The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has called on world leaders to turn a blind eye no more and treat hunger as a global systemic risk that needs to be tackled urgently. They warned that the continuous sidelining of the hunger issue in global risk assessment stinks of a will to hurt efforts to build resilient economies and societies.
Before the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, AGRA regretted that the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2026 leaves out hunger in the list of the top 10 global risks over the short-term (two years) and long-term (10 years) horizons.
Failing to include this in the report is hardly any excuse when we consider that climate shocks are getting worse, ecosystems are being degraded, global supply chains are still fragile, and food production systems, especially in Africa, continue to deteriorate.
AGRA also pointed out that more than 50 per cent of Africans rely directly on nature for their livelihoods and, therefore, food security is a matter of ecosystem health as well as economic stability.
While the Global Risks Report presents potential threats like trade wars, fake news, societal polarisation, armed conflict, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, hunger is noticeably absent from both risk lists.
AGRA believes the issue of hunger should be seen as something that goes beyond just a narrow humanitarian concern. It is a multiple and destabilising risk that causes displacement, deepens inequality, destabilises politics, and undermines human capital and productivity.
“If hunger is only seen as a downstream effect, then the world’s response is too late. Livelihoods have collapsed, conflicts have worsened, and the nutrition and learning of children have been irreparably damaged, ” said AGRA President Alice Ruhweza. She also stressed that food and nutrition security should be part of global risk management frameworks.
AGRA cautioned that the famine situation is currently deteriorating mainly in Africa. According to the latest UN food security reports, approximately 673 million people worldwide suffered from hunger in 2024, out of which over 307 million were in Africa. The continent’s hunger rate has exceeded 20 per cent, which means that the world is getting further and further away from meeting Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) on Zero Hunger, even though Africa’s population is expected to hit 2. 5 billion by 2050.
Theis revealed that they are also concerned about climate change, which is already harming food security by reducing crop yields, putting more pressure on livestock and fisheries, and causing food prices to risethese are issues that small farmers are particularly vulnerable to.
AGRA urged farmers to adopt climate and nature-positive agricultural practices that help the environment and mitigate climate change risks