Geneva press briefing: Hunger Hotspots, FAO and WFP early warnings on acute food insecurity

Geneva – Shukri Ahmed, Deputy Director of the FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience together with Kyungnan Park, Director of Emergencies at the World Food Programme (WFP), jointly addressed the Geneva press corp on the recently published The Hunger Hotspots, FAO-WFP early warnings report on acute food insecurity at the Biweekly Press Briefing organized by the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva.

Park, speaking from Rome, said that the The Hunger Hotspots report calls for urgent humanitarian action where acute hunger is at high risk of worsening in 22 countries. The report spotlights the risks of a spill-over of the Sudan crisis and the negative impacts in neighboring countries. She highlighted that urgent assistance is required to protect lives, livelihoods and increase access to food to avert a further deterioration of acute food insecurity and that humanitarian access would be imperative.

Park said that economic shocks and stressors continues to drive acute hunger in almost all hotspots, reflecting global trends that are continuing from 2022. 2023 is expected to bring a global economic slowdown amid monetary tightening in high-income countries. Despite yearlong easing of international food prices, global food prices are likely to remain elevated. Low- and middle-income countries are expected to be hit the hardest by the projected slow growth alongside inflation. Secondly, conflict remained a driver leading to disruptions in livelihoods, as people are either directly attacked or flee the prospect of attacks, or face movement restrictions and administrative impediments. Finally, weather extremes remain significant drivers. For example, Cyclone Mocha had left a trail of devastation in Myanmar recently in May where households in many townships and displacement sites in northern Rakhine had lost substantial food stocks and livelihoods.

Ahmed, also speaking from Rome, added that El Niño followed an almost three-year phase of La Niña which had come to an end earlier this year. Historically, typical rainfall patterns during El Niño events tends to be the reverse of La Niña, which raise the risk of consecutive extreme climatic events hitting various regions, such as the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. A probability for El Niño emerging stood at 82 percent. The primary concern was South and Central America. Rural people are the ones to be mostly affected by such shocks. Urgent and scaled-up humanitarian assistance requires across all hotspots to protect livelihoods and increase access to food. Despite various access limitations due to insecurity, conflict, and bureaucratic barriers, it is vital to prevent further starvation and death and avert further deterioration of acute food insecurity, especially in hotspots of highest concern.

FAO Liaison Office in Geneva

Based in Geneva, a hub of international cooperation and multilateral diplomacy, FAO Liaison Office (LOG) promotes to the Geneva-based partners FAO’s contribution to the 2030 Agenda through its 2022-31 Strategic Framework. Moreover, the Liaison Office monitors and informs the Geneva-based deliberations to strategically position the Organization in line with its mandate and champion key thematic issues. As part of its liaison work, FAO in Geneva cooperates with the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva to communicate and highlight the role of food and agriculture in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).