The Food Security Information Network (FSIN) and 16 partner agencies of the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) have launched the 2024 edition of the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC). According to the publication, nearly 282 million people in 59 countries and territories faced high levels of acute hunger in 2023 – 24 million more than in 2022. This was the fifth consecutive year of increasing numbers.

The report shows that in 2023, more than 36 million children under five years of age were acutely malnourished across 32 countries. Acute malnutrition also increased among people displaced because of conflict and disasters.

The report uses a one-to-five scale to describe the phases of acute food insecurity and formulate appropriate response objectives. Under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification/Cadre Harmonisé (IPC/CH), the five phases of acute food insecurity involve:

• Phase 1 (none/minimal): Households are able to meet essential food and non-food needs without resorting to unusual or unsustainable strategies to access food and income. Action is needed to build resilience and improve disaster risk reduction (DRR).
• Phase 2 (stressed): Households have minimally adequate food consumption but are unable to afford certain essential non-food items without resorting to stress-coping strategies. Action is needed for DRR and to protect livelihoods.
• Phase 3 (crisis): Households either: have food consumption gaps leading to high or above-usual acute malnutrition; or are marginally able to meet minimum food needs but only by using essential livelihood assets or engaging in crisis-coping strategies. Urgent action is needed to protect livelihoods and reduce food consumption gaps.
• Phase 4 (emergency): Households either: have large food consumption gaps leading to very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality; or are able to mitigate large food consumption gaps but only through emergency livelihood strategies and asset liquidation. Urgent action is needed to save lives and livelihoods.
• Phase 5 (catastrophe/famine): Households have an extreme lack of food and/or cannot meet other basic needs, even with coping strategies. Starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are present. Urgent action is required to prevent widespread death and total collapse of livelihoods.

According to the report, approximately 292 million people in 40 countries in 2023 were stressed (IPC/CH Phase 2). Some 165.5 million people in 41 countries and territories faced crisis (IPC/CH Phase 3). More than 36 million people in 39 countries and territories experienced emergency (IPC/CH Phase 4), with over a third of them in the Sudan and Afghanistan.

The report’s projections indicate that about 700,000 people faced catastrophe (IPC/CH Phase 5) in 2023 in Burkina Faso, Mali, Palestine, Somalia, and South Sudan. Of these, around 600,000 were in the Gaza Strip.

The report highlights three main drivers of food insecurity: conflict; weather extremes; and economic shocks. Looking to 2024, it anticipates conflict, particularly in Haiti, Palestine, and the Sudan, to continue to be the main driver of acute food insecurity. It finds that while El Niño peaked in early 2024, its full impacts are expected to manifest throughout the year, with some of the impacts likely positive, including better harvests in parts of East Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). However, high domestic food prices and decreasing humanitarian funding will continue to negatively affect food-insecure populations.

In a video message to the GRFC’s launch on 24 April 2024, UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted the vital role of data in the report and called on governments to follow-up on the Call to Action for Accelerated Food Systems Transformation.

According to a joint press release by GNAFC members, urgent long-term national and international investment to transform food systems and boost agricultural and rural development are needed to tackle persistent food crises. Greater crisis preparedness, critical lifesaving assistance at scale, and peace and prevention “must also become an integral part of the longer-term food systems transformation,” it notes.

Members of the Global Network Against Food Crises include the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the EU, among other partners. [Publication: Global Report on Food Crises 2024] [Publication Landing Page] [Joint News Release]