Addressing heads of state, ministers and international partners, President of the UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock said today’s hunger crisis is not the result of scarcity, but of inequality, conflict and policy choices.
Last year, more than 670 million people experienced hunger, and 2.3 billion faced moderate or severe food insecurity. “That is billions wondering where their next meal will come from. Parents having to see their children go to bed hungry,” she said.
This is occurring in a world that wastes over one billion meals every day.
“The crisis of hunger is not lack of food. It is entirely preventable,” she stressed, pointing to failures in access, affordability and social protection.
The meeting took place as Doha hosts the Second World Summit for Social Development, where nearly 14,000 attendees are discussing how to strengthen social systems, expand opportunity and reduce inequality.
As the planet heats, hunger spreads
Ms. Baerbock highlighted climate change as a rapidly accelerating driver of hunger. Recalling a recent visit to the Sahel, she described fertile land turned to dust as heat rises and rains fail. “This is the new frontline of food insecurity,” she said.
If global warming continues unchecked, as many as 1.8 billion additional people could face food insecurity, she warned. But limiting warming to 1.5°C, backed by investment in adaptation and resilience, could prevent millions from falling deeper into poverty.
Launched under Brazil’s G20 Presidency in 2024, the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty now includes nearly 200 members – over 100 countries, regional organizations, international agencies and civil society groups. Monday’s meeting was its first at leaders’ level, aimed at accelerating practical cooperation, from scaling up social protection to strengthening climate-resilient agriculture.
“In a world of plenty – where there should be more than enough to go around – ensuring that everyone, everywhere has enough to eat is entirely possible,” Ms. Baerbock said. “A world free from hunger and poverty is not a distant aspiration. It is within reach, if we reach for it together.”
Risks to women and girls across this vast region are severe and systemic, as political instability, environmental collapse and a declining international presence take their toll.
From abductions and child marriage to exclusion from schools and public life, their lives and opportunities are being steadily stripped away, Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, told ambassadors in the Security Council on Thursday.
“In the Sahel, where the world’s gravest concerns converge, women and girls bear the brunt,” she said.
She added that crises due to increasing terrorism, poverty, hunger, a crumbling aid system and shrinking civic space are “converging – violently and disproportionately – on their bodies and their futures.”
UN Women Executive Director Bahous briefs the Security Council.
Life is being erased
In countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad, life for women under extremist control “is one of erasure from public space,” Ms. Bahous said.
Their movement, visibility and even clothing are heavily restricted. Schools have been burned or shut down, leaving more than one million girls without access to education.
“Abduction is not a by-product of terrorism in the Sahel – it is a tactic,” Ms. Bahous said, noting that in Burkina Faso alone, the number of women and girls abducted has more than doubled over the past 18 months.
In Mali, 90 percent of women are affected by female genital mutilation. Rates of child marriage in parts of the region are among the highest in the world. Maternal mortality – driven by early pregnancy and poverty – is among the world’s worst.
Dwindling resilience and attention
“The distances women and girls travel for water or firewood are growing longer, while their safety is shrinking,” Ms. Bahous said.
Two-thirds of women surveyed report feeling unsafe during these journeys. Climate change only deepens the hardship, with extreme heat and drought increasing both mortality and food insecurity across the region.
Yet despite mounting needs, international support is waning.
Only eight per cent of this year’s humanitarian appeal for the region had been met by May.
Development assistance has fallen nearly 20 per cent over the past two years. As a result, women’s protection and empowerment programmes have been suspended, while government ministries focused on gender equality are being defunded, merged or closed.
SRSG Simão briefs the Security Council (via video).
Political space closing
At the same time, democratic and civic space is narrowing.
In Niger, only 14 percent of participants in recent institutional reforms were women. In Mali, just two out of 36 members drafting the new national charter were women.
Leonardo Santos Simão, head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), also warned that a deteriorating security environment – marked by waves of jihadist attacks and political turbulence – is undermining progress and fuelling displacement.
He added that shrinking space for media, civil society and women’s organizations is threatening hard-won gains and that a broader crisis is undermining governance and peacebuilding efforts.
“The region’s economy remains highly vulnerable to external shocks. Although macroeconomic indicators show improvement, rising debt levels continue to constrain governments’ capacity to provide essential services,” he said.
Fragile gains
Still, progress is possible – and in some instances, visible.
In Chad, women now hold 34 percent of parliamentary seats. In conflict-prone border zones in Mali and Niger, women’s participation in local peacebuilding rose from five percent to 25 percent, helping resolve over 100 disputes related to scarce natural resources.
Across the region, joint UN programming has increased adolescent girls’ return to school by 23 percent, while doubling women’s participation in local governance across 34 conflict-affected communities. In addition, a UN-World Bank initiative has reached over three million adolescent girls with health care, safe spaces and life-skills training.
Stand with Sahel’s women
Yet, these gains remain fragile.
“We cannot abandon the Sahel – whatever the politics, whatever the funding landscapes, whatever the geopolitical headwinds,” Ms. Bahous said in conclusion.
“Let us stand with the women of the Sahel – not out of charity, but in recognition of their power to shape a better future.”
