View previous stories
	Global food prices at highest level in almost a decade by Global Humanitarian Overview 2022   June 2022   Global Humanitarian Overview: Mid-Year Update - Impacts of the war in Ukraine   The ripple effects of the Ukraine war are being felt across the world, compromising millions of lives, livelihoods and development gains.   Humanitarian needs around the world are projected to rise sharply due to the secondary impacts of the war, especially in countries with existing needs driven by climate shocks, conflict, and the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.   The United Nations estimates that between 1.6 billion and 1.7 billion people live in countries severely exposed to at least one of the worrying trends exacerbated by the Ukraine crisis, namely, rising food, fertiliser, and energy prices, and tightening finances. Of this, around 1.2 billion people live in countries exposed to all three dimensions at once.   The impact is already felt by millions of people. For example, the war in Ukraine is named amongst the current key drivers of food insecurity in at least nine countries, including Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic (CAR), Djibouti, Guatemala, Madagascar, Somalia, Uganda, and Yemen. Almost 66 million people already in need of assistance live in these countries.   Food and fertiliser prices   In March and April, global food prices reached the highest levels since 1961. Rising fertiliser prices as well as increased export restrictions may lead to lower yields and an overall decrease in food production going forward, leading to the risk of more people going hungry.   Restrictions and challenges with wheat exports, including due to rising energy prices and fuel shortages, are an additional contributing factor. Of the 30 net importers of wheat that rely on Ukraine and the Russian Federation for more than 30 per cent of their wheat imports, a significant number were already facing food insecurity from ongoing political instability or violence before the crisis.   • In Lebanon, the cost of a basic food basket registered an annual increase of 351 per cent in March, the highest in the region.   • In Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad, the maize price increased by 30 per cent in April alone due to below-average supply and fuel prices.   • In Central African Republic, the price of wheat flour in the capital pushed the price of bread up by 40 per cent and, in rural areas, close to 100 per cent.   • In Syria, the national average food basket price increased by 37 per cent from February to April.   • In Afghanistan, women are already more likely than men to have a poor diet, with gender inequalities a key driver of food insecurity.   • In East Africa, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports that the cost of local food baskets in Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia have increased by 92, 66 and 36 per cent, respectively, between March 2021 and March 2022.   • Guatemala reports corn and bean prices to have risen to 42 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively, above five-year averages, and a 100 per cent price increase for urea (fertiliser).   Rising fertiliser prices are an additional factor leading to food insecurity. So far in 2022, fertiliser prices have risen nearly 30 per cent globally, following an 80 per cent surge already seen in 2021. With higher agriculture input and fertiliser costs, countries, including the Horn of Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia), will experience longer-term negative impacts on overall crop yields, hence creating risks of long-term food insecurity.   High fertiliser prices have already resulted in decreasing agricultural yields in the Philippines – the eighth largest rice producer and exporter in the world. Countries as diverse as Honduras, Cameroon, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Mozambique and Kenya depend on the Russian Federation and Ukraine for 10–50 per cent of their fertiliser imports.   These effects are contributing to a global rise in hunger. In 2022, an additional 47 million people are expected to be food insecure, bringing the total number of food insecure people to 323 million globally, according to WFP. This includes 45 million people who are at risk of facing emergency conditions or worse (IPC/CH Phase 4 or higher) in at least 38 countries.   Impact on humantiarian operations   In addition to extending human suffering in and beyond Ukraine, the secondary impacts of the war have direct implications for the costs of humanitarian operations. Humanitarian response costs are increasing due to rising food and transport costs - humanitarian partners are paying more for the same food products. For example, WFP reports food and fuel cost for the Yemen operations have increased about $25-$30 million per month since the beginning of the war.   Impossible choices   According to recent UN report, people in most affected countries are already reducing food purchases and may be reducing the number of nutritious items, skipping meals or eating smaller portions. Families are cutting back on health visits and cooking fuel. Children are being taken out of school and put to work.   