Military spending increased for the eleventh consecutive year. Photo: Internet

• Military spending at peaks. Persistent shortfall to fund sustainable development. Global Report confirms "Alarmingly High" levels of food insecurity and malnutrition.

Vital investments for humanity lack timely and sufficient funding; however, global military spending reached nearly $2.9 trillion in 2025 and could continue to grow.

The 4th International Conference on Financing for Development acknowledged last year that "progress toward achieving sustainable development in its economic, social, and environmental dimensions is seriously lagging," despite the commitments of the 2030 Agenda, adopted in 2015.

Under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), the forum warned that the gap between aspirations and the financing to achieve them continues to widen, with the shortfall now estimated at four trillion dollars annually.

In other words, there is not enough money available to provide food, medical care, water, sanitation, education, electricity, and decent housing to millions of people, or to break the cycle of structural poverty or mitigate climate change.

Nevertheless, military spending rose for the eleventh consecutive year, reaching $2.887 trillion, equivalent to 2.5% of global GDP in 2025, according to a report released last April by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Despite a slight decrease, the United States remained in the lead, with $954 billion, representing about a third of the global total. China ($336 billion) and Russia ($190 billion) followed, according to SIPRI.

Overall, expenditures by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—the world's largest military alliance—reached $1.581 trillion, accounting for 55% of the total.

Given the ongoing wars, trade disputes, geopolitical uncertainty, and long-term military investment plans, "this upward trend will almost certainly continue in 2026 and beyond," reasoned Xiao Liang, a researcher at SIPRI.

"It's not just about weapons and wars; it's something that will have profound effects on all societies," the analyst observed, considering the possibility of further cuts to social services and international cooperation through official development assistance.

UN assessments confirm that the decline in official development assistance and the increased cost of loans—due to exorbitant interest rates—particularly harm low- and middle-income countries.

Currently, 54 countries—home to 3.4 billion people—are allocating more resources to debt servicing than to health or education, according to calculations by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

"These pressures have restricted public investment, limiting countries’ ability to finance growth, strengthen resilience, and achieve sustainable development," UNCTAD noted.

In this regard, the World Report on Food Crises 2026 warned that "levels of acute food insecurity and malnutrition remain alarmingly high and deeply entrenched". In its tenth edition, the study showed that acute hunger has doubled in the last decade, according to the authors of the document, members of a global network comprised of UN institutions, the European Union, and other partners.

According to the research, "conflict remains the primary cause of acute food insecurity and malnutrition suffered by millions of people worldwide," stated UN Secretary-General António Guterres in the foreword.

The outlook for the immediate future is also bleak. "Ongoing conflicts, climate variability, and global economic uncertainty—including risks to food markets—are likely to maintain or worsen conditions in many countries," the report predicted.

Another worrying development, it added, "is the drastic decline in humanitarian and development funding for food crises. Funding for food crisis response, as well as for food security and nutrition, has fallen to levels not seen in almost a decade," the report emphasized.

So how can we understand that nearly $2.9 trillion is wasted on military spending in a single year? With just a fraction of that enormous fortune, significant investments could be made to improve human well-being on Earth.

The math is simple, and the world's problems won't be solved through the folly of war. (Granma)