Almost one in four Africans is hungry: at 23.2%, the population of Africa has the highest rate of under-nourished people. A total of 233 million people are affected by hunger and every third child in Africa suffers from the effects of malnutrition (e.g. growth inhibition or mental underdevelopment).

According to World Bank estimates, 47 to 50% of the total population live below the poverty level. This region is thus the poorest region in the world.

The causes of the hunger are manifold: environmental disasters, war, the effects of climate change, a rapidly growing population, public debt or diseases such as AIDS and malaria.