Vulnerable groups of people are expected to be impacted the most, with women and girls bearing the brunt, skipping meals, eating less, and spending disproportionate time seeking food, and often facing the consequences of desperate coping strategies, including being forced into early marriages.   Urgent action is required to avoid millions of people being forced to make impossible choices in the face of hunger and other humanitarian needs.   http://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-humanitarian-overview-2022-mid-year-update-snapshot-21-june-2022   Dec. 2021   Last year’s warnings of unprecedented levels of global food insecurity have been confirmed. Up to 811 million people worldwide were undernourished in 2020, an approximate rise of 161 million from the previous year.   In 2021, the situation continued to deteriorate. Acute hunger levels and famine-like conditions were driven by a toxic combination of factors including conflict, the impacts of COVID-19, extreme weather and climate shocks, transboundary pests and difficulties reaching people in need.   In 2021, overlapping and compounding drivers have come together to form a perfect storm. The impacts of each of these converging catastrophes are disproportionately felt by women and girls – who account for 60 per cent of people who are chronically food insecure globally.   In nearly two thirds of countries, women are more likely than men to report food insecurity. Women farmers are also at particular risk of hunger, and face greater barriers to accessing land, agricultural inputs and credit.   In its September update, the Global Report on Food Crises (a joint, consensus-based analysis by 16 partner organizations) estimated that 161 million people in 42 countries faced acute food insecurity in the first eight months of 2021.   However, given the worsening situation at the end of 2021, and the fact that IPC/CH or equivalent analyses do not cover all the countries at risk, if additional contexts are factored in, the numbers are likely to be even higher; up to 283 million6 people could be acutely food insecure or at high risk in 2021 across 80 countries.   This is a record high, and an unprecedented increase of 12.4 million people since the June 2021 edition of WFP’s Global Operational Response Plan was published.   This increase is primarily driven by new food insecurity figures from Afghanistan, Myanmar and Somalia. Meanwhile, famine-like conditions remain a real and terrifying possibility in 43 countries around the world, with 45 million people facing emergency or catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity in IPC Phase 4 Emergency and above, up from 41 million people in June 2021.   This includes 584,000 people facing famine-like conditions in Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen. The situation also remains extremely concerning in Nigeria, where areas in the conflict-affected north-east may be at risk of famine should the situation deteriorate further.   As conflict spreads across northern Ethiopia, the impact is devastating. At least 5.5 million people across three regions – Afar, Amhara and Tigray – were in crisis levels of acute food insecurity and in dire need of food assistance in mid-2021, with 2 million people facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity. Up to 401,000 people were projected to be in IPC Phase 5 Catastrophe in 2021 – the highest number since the 2011 famine in Somalia – due to the impact of conflict in the northern Ethiopia region.   The situation is also worrying in other parts of the country: overall, an estimated 16.8 million people were facing crisis levels of acute food insecurity in 2021 in Ethiopia.   In 2021, Afghanistan became one of the world’s largest hunger crises. Acute food insecurity is affecting 22.8 million people (more than half the population). This figure includes 8.7 million people facing emergency levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 4). Among those at risk are 3.2 million children under 5 years of age who are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition by the year’s end.   Over half (16.2 million) of Yemen’s population is facing crisis-levels of acute food insecurity, with 5 million people facing Emergency IPC Phase 4. In South Sudan, humanitarian needs are outpacing the resources available to respond, and the situation has worsened as the country is battered by flooding that has swallowed entire villages. Acute food insecurity of crisis level (IPC Phase 3 or above) affects 7.2 million people. More than 2.4 million of those people are in Emergency IPC Phase 4, and more than 108,000 face catastrophic (IPC Phase 5) levels of hunger.   Almost half of the people living in CAR experience high acute food insecurity, with thousands of children and women severely malnourished due to factors such as the socioeconomic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.   Around 27 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) between September and December 2021. Of these, around 6.1 million people are experiencing critical levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 4). DRC has the world’s largest number of highly food insecure people.   