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Health

03 May, 2023

1032

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 today 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.

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 and Yemen.

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.

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.