Hunger and pover­ty con­tin­ue to be per­sis­tent chal­lenges for all of human­i­ty even in this twen­ty-first cen­tu­ry. In addi­tion to caus­ing immense suf­fer­ing, they under­mine devel­op­ment and glob­al sta­bil­i­ty, with reper­cus­sions for pub­lic health, inequal­i­ties, cli­mate action, and democ­ra­cy itself.

We are los­ing this bat­tle. Progress in the imple­men­ta­tion of Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals 1 (no pover­ty) and 2 (zero hunger) is slow­ing down or, in some cas­es, regressing.

Most low-income coun­tries, and many mid­dle-income coun­tries, do not have social pro­tec­tion poli­cies. When they exist, high indebt­ed­ness and tight fis­cal space lim­it their prop­er oper­a­tion. Inter­na­tion­al financ­ing mech­a­nisms are frag­ment­ed, hard to scale, and bur­dened with high trans­ac­tion costs.

The avail­able instru­ments are insuf­fi­cient to set the world back on the path to zero hunger and the erad­i­ca­tion of pover­ty. Glob­al chal­lenges like these require a more ambi­tious and more effec­tive com­mit­ment, with financ­ing and action at all levels.