more than doubled between 2023 and 2024.
“Massive destruction will lead to long-lasting threats to food security. Humanitarian assistance has dropped sharply, while military spending has surged – an inversion of priorities that undermines the global hunger response,” the report warns.
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As funding declines, “assistance is increasingly limited to only the most acute cases, leaving many without support”, adds the report published on Thursday. The GHI is compiled by Concern Worldwide, German aid agency Welthungerhilfe and the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict.
The possibility of achieving the UN sustainable development goal (SDG) of zero hunger by 2030 is slipping away, it says. At the current rate of progress, it will take more than 100 years before low hunger levels globally will be reached.
“At the current pace, at least 56 countries will not reach low hunger – let alone zero hunger – by 2030,” said Concern director of strategy, advocacy and learning Réiseal Ní Chéilleachair.
“If progress remains at the pace observed since 2016, low hunger at the global level may not be reached until 2137 – more than a century away,” she added.
The report details lack of progress in 2025 that reflects “overlapping and accelerating global crises such as escalating conflicts, climate shocks, economic fragility and political disengagement”.
“But hunger is not inevitable. It is a result of the lack of sustained political will, policy failure, policy financing and implementation,” Ms Ní Chéilleachair said.
“Progress is evident in a number of countries, the report shows, especially on undernourishment. The international community [however] needs to re-energise, recommit and refocus its efforts to tackle global hunger levels, prioritising communities and people who are most affected.”
In 2025 – the 20th year of the GHI – the index score has improved only slightly compared to 2016. “Lack of progress toward achieving the SDGs is evidence of leaders’ policy ambivalence: stated ambitions are not being met with adequate resources or actions,” it says.
“Putting it in simple terms, talk is not being backed by action,” Ms Ní Chéilleachair said.
Instead of correcting course, many decision-makers were ignoring or underinvesting in commitments already made, she said. “They are doubling down on destabilising policies. Vital monitoring and early-warning systems which are used to track hunger are being undermined by security risks, bureaucratic impediments, and funding cuts that hamper aid delivery and data collection.”
The GHI shows hunger is considered “alarming” in seven countries: Burundi; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Haiti; Madagascar; Somalia; South Sudan and Yemen. In 35 countries, it is designated as “serious” while many countries are slipping backward; in 27 countries with low, moderate, serious or alarming scores, hunger has increased since 2016.
The report highlights data gaps preventing calculation of GHI scores in countries including the occupied Palestinian territories; Sudan, and North Korea. “These gaps obscure the true extent of hunger in these countries. Available indicators, however, point to deteriorating conditions and suggest the reality is more alarming than the current figures reveal.”
As systems to measure and respond to hunger are dismantled or weakened, “a dangerous loop is created where humanitarian needs are invisible and so attract no assistance”, the report warns.
“Assistance is increasingly limited to only the most acute cases, leaving many without support,” it adds.
The report notes improvement in undernourishment levels in parts of south and southeast Asia and Latin America. Sustained investments can drive meaningful progress in reducing hunger, it says, pointing to examples from Angola; Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nepal and Sierra Leone.
