The number of people experiencing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent food, nutrition, and livelihood assistance increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2022, this is according to the latest Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC).The report also notes that over a quarter of a billion people are facing acute hunger and people in seven countries are on the brink of starvation.
An annual report launched on Wednesday by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) – an international alliance of the United Nations to tackle food crises shows that around 258 million people in 58 countries and territories faced acute food insecurity at crisis or worse levels in 2022. This represents a surge from 193 million people in 53 countries and territories in 2021.
This is the highest number recorded in the seven-year history of the report.In 2022, the severity of acute food insecurity increased to 22.7 percent, from 21.3 percent in 2021, but remains unacceptably high and underscores a deteriorating trend in global acute food insecurity.
“More than a quarter of a billion people are now facing acute levels of hunger, and some are on the brink of starvation. That’s unconscionable,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in the report’s foreword. “This seventh edition of the Global Report on Food Crises is a stinging indictment of humanity’s failure to make progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2 to end hunger and achieve food security and improved nutrition for all.”
According to the report, more than 40 percent of the population experiencing acute food insecurity levels resided in just five countries including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, parts of Nigeria (21 states and the Federal Capital Territory – FCT), and Yemen.
People in seven countries faced starvation and destitution, or catastrophe levels of acute hunger at some point during 2022. More than half of those were in Somalia (57 percent), while such extreme circumstances also occurred in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Sudan, Yemen, and Haiti where it happened for the first time in the history of the country.
Around 35 million people experienced emergency levels of acute hunger in 39 countries, with more than half of those located in just four countries – Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen.
Additionally, in 30 of the 42 main food crises contexts analyzed in the report, over 35 million children under five years of age suffered from wasting or acute malnutrition, with 9.2 million of them with severe wasting, the most life-threatening form of under-nutrition and a major contributor to increased child mortality.
While conflicts and extreme weather events continue to drive acute food insecurity and malnutrition, the economic fallout of the СOVID-19 pandemic and the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine have also become major drivers of hunger, particularly in the world’s poorest countries, mainly due to their high dependency on imports of food and agricultural inputs and vulnerability to global food price shocks.
Economic shocks have surpassed conflict as the primary driver of acute food insecurity and malnutrition in several major food crises. Cumulative global economic shocks, including soaring food prices and severe disruptions to markets, undermine countries’ resilience and capacity to respond to food shocks.
The report findings confirm that the impact of the war in Ukraine has had an adverse impact on global food security due to the major contributions of both Ukraine and Russia to the global production and trade of fuel, agricultural inputs, and essential food commodities, particularly wheat, maize, and sunflower oil.
With new data, the international community has called for a paradigm shift towards better prevention, anticipation, and targeting to address the root causes of food crises, rather than responding to their impacts when they occur. This requires innovative approaches and more coordinated efforts by international organizations, governments, the private sector, regional organizations, civil society, and communities.