Some 12.4 million people in Syria do not know where their next meal will come from – a level of food insecurity higher than any time during the country’s decade-long conflict. Approximately 3.5 million people in Somalia faced high acute food insecurity in late 2021, with 1.2 million children likely acutely malnourished.   The Central Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger) experienced a record level of violence in 2020, driving the number of IDPs up from 1.8 million in September 2020 to 2.3 million in September 2021. At the same time, food insecurity has increased, with the number of people in food crisis or worse more than doubling between 2019 and 2020.   Conflict remains the key driver of food insecurity. Close to 100 million people experienced acute hunger across 23 countries affected by conflict and insecurity in 2020, and protracted conflict was the main cause of six of the ten worst food crises.   In 2020, 56 armed conflicts were active around the world — the highest number recorded since the end of the Second World War — and fatalities caused by organized violence increased for the first time in six years.   While data for 2021 is not yet available, key trends indicate that conflict continues to be the primary driver of an alarming rise of food insecurity, particularly among refugees and the most vulnerable.   In 2021, conflict levels and violence against civilians continued to increase, most notably in Africa. Armed violence is likely to further intensify in the coming months in several conflict-affected countries.   Extreme climatic and weather events drove almost 16 million people into food crises in 15 countries in 2020. Tropical storms, hurricanes, flooding and drought contributed to acute food insecurity in Central America and Haiti. Hurricanes Eta and Iota affected over 8.3 million people in northern and eastern Guatemala, northern Honduras and north-east Nicaragua.   In 2021, climate impacts joined conflict as a root cause of famine. This is evident in drought-affected Madagascar, where climate is driving famine-like conditions for approximately 28,000 people who faced IPC 5 levels of food insecurity in 2021. Acute food-insecurity of crisis-level has touched over 1.3 million people, including also 484,000 in Emergency IPC Phase 4.   Delayed rains this planting season, signal another poor harvest and despair for families resorting to survival measures such as eating locusts, wild leaves and cactus leaves, which are usually fed to cattle.   Economic shocks following COVID-19 also had a negative impact on food crises in 2020. Indeed, more than 40 million people in 17 countries were pushed into acute food insecurity compared to 24 million in eight countries in 2019 – particularly in Haiti, Sudan and Zimbabwe.   Data from 2021 indicates an alarming overall increase in international food prices, pushing global food prices to their highest level in almost a decade. The FAO Food Price Index showed an increase of almost 40 per cent from the same period last year and the twelfth consecutive monthly rise to its highest level since September 2011.   The cost of a food basket is at least 30 per cent higher in 11 countries with an HRP than five years earlier.   The cost is six times higher in Sudan (534 per cent) and in Syria (531 per cent), and almost three times higher in South Sudan (174 per cent). By the end of June 2021,18 almost 110 million people were suffering from acute food insecurity in countries with a Humanitarian Response Plan.   Funding for food and livelihoods assistance needs to be scaled up urgently. Currently, the GHO’s food security sector is only 34 per cent funded and the nutrition sector less than 35 per cent funded. A stark imbalance remains in funding within the food security component of humanitarian assistance.   Without immediate and sustained humanitarian action, many more lives will be lost and millions of people will continue to face catastrophe next year, the effects of which will be felt for decades to come.   We cannot afford to wait for famine declarations. The stakes have never been higher. Government development assistance and humanitarian agencies saved millions of lives by taking early action in 2017 to prevent famine in north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. We have prevented famine before – we can and must prevent it again.   There is no time to waste; major planting seasons have already passed in 2021, robbing people of a valuable opportunity to produce their own supply of nutritious food. We must take advantage of every opportunity to safeguard livelihoods and save lives today and into 2022.   In a world in which there is more than enough food to nourish every person on the planet, allowing famine to happen is cruel and a failure of compassion and foresight.   http://gho.unocha.org/trends/hunger-rise-unprecedented-levels-food-insecurity-require-urgent-action-prevent-famine Visit the related web page
