Global Report on Food Crises 2018
Publication year
Resource type
UNCCD Library
Material Type
ebook
Food security and livelihood interventions save lives, safeguard livelihoods and strengthen resilience in conflict situations and can contribute to generating peace dividends and to sustaining peace. Unless peace is restored and structural changes made, the situation in these conflict-affected countries will continue to be volatile with millions of people facing Crisis conditions of food insecurity or worse.
Extreme climate events – mainly drought – were also major triggers of food crises in 23 countries with over
39 million food-insecure people in need of urgent assistance in 2017. Two-thirds of these countries were in Africa, where almost 32 million people faced Crisis conditions of acute food insecurity or worse caused by climate shocks. More than 3 million food-insecure people were in Latin America and the Caribbean (five countries), while 3 million were in South Asia (three countries).
Drought in East Africa damaged already strained livelihoods, destroyed crops and pushed up food prices, particularly in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. Lack of rain in 2016 in Uganda led to increased food insecurity in early 2017, at a time when the country was already facing high food insecurity due to an influx of refugees. Southern Africa suffered severe food insecurity conditions in early 2017 following prolonged drought in 2015/16.
The dire situation in early 2017 in Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and most other mainland southern African countries improved with good 2017 harvests. The short-term outlook for 2018 suggests conflict will remain a primary driver of food insecurity in major emergencies, particularly in Africa.
The Food Security Information Network (FSIN) is a global initiative co-sponsored by FAO, WFP and IFPRI to strengthen food and nutrition security information systems for producing reliable and accurate data to guide analysis and decision-making.
FSIN serves as a neutral technical platform for exchanging expertise, knowledge and best practices, developing harmonized methods and tools, and facilitating capacity development on food and nutrition security measurement and analysis.
Extreme climate events – mainly drought – were also major triggers of food crises in 23 countries with over
39 million food-insecure people in need of urgent assistance in 2017. Two-thirds of these countries were in Africa, where almost 32 million people faced Crisis conditions of acute food insecurity or worse caused by climate shocks. More than 3 million food-insecure people were in Latin America and the Caribbean (five countries), while 3 million were in South Asia (three countries).
Drought in East Africa damaged already strained livelihoods, destroyed crops and pushed up food prices, particularly in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. Lack of rain in 2016 in Uganda led to increased food insecurity in early 2017, at a time when the country was already facing high food insecurity due to an influx of refugees. Southern Africa suffered severe food insecurity conditions in early 2017 following prolonged drought in 2015/16.
The dire situation in early 2017 in Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and most other mainland southern African countries improved with good 2017 harvests. The short-term outlook for 2018 suggests conflict will remain a primary driver of food insecurity in major emergencies, particularly in Africa.
The Food Security Information Network (FSIN) is a global initiative co-sponsored by FAO, WFP and IFPRI to strengthen food and nutrition security information systems for producing reliable and accurate data to guide analysis and decision-making.
FSIN serves as a neutral technical platform for exchanging expertise, knowledge and best practices, developing harmonized methods and tools, and facilitating capacity development on food and nutrition security measurement and analysis.
Keywords
food demand
food security
drought
drivers of migration
food insecurity