New York - Despite international efforts to address food insecurity, about 108 million people in the world were severely food insecure in 2016, a dramatic increase compared with 80 million in 2015, according to a new global report on food crises released on Friday.
New York – Despite international efforts to address food insecurity, about 108 million people in the world were severely food insecure in 2016, a dramatic increase compared with 80 million in 2015, according to a new global report on food crises released on Friday.
The increase reflects the trouble people have in producing and accessing food due to conflict, record-high food prices in local markets in affected countries and extreme weather conditions such drought and erratic rainfall caused by El Niño.
The report represents a new and politically innovative collaboration between the European Union and USAID/FEWSNET, regional food security institutions together with UN agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Programme and Unicef.
Civil conflict is the driving factor in nine of the 10 worst humanitarian crises, says the Global Report on Food Crises 2017 report, underscoring the strong linkage between peace and food security.
In 2017, the demand for humanitarian and resilience building assistance will further escalate as four countries are at risk of famine, namely South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and northeast Nigeria.
Other countries that require massive levels of assistance because of widespread food insecurity are Iraq, Syria, Malawi and |Zimbabwe.
According to the new report, in the absence of immediate and substantive action not only to save people’s lives, but also to pull them back from the brink of famine, the food security situation in these countries will continue to worsen in coming months.
