A total of 258 million people in 58 countries suffered from acute food insecurity in 2022 and they need urgent help, 65 million more than in 2021. These are the conclusions of the latest world report of the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC, for its acronym in English) published today, which warns that the situation will not improve in the coming months and, in addition, the most affected countries have less resilience to face the crises. This is the fourth consecutive year in which this alarming figure has increased and it is the highest figure that has been recorded since this study began, in 2016, although its authors clarify that part of the increase is due to the fact that the population analyzed it is wider.
According to the conclusions of the GNAFC, based in Rome, which brings together the European Union (EU), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), UNICEFhe World Food Program (WFP) or the World Bank, among others, the population of seven countries faced starvation or catastrophic levels of acute hunger at some point in 2022. More than half of them were in Somalia (57%), while these extreme circumstances also occurred in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Haiti (for the first time in the country’s history), Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.
The economic resilience of poor countries has declined dramatically in the last three years, and they now face long recovery periods and less ability to cope with future crises
Global Network Against Food Crises
In global terms, in 2022, acute food insecurity reached 22.7%, up from 21.3% in 2021 and “remains unacceptably high”. “More than 250 million people now face acute levels of hunger, and some are on the brink of starvation. This is inconceivable”, lamented the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, in the report’s prologue, considering that the conclusions show “the failure of humanity” when it comes to advancing towards food security.
In the words of Rein Paulsen, director of the FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience, the outlook is “very worrying” “The prevalence of populations facing acute food insecurity has increased for the fourth consecutive year (…) In practical terms we are talking about vulnerable households, whose lives and livelihoods are being threatened,” he declared.
Economic crises, including the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the fallout from the war in Ukraine, overtook conflict and extreme weather events as drivers of acute food insecurity and malnutrition around the world last year, according to the GNAFC, which annually publishes this report produced by the Food Safety Information Network (FSIN).
“The economic resilience of poor countries has declined drastically in the last three years, and now they face long recovery periods and a reduced capacity to face future crises,” the text adds.
The war in Ukraine, a country that together with Russia contributes enormously to the world’s production and trade in fuel, agricultural inputs and basic foodstuffs, particularly wheat, corn and sunflower oil, has particularly affected the most impoverished, dependent countries of food imports, whose fragile economic recovery capacity had already been hit by the covid-19 pandemic.
“A bleak outlook”
The GNAFC stresses that “conflicts, national and global economic crises and extreme weather events continue to be increasingly interlinked, feeding each other and creating a spiral of negative effects on acute food insecurity and nutrition”.
More than 250 million people now face acute levels of hunger, with some on the brink of starvation. this is inconceivable
António Guterres, UN Secretary General
“There are no signs that these factors will abate in 2023: climate change is expected to cause more extreme weather events, global and national economies face a bleak outlook, and conflict and insecurity are likely to persist,” insist on your report.
“We cannot continue to respond to food crises as if they were one-off events. We need more anticipation and that this translates into greater investments”, requested the executive director of FAO, QU Dongyu in the presentation of the report, in which other heads of institutions involved also urged to improve prevention to address the root causes of crises food instead of responding to their effects when they have already occurred.
“Resources are dangerously reduced, although the number of people who need them is increasing. At WFP we are going to have to make painful decisions in the coming months and cut the number of rations we distribute. This is going to be a disaster for the 160 million people who trust us. We have to work together to find a way to get more resources,” asked Cindy Hensley McCain, executive director of the World Food Program.
The participants in the presentation of the report also opted to implement more effective and innovative humanitarian aid, focused primarily on producing more sustainable agri-food systems and curbing severe child malnutrition. The report studied 30 of the 42 contexts where the food crisis is acute and found that more than 35 million children under five suffered from acute malnutrition and 9.2 million of them were severely wasted, the “most dangerous” form of malnutrition, which causes a significant increase in infant mortality.
“It is true that there is also room for hope. In the last two decades there has been a drastic reduction in child malnutrition in the world”, said Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF. However, this UN fund has put the goal of raising exceptional funds until the end of this year to reach 26 million children and women to prevent, detect and treat severe wasting.
In this regard, Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships (INTPA) stressed that the European Union and its Member States have dedicated almost 18,000 million euros to help countries deal with food insecurity until 2024. “We have accelerated our investments in sustainable solutions to boost local food production and reduce dependence on imports,” said the person in charge.
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