The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of the global food system, and the need for more equitable, sustainable, and resilient systems to nutritiously and consistently feed 8.5 billion people by 2030, said founding members of the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC).
Conflicts, economic crises and extreme weather conditions pushed the number of people who faced acute food insecurity to 155 million in 2020, the highest figure in five years, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other agencies said on Wednesday.
FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu has called for addressing the root causes of acute hunger, and for making agri-food systems more efficient, resilient, sustainable and inclusive.
6 May 2021, 5:19 PM | Reuters | @SABCNews
Image: rEUTERSConflict, economic shocks and extreme weather, pushed at least 155 million people into acute food insecurity in 2020.
The stark warning from the 2021 Global Report on Food Crises released on Wednesday revealed that conflict, or economic shocks that are often related to COVID-19 along with extreme weather, are continuing to push millions of people into acute food insecurity.
The number of people facing acute food insecurity and needing urgent life and livelihood-saving assistance has hit a five-year high in 2020 in countries beset by food crises, according to an annual report 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.
New and old challenges: Conflict, climate change and COVID-19 impacts on rising acute food insecurity
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The poorest continue bearing the burden of global challenges: How can we transform agri-food systems so that no one is left behind?
Statement of the Global Network against Food Crises on the release of the Global Report on Food Crises 2021
One year after COVID-19 spread across the world, the 2021 edition of the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) confirms dire projections. The pandemic and related containment measures have aggravated the impact of pre-existing drivers of fragility, notably conflict and climate change. The resulting economic hardship has widened inequalities and exposed the structural vulnerabilities of local and global food systems, hitting already fragile contexts and vulnerable groups particularly hard. This situation requires urgent and decisive action.
155 million faced acute food insecurity in 2020
The worst-affected countries last year were Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Yemen. Outside Africa, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and Haiti featured were among the 10 worst food crises last year.
By Robin Gomes
At least 155 million people faced crisis levels of food insecurity in 2020 because of conflict, extreme weather events and economic shocks linked in part to Covid-19. This is an increase of 20 million over the previous year, 2019, when 135 million people in 55 countries and territories faced acute food crisis, which was an already record year for acute food insecurity.
The grim figures in the latest Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2021 released by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) on Wednesday, are a stark warning that the factors are continuing to push millions of people into acute food insecurity this year too. While conflict will remain the major driver of food crises in 2021, the report said, Cov
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LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly 20 million more people faced food crises last year amid armed conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic and weather extremes, and the outlook for this year is again grim, according to a report by the Global Network Against Food Crises.
A woman who fled from attacks of armed militants the in Sahel region holds her child as she stands besides her tent at a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kaya, Burkina Faso November 23, 2020. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
The humanitarian agency, set up in 2016 by the European Union and United Nations, also warned that acute food insecurity has continued to worsen since 2017, the first year of its annual report into food crises.