Global Report on Food Crises News Video

Mounting numbers of people face acute hunger and require urgent life-saving assistance, with number acutely hungry people in countries hit by food crises reaching in 2020 the highest level in five years, an annual report launched by an international alliance of UN, governmental and non-governmental agencies working to tackle food crises together has found. 

The Global Network Against Food Crises’ report reveals that at least 155 million people experienced acute food insecurity at Crisis or worse levels (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) across 55 countries and territories in 2020. This represents an increase of around 20 million people from the previous year, and a confirmation of a worrisome trend: acute food insecurity has been rising steadily over the past five years.

One year after COVID-19 spread across the world, the 2021 edition of the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) confirms that the pandemic and related containment measures have aggravated the impact of pre-existing fragilities, notably conflict and climate change. The resulting economic hardship has widened inequalities and exposed the structural vulnerabilities of local and global food systems, hitting already fragile contexts and vulnerable groups.

The worst food crises in 2020, in order of severity, were: the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Yemen; Afghanistan; the Syrian Arab Republic; the Sudan; northern Nigeria; Ethiopia; South Sudan; Zimbabwe; and Haiti.

Together these 10 countries and territories were home to over 103 million of the 155 million people suffering from high acute hunger in 2020.