The State of Food Security and Nutrition (SOFI) report is the flagship food security publication of the UN, produced annually by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) in collaboration with UNICEF, the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the WHO. According to the 2023 SOFI report, more people suffered from undernourishment in 2022 than in 2015, when the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was launched, with Sustainable Development Goal 2 aiming for “zero hunger” by 2030. In 2030, the UN predicts that more people will still suffer from undernourishment than in 2015.

Since the UN published its 2023 SOFI report in July, events worldwide have threatened to increase global hunger and malnutrition, including Russia’s termination of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, war between Israel and Hamas, and India’s ban on rice exports, while climate change continues to produce extremes in temperature and precipitation. At the same time, global food prices continued to decline throughout 2023, potentially boding well for food security in food-importing countries.

How have these recent events affected global hunger and malnutrition? How is the U.S. government continuing to lead the global response to numerous, overlapping threats to food insecurity worldwide? Given the global reach of the Sustainable Development Goals, what are the trends in food security in the United States, including in Washington, DC? And what are the most important and yet underreported findings of the 2023 SOFI report?

Please join the CSIS Global Food and Water Security Program on Tuesday, November 14 at 9:00AM EST for the official U.S. launch of the 2023 SOFI report. CSIS is honored to welcome Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) for virtual keynote remarks, FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero for a summary of the SOFI report, followed by a panel discussion featuring U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security Dr. Cary Fowler, USAID Assistant to the Administrator for the Bureau of Resilience, Environment, and Food Security Dina Esposito, and Capital Area Food Bank President and CEO Radha Muthiah.

This event is made possible through the generous support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.