*Over 250m people hungry in 2022
By Kayode Falade and Fatima Saka
International organisations including the European Union and different UN agencies have said the number of people suffering from hunger or experiencing food insecurity rose worldwide in 2022.
This is as it listed Nigeria and five other countries in its 2023 projections to be among the countries that would be affected by severe hunger.
Famine emergencies and food crises are measured using the five-level Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scale, in which phase 3 signifies acute hunger. Nigeria, in the report, is placed under this category.
The annual report, produced by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN), was launched Wednesday by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) – an international alliance of the United Nations, the European Union, governmental and non-governmental agencies, working to tackle food crises together.
The report stated that more than a quarter billion people experienced acute hunger or suffered from catastrophic famines in 2022.
According to 2023 projections available for 38 of the 58 countries/territories as of March 2023, up to 153 million people (or 18 percent of the analysed population) will be in IPC/CH Phase 3 or above. In addition, around 310 000 people are projected to be in IPC/CH Phase 5 across six countries – Burkina Faso, Haiti, Mali, parts of Nigeria (26 states and the FCT), Somalia and South Sudan, with almost three quarters of them in Somalia.
In 2021, the number of people classified in the three highest levels of food insecurity increased from 193 million to 258 million.
“In 2022, the severity of acute food insecurity increased to 22.7 percent, from 21.3 percent in 2021, but remains unacceptably high and underscores a deteriorating trend in global acute food insecurity,” the report stated.
According to the report, regional conflicts, the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, and the economic consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are the primary drivers of many food crises.
The report also had contributions from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
“More than a quarter of a billion people are now facing acute levels of hunger, and some are on the brink of starvation,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in the report’s foreword. “That’s unconscionable.”
“The latest figures on the global acute food insecurity situation paint a very concerning picture,” said Rein Paulsen, the FAO’s director for emergencies and resilience. The 258 million affected are “vulnerable households, whose lives and livelihoods are being threatened,” he added.
Famine emergencies and food crises are measured using the five-level Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scale, in which phase 3 signifies acute hunger.
According to the report, around 35 million people were affected by humanitarian emergencies (phase 4) in 2022.
The report also found that around 376,000 people suffered famine (the highest level – 5).
Experts, however, warned that the actual number of those affected is almost certainly significantly higher because of incomplete data.
According to the report, more than 40 percent of the population in IPC/CH Phase 3 or above resided in just five countries – Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, parts of Nigeria (21 states and the Federal Capital Territory – FCT), and Yemen.
People in seven countries faced starvation and destitution, or catastrophe levels of acute hunger (IPC/CH Phase 5) at some point during 2022. More than half of those were in Somalia (57 percent), while such extreme circumstances also occurred in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Haiti (for the first time in the history of the country), Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.
Around 35 million people experienced emergency levels of acute hunger (IPC/CH Phase 4) in 39 countries, with more than half of those located in just four countries – Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Sudan and Yemen.
Additionally, in 30 of the 42 main food crises contexts analysed in the report, over 35 million children under five years of age suffered from wasting or acute malnutrition, with 9.2 million of them with severe wasting, the most life-threatening form of under nutrition and a major contributor to increased child mortality.
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, particularly in the world’s poorest countries, mainly due to their high dependency on imports of food and agricultural inputs and vulnerability to global food price shocks.
Key drivers
Economic shocks have surpassed conflict as the primary driver of acute food insecurity and malnutrition in several major food crises. Cumulative global economic shocks, including soaring food prices and severe disruptions to markets, undermine countries’ resilience and capacity to respond to food shocks.
The report findings confirm that the impact of the war in Ukraine has had an adverse impact on global food security due to the major contributions of both Ukraine and Russia to the global production and trade of fuel, agricultural inputs and essential food commodities, particularly wheat, maize and sunflower oil. The war in Ukraine disrupted agricultural production and trade in the Black Sea region, triggering an unprecedented peak in international food prices in the first half of 2022. While food prices have since come down, also thanks to the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the European Union Solidarity Lanes, the war continues to affect food security indirectly, particularly in food import-dependent, low-income countries, whose fragile economic resilience had already been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Breakdown of key drivers:
Economic shocks (including the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 and the repercussions of the war in Ukraine) became the main driver in 27 countries with 83.9 million people in IPC/CH Phase 3 or above or equivalent – up from 30.2 million people in 21 countries in 2021. The economic resilience of poor countries has dramatically decreased over the past three years, and they now face extended recovery periods and less ability to cope with future shocks.
Conflict/insecurity was the most significant driver in 19 countries/territories, where 117 million people were in IPC/CH Phase 3 or above or equivalent. In 2021, conflict was considered the main driver across 24 countries/territories with 139 million people in these phases of acute food insecurity. The lower estimate is explained by the fact that economic shocks surpassed conflict as the main driver of acute food insecurity in three countries still affected by protracted crises – Afghanistan, South Sudan and the Syrian Arab Republic.
Weather/Climate extremes were the primary driver of acute food insecurity in 12 countries where 56.8 million people were in IPC/CH Phase 3 or above or equivalent, more than double the number of people (23.5 million) in eight countries in 2021.
These extremes included sustained drought in the Horn of Africa, devastating flooding in Pakistan, and tropical storms, cyclones and drought in Southern Africa.
Paradigm shift
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. This requires innovative approaches and more coordinated efforts by international organizations, governments, the private sector, regional organizations, civil society and communities.