Brazil tames hunger as the world falls behind

While global hunger remains above 2015 levels and the goal of ending it by 2030 slips further out of reach, Brazil has reduced undernourishment below 2.5%. Its progress shows what coordinated public action can achieve

While global hunger remains above 2015 levels, Brazil is moving in the opposite direction. A new report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 7.8% of the world’s population was undernourished in 2025. In Brazil, the figure dropped below 2.5% over the 2023–2025 period, keeping the country off the Hunger Map.

The sharpest improvement came in severe food insecurity, which fell from 6.6% in 2021–2023 to 0.6% in 2023–2025. More than an isolated sign of economic recovery, Brazil’s performance shows what can happen when the fight against hunger is treated as a coordinated system of public policies.

Since 2023, rising incomes and employment have been accompanied by the restoration of public procurement from family farmers, school feeding programs, support for the production of staple foods, and spaces for public participation. Among the main initiatives revived or strengthened during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s third term are Bolsa Família, the policy of real increases in the minimum wage, the Food Procurement Program (PAA) and the National School Feeding Program (PNAE).

Bolsa Família provides income support to the poorest households, while real growth in the minimum wage boosts earnings for the lower-income population. The PAA purchases food from family farmers and supplies it to public food assistance, healthcare, and social welfare programs. The PNAE funds meals for public school students and requires part of its budget to be spent on food purchased from family farming.

These policies, however, still operate with less funding, infrastructure and coverage than needed. Hunger declined rapidly even before the system dismantled in previous years had been fully rebuilt, demonstrating both the effectiveness of policies that have already proven successful and the fragility of these gains.

According to Elisabetta Recine, president of the National Council for Food and Nutrition Security (Consea), one of the main challenges is ensuring that any point of contact with public services serves as a gateway to the broader support network.

“A person experiencing homelessness will eventually come into contact with social assistance, a health clinic, or receive a meal at a community restaurant or solidarity kitchen. Once that person enters the system, wherever that may be, they need to remain connected to that network,” she says.

In a statement issued in response to the UN report, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), of which Recine is a member, argues that Brazil’s experience offers valuable lessons for other countries. It also warns, however, that it cannot be turned into a universal blueprint.

A significant share of hunger today is concentrated in countries affected by conflict, climate crises, forced displacement, and weak state capacity. Africa has overtaken Asia in the number of undernourished people and could account for 56% of the world’s hungry population by 2030.

For Recine, there is still another obstacle: many international interventions have ignored local ways of producing, distributing, and consuming food.

“Africa’s diversity has always been neglected — the methods of production and the entire economic dynamic have particularities that were never considered relevant. Most interventions have reflected an overwhelmingly colonial perspective, even if not explicitly.”

Although global hunger has declined for the third consecutive year, it remains above 2015 levels and far from the target of eradication by 2030.

Leaving the Map is not enough

A decline in hunger does not necessarily mean people have access to an adequate diet. The Hunger Map measures insufficient calorie intake, not dietary diversity or nutritional quality. That is the limitation highlighted by the new SOFI report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World: 2.69 billion people still cannot afford a healthy diet.

According to Recine, this problem cannot be separated from public policies that make some foods inexpensive while placing others out of reach. Fruits and vegetables provide a relatively small share of daily calories, yet account for a disproportionately large share of the cost of a healthy diet. For low-income families, that imbalance narrows food choices and creates more room for ultra-processed products.

“Fruits and vegetables account for 12% of the calories in a healthy diet, but 40% of its cost. In a poor household, you simply don’t have a choice. At the same time, there is a highly sophisticated strategy designed to persuade people to buy foods that are, in reality, nutritionally poor,” Recine says.

She is referring to the extensive public support received by the ultra-processed food industry, from research and development of agricultural inputs such as seeds to tax exemptions for pesticides, debt relief for agribusiness and public credit directed toward commodity production.

“The resources mobilized to support this production model create profoundly unfair competition with healthy food production,” she concludes.

The FAO recommends investing in infrastructure, research and development for fruits, vegetables and legumes, as well as policies aimed at reducing the losses and costs that accumulate between farms and consumers. For Recine, however, this requires more than logistical efficiency; it demands a different way of organizing the food system.

“It reinforces the need to bring food production and consumption much closer together. This represents a fundamental shift in the way we think about food systems, one that already exists in local and territorial initiatives (…). But it requires political commitment, public investment, and cultural change.”