PHILIPPINES

“A person is food insecure when they lack regular access to enough safe and nutritious food for
normal growth and development and an active and healthy life. This may be due to
unavailability of food and/or lack of resources to obtain food,” Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO) explained on its website.

In the Philippines, FAO found that from 2019 to 2021, 5.3 million Filipinos were severely food
insecure, while 48 million more experienced moderate or severe food insecurity.

The FAO report also noted that between 2019 to 2021, 5.7 million Filipinos were
undernourished. These people, as defined by the organization, were unable to acquire enough
food to meet the daily minimum dietary energy requirements over a period of one year.

In the Philippines, the cost of a healthy diet has been consistently rising from P226.60 (USD
3.84) in 2017, P236.04 (USD 4.00) in 2018, and P238.9 (USD 4.05) in 2019, to P242.53 (USD
4.11) in 2020.

This resulted in 68.6 percent of the country’s estimated population in 2020—around 75.2 million
Filipinos—who cannot afford a healthy diet.

“On food affordability, it was found that many Filipino households are unable to consume
nutrient-adequate diets due to their unaffordability. The poorest households suffer from food
insecurity the most as evidenced by their low diet quality and high incidence of malnutrition,” the
Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said.

https://www.pids.gov.ph/details/news/in-the-news/world-food-day-2022-rising-costs-keep-million
s-in-ph-away-from-healthy-diets

Population below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption (also referred to as
prevalence of undernourishment) shows the percentage of the population whose food intake is
insufficient to meet dietary energy requirements continuously.

● Philippines hunger statistics for 2020 was 5.20%, a 0.3% decline from 2019.
● Philippines hunger statistics for 2019 was 5.50%, a 0.7% decline from 2018.
● Philippines hunger statistics for 2018 was 6.20%, a 1.3% decline from 2017.
● Philippines hunger statistics for 2017 was 7.50%, a 1.3% decline from 2016.

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/PHL/philippines/hunger-statistics
GLOBAL STANDARD

The world has not been generally progressing either towards ensuring access to safe, nutritious
and sufficient food for all people all year round (SDG Target 2.1), or to eradicating all forms of
malnutrition (SDG Target 2.2).

The number of people in the world affected by hunger increased in 2020 under the shadow of
the COVID-19 pandemic. After remaining virtually unchanged from 2014 to 2019, the
prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) climbed to around 9.9 percent in 2020, from 8.4 percent
a year earlier

From a total of 2.37 billion suffering from food insecurity, half (1.2 billion) are in Asia; one-third
(799 million) are in Africa; and 11 percent (267 million) are in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In addition to being the region with the highest overall prevalence of food insecurity, Africa is
also the region where severe levels represent the largest share of the combined total of
moderate plus severe food insecurity – 43 percent, compared with 39 percent in Asia and 35
percent in Latin America and the Caribbean. In Northern America and Europe, the proportion of
food insecurity experienced at severe levels is much smaller.

https://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition/2021/en