The systems challenge behind ending hunger: Why SDG 2 requires more than food

The recent 2025 Global Food Policy Report, launched on World Hunger Day, highlights unprecedented progress in reducing hunger and poverty over the last 50 years. However, the goal of zero hunger is at risk. The UN currently assesses Sustainable Development Goal 2 to be the only SDG that no member state has achieved nor is on track to achieve in the next five years. An estimated 600 million people around the world are projected to face hunger in 2030, according to the UN. 

As we'll discuss below, we know a good deal about addressing hunger at the individual level in the short term but much less about how to ensure food security at a systemic level.

Isolated interventions are not enough

SDG 2 – ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture – is at the heart of interlinked global challenges. Hunger is both an outcome and driver of poverty and inequality at local and global levels. It is exacerbated by weaknesses in food systems, macroeconomic fluctuations, and unequal access to agriculture inputs, as well as conflict and climate vulnerability. Therefore, hunger is impossible to address through isolated interventions alone. Humanitarian responses can provide critical short-term relief and targeted nutrition programs can address acute deficiencies (Brooker et al. 2022, Eichler et al. 2012; Gera et al. 2012) but truly ending hunger requires transforming the food systems that determine whether nutritious food is available, accessible, and affordable for all. Investing in agricultural systems that are more productive and more resilient to climate shocks, economic volatility, and other disruptions means that hunger and environmental issues must be addressed together.

The anticipated US$704 million in cuts to nutrition aid this year have led to daunting uncertainty for the continuity of major food security initiatives such as USAID’s Feed the Future and monitoring and warning systems such as the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. Global shortfalls in foreign aid mean that funders and decision-makers will need to make difficult resourcing decisions. To maximize impact and cost effectiveness, evidence must play a central role in such decisions. 

Evidence to understand systems-level change is missing

3ie houses the largest evidence tools on food systems interventions, agriculture-led growth, and resilience to shocks and stressors, as well as one of the largest evidence repositories known as the Development Evidence Portal or DEP . What do we know about how to effectively strengthen food systems and climate resilience? 

There is substantial evidence on what works at the individual and household level. For example:

• Unconditional cash transfers can improve food security. In humanitarian contexts, they can improve diet diversity. However, for women living in fragile contexts, asset transfers can achieve more economic access impact than cash.   
• In nutrition programming, education and counseling for pregnant women and behavior change interventions can improve intermediate nutrition outcomes. 
• Agriculture interventions such as climate resilient crops coupled with training, or agricultural certification schemes show some promise for addressing food security via income and economic access.

For systems-level change, there is far less evidence on what actually works, and fewer or no answers on how to create enduring, transformative impact.  We do not know which combination of policies and interventions would achieve the most impact in this resource-constrained world. We also lack evidence to know how achieving different development goals might conflict with each other– for example, achieving poverty alleviation goals and protecting the environment. 

Building a foundation of rigorous and representative evidence requires long term investment. It also requires a vision for evidence generation, testing, and evidence-based decision-making. Tools and methods to conduct this research exist already, but they have yet to be deployed at the necessary scale. Without robust evidence on how to transform market infrastructure, trade policies, food safety systems, and climate-resilient agricultural practices at scale, we risk falling short of SDG 2's ambitious timeline. The path forward demands not just continued investment in proven direct interventions, but urgent, focused research and experimentation on the systemic changes that can make nutritious food systems work for everyone, everywhere.

Additional References

• Osendarp, S., Ruel, M., Udomkesmalee, E., Tessema, M. and Haddad, L. (2025) ‘The full lethal impact of massive cuts to international food aid’, Nature, 640(8057), pp. 35–37. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00898-3.
• Sachs, J.D., Lafortue, G. and Fuller, G. (2024) The SDGs and the UN Summit of the Future. Sustainable Development Report 2024. Paris, Dublin: SDSN, Dublin University Press. Available at: doi:10.25546/108572 (Accessed: 3 June 2025)
• United Nations (2023) The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023: Special Edition. United Nations. Available at: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2023 (Accessed: 4 June 2025).
• WFP and FAO (2024) Hunger Hotspots. FAO–WFP early warnings on acute food insecurity: November 2024 to May 2025 outlook. Rome: World Food Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4060/cd2995en (Accessed: 4 June 2025).

We delve deep into insights on several other goals as part of our SDG blog series. You can read them below:

• Reaching SDG 3: Promoting immunizations can safeguard children from preventable diseases and death
• Reaching SDG 5: Breaking down gender barriers to build lasting solutions
• Reaching SDG 15: Evidence shows how to protect land ecosystems by leveraging communities
• Reaching SDG 16: A long way to go to promote peace, but we know some tools are effective
• Reaching SDG 7: Sustainable energy for all is a complex goal. Evidence about how to get there is uneven