Food security is deteriorating globally according to recent analyses from the Global Network against Food Crises (GNFC). There are currently up to 205 million people acutely food insecure and in need of urgent food assistance (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above or equivalent) across 45 countries, twice as many as in 2016. Around 970 000 people worldwide are projected to face catastrophic conditions of food insecurity (IPC/CH Phase 5) in 2022.

In 2022, food insecurity was exacerbated by the direct effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the global economy, including on food prices, global supply of grains, as well as on the price of energy and fertilisers. These factors compounded food crises that were already raging due to conflicts, weather extremes (notably droughts and flooding resulting from climate change), and economic shocks due to the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite hunger being already on the rise for the past five years, funding to address this has been lagging behind, and the appeals for the main food crises remain severely underfunded.

Prospects for 2023 are dim, with several facts indicating that global food security is unlikely to improve in the next months.

In 2022 alone, DG ECHO has allocated up to EUR 950 million for humanitarian food and nutrition assistance, 64% more than in 2021, and almost 90% more than in 2020. In 2023, DG ECHO aims at increasing or at least maintaining appropriate levels of funding, and is working to mobilise additional funds.

The objectives of the present report are threefold. Firstly, to provide information on the situation in the countries and regions considered of maximum concern from a food security perspective. Secondly, to outline DG ECHO’s interventions to meet rising humanitarian needs. And lastly, to identify critical needs and opportunities for coordinated action against food insecurity, with a view to scale-up assistance to the populations most in need.

This report provides detailed information about 28 countries. These include the six hunger hotspots as identified by the GNFC, namely Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Nigeria, as they all have populations facing or projected to face starvation (Catastrophe, IPC/CH Phase 5) and are facing additional stressors that may lead to a further deterioration. Recent IPC/CH analysis (November 2022) reveal the increase of populations in IPC/CH phase 5 in Burkina Faso, and also foresees cases in Mali. These countries may thus join the list of countries at risk of famine in the next edition of the Hunger Hotspots report.

In addition to these, the report covers the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Sahel region (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad), Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mozambique, Central America, Venezuela, Colombia, Myanmar and Pakistan, the latest two included for the first time in this report, since the GNFC warns about the possible intensification of life-threatening conditions in the coming months.

Climate change and related weather extremes remain a key driver of food insecurity in many of the countries under analysis, such as Kenya, Madagascar, and Somalia, where extreme droughts are causing crops to deteriorate and harvests to fail. Floods and irregular rains in Chad, Niger, Mauritania, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, for example, are bringing about similar consequences.

Many countries are affected by high inflation, notably on food prices. Critical cases include, for instance, Venezuela, with an estimated inflation of 155%, Burkina Faso, where national average prices are 23% (rice) to 70% (sorghum) higher than the average for 2021 and the last 5 years, reaching up to 150 % in some conflict areas (the situation is similar in Mali), and Lebanon, where the currency has lost 94% of its value versus the USD.

Lastly, escalating internal and regional conflicts continue to have a disproportionate impact on food security (alongside its four pillars of availability, access, utilisation and stability), as well as on livelihoods, markets access, crop yields and the provision of essential services. This translates into the higher numbers of severely food insecure people. In this respect, countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Myanmar and Haiti – among others – are severely affected.

Most of the countries under analysis are faced with multiple overlapping challenges at the same time: high food inflation, displacement, increasing insecurity, prolonged effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, structural poverty and lack of governance are only some of the additional causes contributing to the exacerbation of the global food crisis.