The world’s food crisis is worsening thanks to rising levels of conflict and climate related disasters reaping devastation across the globe. This concerning context is compounded by G7 leaders failing to transparently follow through on the commitment they made to lift 500 million out of hunger by 2030.

In this context, holding leaders to account on commitments they made to Global Citizens towards ending hunger and malnutrition is vital right now. And the first Food and Hunger Accountability Report from Global Citizen published today helps to do just that.

Since 2012, Global Citizens have taken 1,155,764 actions toward food, hunger, and sustainable agriculture initiatives. Thanks to those actions, high-level advocacy and the efforts of our partners 13 commitments and 13 additional announcements in support of ending hunger and malnutrition have been secured, worth $1,836,671,098, which are set to affect the lives of 4 million people by 2030.

In order to tackle the acute issues of hunger and malnutrition, in a world where the number of hungry people in the world sits at a staggering 815 million, Global Citizen’s campaigning work is centered around the following key themes:

— Food security

— Reducing malnutrition

— Food aid: famine and crisis response

— Food sustainability: agriculture and waste reduction.

The report provides details of each commitment across these four themes, its progress to date, as well as a traffic light summary of progress and finds that of all these commitments:

— 5 are on-track to be fully delivered, or to exceed their initial goals

— 3 are proceeding with some risk

— 4 are off track

— 6 are too early to tell, with future reports to contain further updates

Overall, the report finds that 870,000 lives have been impacted so far by these commitments, which means we are 21.58% toward impacting the 4 million lives set to be affected by 2030. We also confirm that at least $581 million has been raised or disbursed toward commitments worth $1.83 billion, which is 31.74% of target. In other words, this is important progress, but by no means is it enough. We must continue to hold leaders to account to their commitments for a fairer world.

You can read the full report here - or read on for key findings.

The global food system is broken

Globally, one in three people currently experience some form of malnutrition — ranging from undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, to overweight and obesity. The global food system is not delivering good, nutritious food for everyone, despite sufficient production, generating huge social and economic consequences. In 2016, 155 million children under 5 years of age were stunted. This means those children struggle with challenges associated with restricted cognitive and physical development because they had not received the nutrients they need at the start of life. They will become ill more frequently, do less well in school, and earn less as adults compared to their healthy, well fed, counterparts.

World hunger is on the rise, largely due to conflict

After years of steady decline, in 2016, the number of hungry people in the world increased by 38 million to a total of 815 million. This is largely due to the rise in violent conflicts and climate-related shocks. Political efforts to find peace must also form part of efforts to address hunger and malnutrition. More must be done to address the systemic failure of the global humanitarian system to provide timely and adequate relief to those facing emergencies, while ensuring that the immediate response to famine and other crises is not conducted at the expense of long-term development objectives.

More accountability is needed to tackle hunger and malnutrition

Progress tackling undernutrition has been uneven and too slow, with weak international coordination and poor governance and accountability for commitments forming significant barriers. While the universal, cross-cutting nature of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), alongside multi-stakeholder, country-led initiatives such as Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement have seen some improvements, accountability for nutrition commitments remains poor. In 2015, world leaders committed to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. In 2017, the world is dramatically off-track to reach all these goals, with current projections indicating there will still be 129 million stunted children in the world in 2030, the global deadline to achieve the end hunger and malnutrition.

Failure by G7 to fulfill their promise

In 2015, the G7, seven of the world’s most powerful governments — committed to lift 500 million people out of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Yet, by 2017, the G7 still has not agreed to a detailed outcome focused accountability framework using open data that enables the sector to track and replicate results. Nor have they dedicated any new resources toward this target as a group.

Governments around the world must be held accountable for their commitments to address hunger and malnutrition. Malnourished people continue to waste while governments and key actors gain credit for their bold statements, while hiding their failure to deliver through lack of transparency. Global Citizen will continue to campaign for increased action, resources and accountability from all relevant decision makers to ensure the world achieves the global goal of zero hunger and zero malnutrition by 2030.