Highlights:

Global food insecurity remains at worrying levels and the outlook for 2024 is bleak. 

This report aims to accomplish several objectives. Firstly, to raise awareness and provide detailed information on the situation in the countries and regions of maximum concern from a food security perspective during the September 2023 – January 2024 period. Secondly, to outline DG ECHO’s interventions to meet rising humanitarian food assistance needs. Thirdly, the release of this report coincides with the third European Humanitarian Forum, with the funding gap and forgotten crises as overarching themes. Finally, the report puts forward key policy messages and recommendations, both general and country-specific, to step up the fight against food insecurity.  

The latest Hunger Hotspots report, published on 31 October 2024, warned that acute food insecurity was likely to deteriorate further in 18 hunger hotspots, with five countries or territories at risk of famine: Burkina Faso, Mali, Sudan, South Sudan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Conflict and violence is the main driver behind food insecurity in these hotspots and in all the countries analysed in this new edition of DG ECHO’s food security report. 

In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the IPC/CH1 analysis conducted in December 2023 highlighted that over 90% of the population in the Gaza Strip (about 2.08 million people) were suffering acute levels of food insecurity (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above). Hostilities have left the entire population highly food insecure and at risk of famine. In Sudan, intense conflict and organized violence have driven approximately 17.7 million Sudanese (37% of the population) acutely food insecure between October 2023 and February 2024, the highest level of acute food insecurity on record for the same period after the harvest in Sudan.  

Economic shocks remain a prominent driver of hunger. The economic resilience of poor countries has dramatically decreased and they now face extended recovery periods and have less ability to cope with future shocks. The impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on global food insecurity continues to persist through its ripple effect on trade and food prices. Many countries are affected by high inflation, notably on food prices, and debt stress. Examples include Pakistan where, in just a year, the Pakistani Rupee has depreciated by more than 20% against the US dollar. There is also concern and uncertainty about the potential economic implications of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali’s recent announcement of their withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). 

Climate change and related weather extremes remain a key driver of food insecurity in many of the countries under analysis. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has suffered the worst floods in decades. Excessive rainfall led to flooding of crops and loss of planted areas in different provinces at the beginning of the agricultural season while, in January, the Congo River overflowed, flooding the capital, Kinshasa. The ongoing El Niño is expected to continue at least until June 2024, increasing the risk of heatwaves, wildfires, floods, droughts, and epidemics. 

The report delves also into the widening gap between needs and resources needed to tackle food crises. The report highlights the funding drop in 2023, its consequences, the weak outlook for 2024, and the need to do more with less coupled with increased efforts to address the root causes of food insecurity. 

Finally, against this challenging background, the report includes both concise and detailed policy and advocacy recommendations to enhance efforts in addressing food crises. These span from practical suggestions to accelerate the effectiveness and efficiency of food crises responses to the necessity of intensifying multilateral efforts to uphold International Humanitarian Law, and the pressing need to identify and leverage Nexus opportunities to tackle the root causes of food crises.