“UNIDO AND FOOD SECURITY” (November 2025).
UNIDO Directorate of SDG Innovation and Economic Transformation
Global food systems are under severe stress due to converging crises, COVID-19 disruptions, violent conflicts, climate shocks, inflation, and weak global supply chains. These threats have reversed 15 years of progress, leaving 733 million people hungry, 2.3 billion food-insecure, and 2.6 billion unable to afford a healthy diet. Gender inequality has deepened, with women and girls now making up 60% of the world’s hungriest people. Meanwhile, 40% of food is lost post-harvest, and 1 billion tonnes are wasted annually, despite food systems accounting for massive water use and greenhouse gas emissions.
The report emphasizes that addressing food insecurity requires a holistic, systems-based approach anchored in UNIDO’s three pillars:
1. Strengthening production–processing–value addition linkages
UNIDO supports capacity building, technology transfer, food safety, climate-smart agriculture, infrastructure, market access, and policy reform. These interventions help MSMEs and farmers improve production efficiency, adopt climate-smart practices, and integrate into higher-value agro-industrial chains.
2. Reducing post-harvest losses and food waste
UNIDO promotes storage infrastructure, integrated agro-food parks (IAFPs), rural transformation centres, improved logistics, and innovative technologies that cut losses and improve food quality. These hubs link farmers to markets, reduce waste, expand employment, and support rural industrialization.
3. Partnerships for direct support to vulnerable populations
Through collaboration with WFP, FAO, IFAD, IFIs, and national governments, UNIDO supports local sourcing, food processing for humanitarian use, and strengthens local agribusiness capacities.
Six Strategic Areas of Support
1. Sustainable food systems & post-harvest loss reduction
UNIDO scales up investments in infrastructure, packaging, food safety, and innovation through CoEs, ATHs, and the Agrifood System Transformation Accelerator (ASTA). Projects globally, from Ethiopia to Vietnam, show significant reductions in food loss.
2. Skills development and stronger MSME capacities
UNIDO boosts technical skills for youth and women, strengthens extension services, expands CoEs, and supports product diversification, digital tools, and compliance services.
3. Addressing investment gaps
Through partnerships with IFIs (AfDB, WBG, IsDB, Afreximbank), UNIDO unlocks blended finance, supports investment forums, mobilizes FDI, and prepares bankable projects—such as agro-industrial parks in Ethiopia and Senegal.
4. Promoting agro-innovation & technologies
UNIDO advances circular economy practices, smart digital tools like U-SPARK, regenerative bioeconomy models, and innovation hubs that enable MSMEs to adopt climate-resilient and efficient technologies.
5. Strategic infrastructure for resilient food systems
UNIDO supports IAFPs, APHs, RTCs, and effluent treatment plants across Africa and Asia. Ethiopia’s IAIPs alone have mobilized over USD 1.1 billion, created 100,000+ jobs, and connected 280,000 farmers to structured value chains.
6. Improved nutrition & food safety
Through Food Safety Approach 2.0, UNIDO strengthens regulatory systems, laboratories, standards compliance, food fortification, and digital audits. Partnerships with FAO, IAEA, WFP, and regional bodies advance safe, nutritious food access.
Key Achievements Highlighted
- IAIPs in Ethiopia cut post-harvest losses by up to 25%.
- CoEs in Vietnam reduced losses by up to 50%.
- UNIDO–WFP local sourcing programmes expand nutritious food production for humanitarian use.
- ACT Coffee Programme transforms Africa’s climate-resilient coffee sector.
- Global Cotton Initiative advancing USD 12 billion investment for C4+ countries.
- UNIDO mobilized over USD 1.52 billion for agro-industrial infrastructure in Ethiopia.
- Significant MSME development across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
- Global platforms such as the Vienna Food Safety Forum and World Without Hunger Conference advance knowledge sharing and policy alignment.
UNIDO positions industrialization, agro-innovation, capacity building, investment mobilization, and robust partnerships as the backbone for transforming global food systems. Through systemic, multi-stakeholder interventions, the organization aims to reduce food loss and waste, build resilient value chains, enhance nutrition and safety, and accelerate progress toward Zero Hunger.