The 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in Asia and the Pacific report, jointly released by FAO, IFAD, UNEP, WFP, and WHO, highlights notable progress in reducing hunger across the region, while emphasizing persistent challenges related to malnutrition, food insecurity, and unequal access to healthy diets. The prevalence of undernourishment declined from 7.0 percent in 2023 to 6.4 percent in 2024, translating to approximately 25 million people escaping hunger in just one year. However, progress remains uneven, with South Asia experiencing the highest levels of food insecurity, affecting nearly 80 percent of its population. Overall, Asia and the Pacific still account for nearly 40 percent of the world’s hungry, underlining the region’s crucial role in achieving global food security and nutrition goals.
The report also emphasizes the double burden of malnutrition in the region. In 2024, 24.4 percent of children under five were stunted, with South Asia recording the highest prevalence at 31.4 percent. Child wasting remains alarmingly high at 8.9 percent, reaching 13.6 percent in South Asia. At the same time, adult obesity continues to rise, particularly in Oceania, and 33.8 percent of women aged 15–49 suffer from anaemia, posing severe long-term public health and socioeconomic consequences.
Access to healthy diets remains a major barrier for millions. The average cost of a nutritious diet in Asia and the Pacific was USD 4.77 per person per day in 2024, exceeding the global average. While affordability has improved for some, South Asia faces the greatest challenge, with 41.7 percent of its population unable to access nutritious food. This highlights the urgent need for interventions that make healthy diets more accessible and equitable.
The report underscores that agrifood systems in the region are at a critical juncture. Despite decades of economic growth and poverty reduction, undernourishment, micronutrient deficiencies, and the health impacts of overweight and obesity persist. The 2025 report calls for accelerated transformation of agrifood systems to address these root causes, improve access to diverse and nutritious foods, and promote positive dietary behavior changes. This transformation is seen as essential to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger and other global nutrition targets by 2030.
To sustain progress, the report highlights four priority actions: strengthening multisectoral governance and inclusive policies; mobilizing sustainable finance to scale high-impact interventions; empowering marginalized populations, including women, youth, and Indigenous Peoples; and promoting climate-smart and sustainable agricultural practices to build resilience and protect natural resources. The report emphasizes that collaboration across sectors, stakeholders, and scales is vital to redesign agrifood systems that can feed all people, sustain the planet, and ensure equitable prosperity.
The UN agencies reaffirmed their commitment to reshaping food systems across Asia and the Pacific, aiming to make them more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable, leaving no one behind. The report provides a comprehensive roadmap for governments and partners to accelerate agrifood systems transformation while addressing both hunger and broader nutrition challenges in the region.