	Unprecedented food crises on multiple fronts by Global Food Security Cluster, agencies   UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Country reports   Burkina Faso: Over the past two years, Burkina Faso has witnessed the unfolding of an unprecedented humanitarian emergency. Conflict and insecurity have provoked what is now one of the fastest growing displacement crises in the world, forcing more than 1.3 million people to flee their homes. Some 3.5 million people need humanitarian assistance, including 2.9 million people facing acute food insecurity (344,000 are in IPC Phase 4). Among those already facing acute conditions, 1.7 million people are at elevated risk of slipping into an emergency – or even catastrophic – food insecurity in the absence of humanitarian assistance.   Ethiopia: In Ethiopia, over 5.2 million people in Tigray and an additional 2.9 in Amhara, and Afar require immediate humanitarian aid. Four million people (70 per cent of the population) are severely food insecure (IPC 3 or above), with over 400,000 in famine-like conditions (IPC 5). The conflict in Tigray began during the harvest season in November 2020, when many households had not yet harvested their crops.   Over 90 per cent of the crop harvest was lost due to looting or destruction. 80 per cent of the livestock in the region have reportedly also been looted or killed. Given that most households depend on subsistence agriculture, the loss of their harvest and production inputs has had a devastating impact on their food security and nutrition – 2 million people require urgent livelihood assistance.   Madagascar: People in the Grand Sud of Madagascar are facing the most acute drought the region has seen in forty years, leading to a severe humanitarian crisis. The region has been buffeted by back-to-back droughts during the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 rainy seasons, compounded by sandstorms and pest infestations. In the hardest-hit areas, over 60 per cent of crops have been lost, forcing people to resort to desperate survival measures, such as eating locusts, raw red cactus fruits or wild leaves.   As we are entering the lean season, at least 1.31 million people—nearly two in every five people in the Grand Sud—will face high levels of acute food insecurity, according to the latest IPC analysis. Of these, some 480,000 people are projected to be in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) food insecurity, while at least 28,000 people will experience Catastrophic food insecurity (IPC Phase 5).   Nigeria: North-east Nigeria is experiencing a food security crisis, with an estimated 4.4 million people facing critical food shortages. Almost 800,000 people —the highest figure in 4 years— are on the brink of starvation in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, because they cannot access their agricultural fields due to ongoing military operations. More than half of households in the northeast are food insecure and food prices have increased by 20 percent since last year.   Households can no longer afford to buy food, and to cope with hunger, families are forced to borrow money and food, sell their remaining assets, or adopt other negative coping mechanisms, pushing them deeper into a cycle of hunger, vulnerability, and despair. The combination of conflict, COVID-19 impacts, increased food prices and the effects of climate change are driving the needs and devastating livelihoods and people’s access to food.   South Sudan: People in South Sudan face their highest levels of food insecurity since independence 10 years ago. According to the latest IPC analysis, between April and July 2021, 7.2 million people were estimated to be in IPC 3 or worse; Of these, 2.4 million people were in IPC Phase 4 or above.   108,000 people in the six counties - Akobo, Pibor, Aweil South, Tonj East, Tonj North and Tonj South- faced catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 5) at the height of the lean season in July. Overall, some 1.4 million children, the highest number since 2013, and 480,000 pregnant and lactating women are estimated to be acutely malnourished in 2021.   Yemen: The risk of famine continues to threaten millions of people across Yemen. Over 16 million people – more than half of the population – are acutely food insecure (IPC 3+) and 5 million people are estimated to be living on the brink of starvation (IPC 4).   These critical hunger levels are primarily the result of Yemen’s collapsing economy, which is itself a consequence of more than six years of conflict. With the country’s high reliance on imports and the continued depreciation of the currency, food prices are being pushed beyond the reach of most ordinary Yemenis.   The price of the minimum food basket has increased by more than 260 per cent since 2015 and by more than 40 per cent over the past 12 months. At the same time, people’s incomes and livelihoods have been decimated by the crisis, meaning even fewer people can afford to buy food and other basic goods.   