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Despite tremendous progress made in the last decade to produce enough food to meet the demands of the growing population, around 811 million people lived in hunger in 2020 and nearly half of the world’s population lacked year-round access to adequate food due to climate change, poverty, and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the 2021 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report.

After declining in June and July, the FAO Food Price Index rose quickly again in August and reached 32.9 percent higher than August 2020 levels. The increase was driven by rising cereal and vegetable oil prices, as well as by rises in sugar prices.

The world continues to face the challenge of ending hunger and malnutrition (undernutrition and obesity) in all its forms. The progress made towards reducing hunger in the last two decades has been reversed, especially due to economic slowdown and geographic closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic during which food security, nutrition, poverty reduction and agricultural productivity—all have suffered.

This post originally appeared on IFPRI.org, by Swati Malhotra and Rob Vos.

Food security is expected to further deteriorate in 23 countries already facing food crises, according to a new report from FAO and WFP. These worsening conditions come as countries and regions are reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and struggling to address conflict, climate change, and economic downturn.