Global Food Crisis: 193m People Experiencing Acute Food Insecurity in 53 Countries, Says UN

Oluchi Chibuzor

A latest report released by the United Nations (UN) has revealed that 193 million people are currently facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent life-saving food assistance and livelihood support continues to grow at an alarming rate.

The worrying trend, the UN said, are the result of multiple drivers feeding into one another, ranging from conflict to environmental and climate crises, from economic to health crises with poverty and inequality as undelaying causes.

According to the report, this trend makes it more urgent than ever to tackle the root causes of food crises rather than just responding after they occur. 

The report which was launched yesterday by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC), an international alliance of the United Nations, the European Union, governmental and non-governmental agencies working to tackle food crises together focuses on those countries and territories where the magnitude and severity of the food crisis exceed the local resources and capacities.

“The document reveals that around 193 million people in 53 countries or territories experienced acute food insecurity at crisis or worse levels (IPC/CH Phase 3-5) in 2021. This represents an increase of nearly 40 million people compared with the already record numbers of 2020. Of these, over half a million people (570 000) in Ethiopia, southern Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen were classified in the most severe phase of acute food insecurity Catastrophe (IPC/CH Phase 5) and required urgent action to avert widespread collapse of livelihoods, starvation and death. 

“When looking at the same 39 countries or territories featured in all editions of the report, the number of people facing crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) nearly doubled between 2016 and 2021, with unabated rises each year since 2018,” the report stated.

The report highlights that conflict remains the main driver of food insecurity, noting that while the analysis predates Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it also finds out that the war has already exposed the interconnected nature and fragility of global food systems, with serious consequences for global food and nutrition security. 

It maintained that countries already coping with high levels of acute hunger are particularly vulnerable to the risks created by the war in Eastern Europe, notably due to their high dependency on imports of food and agricultural inputs and vulnerability to global food price shocks. 

The report noted that conflict was among key drivers of rising acute food security in 2021 pushing 139 million people in 24 countries and territories into acute food insecurity, up from around 99 million in 23 countries and territories in 2020.

While weather extremes push over 23 million people in 8 countries and territories, up from 15.7 million in 15 countries/territories, economic shocks had over 30 million people in 21 countries and territories, down from over 40 million people in 17 countries/territories in 2020 mainly due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), QU Dongyu, the tragic link between conflict and food insecurity is once again evident and alarming.

He adds that the results of this year’s Global Report further demonstrate the need to collectively address acute food insecurity at the global level across humanitarian, development and peace contexts.

 He said, “While the international community has courageously stepped up to the calls for urgent famine prevention and mitigation action, resource mobilization to efficiently tackle the root causes of food crises due to, among others, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, global hotspots and the war in Ukraine, still struggles to match the growing needs.”

For his partner at the World Food Programme, David Beasley, “Acute hunger is soaring to unprecedented levels and the global situation just keeps on getting worse. Conflict, the climate crisis, COVID-19 and surging food and fuel costs have created a perfect storm – and now we’ve got the war in Ukraine piling catastrophe on top of catastrophe.”