The World Food Program in the United Nations FAO has estimated that, during the period 2019-2021, about 900 thousand people or about 32% of the population of Albania suffer from food insecurity. 

Despite the fact that the indicator has marked a slight decrease from the 2020 review, Albania has about 1 third of its population with food security deficiencies. 

FAO assessed that, overall, the world has not progressed either towards ensuring access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food for all people or towards eradicating all forms of malnutrition. 

Conflict, climate variability and extremes, economic crises and most recently the war in Ukraine are key drivers slowing progress towards food security, particularly where inequality is high. The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine made the path to the goals even steeper. 

The number of people affected by global hunger reached 828 million in 2021, an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the United Nations. 

The percentage of people affected by hunger increased in 2020 and continued to increase in 2021, to 9.8 percent of the world's population. About 2.3 billion people in the world (29.3 percent) had food insufficiency, 900 thousand of them are estimated in Albania. 

In 2021, 350 million more people worldwide were food insecure compared to the pre-pandemic period. Forecasts show that nearly 670 million people (8 percent of the world's population) will face hunger in 2030. This is a similar number to 2015, when the goal to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition by the end of this decade was launched under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations. 

The war in Ukraine, involving two of the world's largest producers of grains, oilseeds and fertilizers, is disrupting international supply chains and driving up grain, fertilizer, energy prices. On the other hand, the increasingly frequent extreme climate changes, especially in low-income countries, further increase food supply insecurities.

(Source: Monitor)