Geneva Briefing on the 2023 Global Report on Food Crises

Geneva - FAO and WFP organized a joint Geneva Briefing, to provide an overview of the 2023 Global Report on Food Crises, highlighting the current food crisis situation and insights on the drivers and potential solutions. Especially, the briefing provided a specific focus on countries experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.

The 2023 Global Report on Food Crises, a collaborative effort among 16 partners including FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP), has shed light on the alarming levels of acute food insecurity faced by millions of people worldwide.

Lavinia Antonaci, FAO Global Network Coordinator, and Rebecca Richards, WFP Global Network Coordinator, shared the main findings of the report and some of the solutions needed to address global food insecurity. Antonaci highlighted that the report analyzed acute food insecurity, based mainly on the Integrated Phase for Acute Food Insecurity Classification (IPC), to identify areas and countries in crisis (IPC3), emergency (IPC4), and catastrophe (IPC5) and their levels of food insecurity to bring urgent attention to protect the lives and livelihoods of people.

Antonaci and Richards highlighted in their presentations that in 2022, approximately 258 million people across 58 countries faced acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse (IPC3+), compared to 193 million people in 2021. Five countries - the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Nigeria1, and Yemen - had over 40% of the population in acute food insecurity. Additionally, 53.2 million people were internally displaced, and 19.7 million refugees and asylum seekers were hosted in food-crisis countries. The report also revealed a correlation between high food insecurity and child malnutrition, with over 35 million children suffering from wasting.

The speakers mentioned that the report identifies major shocks likely to affect 2023, such as further economic shocks, El Niño, conflict in Sudan, and the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. To address and prevent food crises and famine, Richards emphasized the need for a collective approach and outlined priority actions to sustainably address the underlying causes of food insecurity and famine.

The joint FAO-WFP briefing emphasized the importance of a collective approach involving governments, international organizations, and civil society to effectively address and prevent food crises. Priority actions include strengthening analysis to understand multidimensional drivers, implementing sustainable solutions that tackle the root causes of food insecurity, reinforcing global coordination, and fostering robust partnerships.

The joint FAO-WFP briefing is contributing to the dissemination of the report's key findings and underlining the need for comprehensive, collaborative efforts. Through concerted action, FAO strives to create a world where food crises become a thing of the past, ensuring food security and overall well-being for all.