Rome: Acute hunger remains persistently high in 59 countries with 1 in 5 people assessed in need of critical urgent action. According to the latest Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), nearly 282 million people in 59 countries and territories experienced high levels of acute hunger in 2023 – a worldwide increase of 24 million from the previous year.
This rise is due to a sharp deterioration in food security, especially in the Gaza Strip and the Sudan, as well as the report’s increased coverage of food crisis contexts.
Children and women are at the forefront of these hunger crises, with over 36 million children under 5 years of age acutely malnourished across 32 countries, the report shows. Acute malnutrition worsened in 2023, particularly among people displaced because of conflict and disasters.
According to the report, intensifying conflict and insecurity, the impacts of economic shocks, and the effects of extreme weather events are continuing to drive acute food insecurity. These interlinked drivers are exacerbating food systems fragility, rural marginalization, poor governance, and inequality, and lead to massive displacement of populations globally. The protection situation of the displaced population is additionally impacted by food insecurity.
Conflict remained the primary driver affecting 20 countries with nearly 135 million people in acute food insecurity – almost half of the global number. The Sudan faced the largest deterioration due to conflict, with 8.6 million more people facing high levels of acute food insecurity as compared with 2022.
Extreme weather events were the primary drivers in 18 countries where over 77 million people faced high levels of acute food insecurity, up from 12 countries with 57 million people in 2022. In 2023, the world experienced its hottest year on record and climate-related shocks impacted populations, with episodes of severe floods, storms, droughts, wildfires, and pest and disease outbreaks.
Economic shocks primarily affected 21 countries where around 75 million people were facing high levels of acute food insecurity, due to their high dependency on imported food and agricultural inputs, persisting macroeconomic challenges, including currency depreciation, high prices and high debt levels.
Acute food insecurity deteriorated in 12 countries with comparable data between 2022 and 2023, where 13.5 million more people needed urgent assistance, mostly in the Sudan.
Thirty-six countries have been consistently featured in the GRFC analyses since 2016, reflecting continuing years of acute hunger, and currently representing 80 per cent of the world’s most hungry.
In 2023, more than 705,000 people were at the Catastrophe (IPC/CH Phase 5) level of food insecurity and at risk of starvation – the highest number in the GRFC’s reporting history and up fourfold since 2016. The current situation in the Gaza Strip accounts for 80 per cent of those facing imminent famine, along with South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Somalia and Mali.
According to the GRFC 2024 future outlook, around 1.1 million people in the Gaza Strip and 79,000 people in South Sudan are projected to be in Catastrophe (IPC/CH Phase 5) by July 2024, bringing the total amount of people projected in this phase to almost 1.3 million.
There has also been an increase of 1 million people facing Emergency (IPC/CH Phase 4) levels of acute food insecurity across 39 countries and territories, with the biggest increase in Sudan. Over 36 million people in 39 countries/ territories faced Emergency (IPC/CH Phase 4), with more than a third of them in the Sudan and Afghanistan.
For four consecutive years, the proportion of people facing acute food insecurity has remained persistently high at almost 22 per cent of those assessed, significantly exceeding pre-COVID-19 levels. The overall share of the analysed population facing high levels of acute food insecurity was marginally lower than in 2022, but still higher than pre-COVID-19, the report reveals.
“In a world of plenty, children are starving to death. War, climate chaos and a cost-of-living crisis – combined with inadequate action – mean that almost 300 million people faced an acute food crisis in 2023. The number of people on the brink of famine rose to over 700,000 – almost double the number of 2022,” António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, wrote in the foreword of the report.
The report, which is the reference document for a comprehensive analysis of global, regional and country-level acute food insecurity, is a result of a collaborative effort among 16 partners. It aims to inform humanitarian and development action by providing independent and consensus-based evidence and analysis.
During the presentation of the joint report today, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said that the report shows that food crises are becoming increasingly protracted and underscores the risk that “hard-won development gains are being reversed” as food insecurity and malnutrition become a “new normal” in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Global Network Against Food Crises urgently calls for a transformative approach that integrates peace, prevention and development action alongside at-scale emergency efforts to break the cycle of acute hunger which remains at unacceptably high levels.
“This crisis demands an urgent response. Using the data in this report to transform food systems and address the underlying causes of food insecurity and malnutrition will be vital,” said António Guterres, UN Secretary-General.
Tackling persistent food crises requires urgent long-term national and international investment to transform food systems and boost agricultural and rural development alongside greater crisis preparedness and critical lifesaving assistance at scale, where people need it most.
FAO’s Director-General flagged three priorities to guide a rethinking of how to tackle food crises. First, as a way of making better use of whatever resources are available, a better balance needs to be struck between traditional humanitarian assistance and funding for agricultural support. Second, targeting support for agricultural sectors in crises can help reduce eventual emergency distribution needs. Thirdly, the focus must be on the root causes of food crises.
Since 2023, needs have outpaced available resources. Humanitarian operations are now desperately overstretched, with many being forced to scale down and further cut support to the most vulnerable. More equitable and effective global economic governance is imperative and must be matched with government-led plans that seek to reduce and end hunger.
To turn the tide on rising acute food insecurity the international community has made a range of bold commitments including through the recent G7 and G20 initiatives. The Global Network Against Food Crises offers to leverage its unparalleled knowledge of hunger in the most fragile countries to strengthen the linkages and build coherence where possible between these various global initiatives to ensure innovative and concrete impact for those affected by food crises.
– global bihari bureau