Oct. 2021   Joint statement of the Global Food Security, Health, Nutrition, and WASH Clusters: Famine and Food Crises - Urgent and coordinated action needed to avert wide-scale catastrophe   In 2021, 41 million people across 43 countries are at imminent risk of famine without urgent funding and humanitarian access. The global hunger crisis is clearly reaching a tipping point, and the window to avert famine and devastatingly high levels of acute hunger in multiple countries is closing fast.   Among the most at immediate risk are 584,000 people facing famine-like conditions in Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen, with Nigeria and Burkina Faso also of extreme concern. Just one more shock could push them over the edge.   Multiple factors are driving today’s levels of severe hunger and malnutrition, primarily protracted armed conflicts, climate change, and economic shocks exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.   Water scarcity and extreme weather such as droughts and floods wreak havoc on vulnerable lives and livelihoods, while those caught in conflict often cannot access food, water or medicine.   In these conditions, children under five years of age and pregnant and lactating women are at particularly high risk, especially those already in poor health.   Urgent action and increased investments are needed now to prevent widespread malnutrition, starvation and death. We know what happens when the international community responds too late: waiting until famine has been declared to scale up the response imperils millions already facing a crisis.   The 28 million people globally in Emergency food insecurity (IPC 4) are already on the cusp of catastrophe. Without adequate food, health and nutrition services, safe water and sanitation, the risk of famine can skyrocket; the developmental, economic, social and health repercussions can be equally devastating and long-lasting..   We call on all national governments and de-facto authorities to:   * Invest in a strategic multi-sectoral agenda towards strengthening famine early warning and early action systems and supporting the most vulnerable to build their resilience through livelihoods initiatives.   * Commit to a people-centred approach and better access to essential services and social protection for those most in need of humanitarian interventions.   We call on all resource partners to:   * Ensure needs-based, impartial, predictable, timely and geographically coherent funding to implement joint plans in prioritized areas.   * Use their influence to advocate for all parties to ensure that civilian populations can safely access life-saving assistance, particularly in contexts of wide-scale insecurity or armed conflict.   Together, we must act on our moral duty to meet the needs of those in crisis and work actively to prevent them from spiralling into famine.   http://fscluster.org/news/inter-cluster-statement-famine http://fscluster.org/news/hunger-not-inevitable-if-we-step http://reliefweb.int/report/world/joint-statement-global-food-security-health-nutrition-and-wash-clusters-famine-and-food   * The Global Food Security Cluster coordinates the food security response during humanitarian crisis, working with NGOs, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, UN organizations and donors. It is based at WFP headquarters in Rome and is co-led by FAO and WFP.   Oct. 2021   Action in Support of Preventing and Ending Famine Now. (OCHA, UN News)   The world currently faces unprecedented catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, according to UN agencies, and $6.6 billion is needed urgently, to support 41 million in danger of sliding into famine.   The United Nations on Monday convened a high-level event, calling for international action. Close to half a million people are experiencing famine-like conditions (IPC phase 5, under the official classification) in Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen. In recent months, vulnerable populations in Burkina Faso and Nigeria have also been subjected to these same conditions.   In addition, 41 million people worldwide face emergency levels of food insecurity (IPC 4), only one slip away from the edge of famine, representing a 50 per cent increase in just two years. Millions more are experiencing crisis levels of acute food insecurity (IPC 3) and are at real risk of rapid deterioration.   "Today we face unprecedented food crises on multiple fronts. Starvation and hunger-related deaths are a present reality," the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) told the High-Level UN event: Action in Support of Preventing and Ending Famine Now. "As we near the end of 2021, the situation has continued to deteriorate."   Over half a million people in four countries (Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen) are experiencing catastrophic food insecurity and more than 41 million are on the edge of famine, in emergency conditions (IPC Phase 4 out of 5) - one shock or stress away from a worst-case scenario. Burkina Faso and northeastern Nigeria are also facing an increased risk of acute food insecurity.   The WFP and FAO said the situation had continued to deteriorate, with amounts of aid allocated and disbursed falling well short of the $6.6 billion sought by humanitarian organizations to meet urgent needs.   Across the six priority countries that the task force is focused on, FAO has received less than one-quarter of the resources needed for emergency livelihoods assistance. But many more countries and regions also face the growing threat of acute food insecurity.   Among those about which FAO is concerned are: Haiti where livelihoods are threatened by COVID-19, instability, insecurity, the earthquake, livestock diseases and economic turbulence; Afghanistan, where one in three Afghans were already acutely food insecure and where basic services are under threat; East Africa, which faces the threat of a third consecutive season with scarce rains for crops and livestock, with significant implications for food security.   The WFP and FAO said the humanitarian community could not afford to wait for famine declarations before taking action, adding that to really prevent famine, humanitarian assistance was needed to support livelihoods and build resilience for the most vulnerable.   The Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley highlighted there is $400 trillion of wealth in the world today and, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, billionaires were averaging a net worth increase of $5.2 billion a day.   “And the fact that we’re sitting here begging for $6.6 billion to save 41 million people, and to keep nations from destabilizing, and to prevent mass migration… I don’t know what in the world I’m missing. It’s a disgrace that we’re having this conversation”.   http://www.fightfoodcrises.net/september-update-2021-grfc/en/   Aug. 2021   Hunger Hotspots: FAO-WFP Early Warnings on Acute Food Insecurity, Aug-Nov. 2021   Food security is expected to further deteriorate in 23 countries already facing food crises, according to a new report from FAO and WFP. These worsening conditions come as countries and regions are reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and struggling to address conflict, climate change, and economic downturn.   Ten of the 23 countries listed in the report are located in Africa south of the Sahara. Of those, Ethiopia and Madagascar are the new “highest alert” hotspots in the world.   In Ethiopia, 401,000 people are forecast to be in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe)-level food insecurity between July and September, with the Tigray region at high risk of famine. This is the highest number of people facing famine in a single country since the 2011 famine in Somalia. The crisis in Ethiopia has been driven mainly by ongoing conflict in the Tigray region, which has disrupted livelihoods and displaced households.   In Madagascar, food insecurity is being driven by extreme weather. The country is facing the worst drought in 40 years, putting 28,000 people are at risk of famine.   South Sudan, Nigeria, and Yemen were the highest alert hotspots from the previous report and remain in significant crisis. Conflict remains the primary driver of food crises in these countries. In South Sudan, the risk of famine has continued since late 2020.   Ongoing conflict is expected to exacerbate the current lean season in the country, particularly without immediate and sustained humanitarian aid. South Sudan is also expected to receive above-average rainfall into September, which could result in major flooding, crop damage, and population displacement.   Conflict also continues to drive food crisis in Nigeria, where populations in the northeast regions of the country are being pushed to the brink of famine.   The additional hotspots listed in the report are Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Honduras, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Chad, Colombia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Myanmar, Kenya and Nicaragua.   Overall, acute food insecurity is on the rise around the world due to conflict, climate change, and the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of this edition support the trend seen over the past year. Twenty million more people experienced acute food insecurity in 2020 compared to 2019, and FAO and WFP forecast even more to fall into this category in 2021.   In addition, more than 41 million people around the world are at risk of life-threatening famine unless they receive immediate and significant humanitarian assistance.   Despite this clear and critical need for aid, however, many countries in the report face significant challenges in receiving that aid. These include Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, the Niger, Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia, the Sudan, Syria and Yemen. In these countries, ongoing conflict has often made it dangerous for humanitarian actions to reach populations most in need.   A lack of funding at both the national and international level, as well as bureaucratic complications that slow down humanitarian responses, also pose roadblocks in many of the worst-hit countries.   * Inter Agency Standing Committee - Members Ring the Warning Bells: Famine Risk: http://interagencystandingcommittee.org/inter-agency-standing-committee/iasc-members-ring-warning-bells-famine-risk-2021 Visit the related web page
	View more stories