After five consecutive below-average rains, the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa is expanding and deepening.
Combined with insecurity and macroeconomic volatility, the impact of the drought on food and nutrition
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security has been devastating. Across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, an estimated 22 million people are now acutely food insecure because of the drought. The malnutrition situation is also critical. Some 5.1 million children across drought-affected areas of the three countries are acutely malnourished in 2023, with dire implications for their health, growth and survival. Concerningly, the upcoming March-May 2023 rains are also forecast to be below-average. Should these rains fail, and humanitarian assistance not be delivered at scale, food insecurity will continue to deteriorate.
Regardless of how the 2023 rains perform, extremely high humanitarian needs will persist through 2023 while a full recovery from a drought of this magnitude will take years. To address the devastating drought-induced hunger and malnutrition across the region, WFP is pursuing an integrated dual track approach; meeting immediate life-saving food and nutritional needs while simultaneously building resilience to extreme climate variability.
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Previous crises, such as the Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa in 2014, indicate the direct impact movement restrictions and disease containment efforts have on food availability, access, utilization and violence – particularly gender-based
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violence (GBV). The importance of maintaining and upscaling food security interventions for the most vulnerable populations, alongside the health sector’s efforts to avert disease spread, is therefore undeniable. The COVID-19 outbreak in South Sudan threatens to paralyze an already fragile food system and negatively impact more than 6.5 million people in South Sudan who remain vulnerable. At the same time, the core national capacities for prevention, preparedness and response for public health events is limited, and the healthcare system has been weakened by years of conflict, poor governance and low investments.
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This survey of agricultural livelihoods and food security in the context of the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and other shocks was undertaken during February 2021 by the
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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1 380 villages within 129 districts of 20 provinces, covering all agro-ecological zones of Afghanistan.
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The fifth World Food Safety Day (WFSD) will be celebrated on 7 June 2023 to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, contributing to food
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security, human health, economic prosperity, agricultural production, market access, tourism and sustainable development.
This publication is a guide for all those who want to get involved.
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Interactive maps; country profiles and Studies
The Dashboard is designed to consolidate and present up-to-date data on food crisis severity, track global food
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security financing, and make available global and country-level research and analysis to improve coordination of the policy and financial response to the crisis.
It will bring together disparate and vast information on food security into one place, to help reduce transaction costs, improve transparency, and strengthen analysis. It can also help speed up financing by highlighting funding needs and gaps. The goal is to inform a coordinated global food crisis response while also helping to advance medium to long-term food security interventions.
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Guidance to implement the Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises (CFS-FFA) | Background Note
Globally, levels of hunger remain alarmingly high. In 2021, they surpassed all previous records as reported by the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), with close to 193 million people acutely food
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insecure and in need of urgent assistance across 53 countries/territories, according to the findings of the GRFC 2022. This represents an increase of nearly 40 million people compared to the previous high reached in 2020 (reported in the GRFC 2021).
Download Full Report here: https://www.fsinplatform.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/GRFC%202022%20Final%20Report.pdf
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As a conflict between two major agricultural powers, the Russia–Ukraine war has various negative socioeconomic impacts that are now being felt internationally and might worsen, notably, for global food s
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ecurity. If the war deepens, the food crisis will worsen, posing a challenge to many countries, especially those that rely on food imports, such as those in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Simultaneously, the war came at a bad time for global food markets because food prices were already high due to disruptions in the supply chain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, strong global demand, and poor harvests in some countries. Understanding how conflict-related disruptions in global food and fertilizer markets might affect price and availability is critical for understanding the overall impact on global food security. Further, four months into the war, its implications for food security suggest that this review is timely, urgent, and highly needed.
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Key findings from a February 2021 survey from the Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to COVID-19 (PERC)
This scoping study done in Myanmar offers the chance for FoodSTART+ to explore prospects for future partnerships in another important country of the region. The study was done from October 2016 to February 2017 and included visits to selected major potato and cassava production areas to meet with re
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spective stakeholders and market actors.
Although root and tuber crop (RTC) production in Myanmar has gradually increased since the late 1990s, they still lag behind the other major crops like rice. No RTCs are included in the country’s list of primary important crops even though potatoes are regularly consumed in daily meals while other common RTCs like cassava, elephant foot yam and sweetpotato are consumed occasionally. RTCs primarily contribute to food security and livelihoods through the income generated from their sale, whether fresh or processed, rather than directly through consumption.
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Kiel Policy Brief, Ukraine Special 1, March 2022.Many African countries heavily rely on imports of agricultural commodities and agricultural inputs from Ukraine and Russia, for example wheat, other grains, and fertilizer. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted global access to grains due to re
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duced production, exports, and increased trade costs. This policy brief investigates the possible long-term consequences of the conflict on food security in Africa
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The number of people facing acute food insecurity1 is growing at an alarming rate in the European Union (EU) Member States of Central Eastern Europe. COVID-19 and the resulting disruption to global markets, trade, and
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food supply chains have negatively affected food security since 2020; now, this has been compounded by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Women and girls who have been displaced from Ukraine into Hungary are facing tremendous obstacles to their safety and wellbeing, particularly given the link between food insecurity and gender-based violence (GBV). Urgent policy responses and concrete actions are needed to support low-income households and vulnerable communities, particularly women and their families displaced from Ukraine, to stem this growing crisis.
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Policy Guidance Brief 1
• Climate change has already challenged the agriculture sector in Myanmar by afecting rice yields and livestock production, while disasters such as foods and cyclones have caused massive destruction in rural areas.
• Without adaptation, the long-term consequenc
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es of climate change will likely include reduced productivity and huge economic losses, food insecurity, poverty and migration.
• According to the Climate Change Action Plan for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock sector, by 2030 Myanmar should achieve climate-resilient productivity and promote climate-smart responses to support food security and livelihood strategies while also introducing resource-efficient and lowcarbon practices.
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The disruptions in imports, production and the related surge in food prices induced by the current conflict in Ukraine have the potential to worsen the food
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security situation in the Eastern Africa Region, which is already been impacted by the effect of three consecutive below-normal rainfall seasons.
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India may be the world’s second largest producer of food, but it has its second largest undernourished population. Further, more than half of women in India suffer from anaemia, which is one of the reasons for the high rate of low-birth weight bab
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ies. An unbalanced diet and lack of food is directly linked to high rates of stunting, excessive weight, and death in children under five years of age. The Government of India has
implemented programmes for providing food security and ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food. There is a need to look at multiple strategies to combat the issue of food security. Community and nutrition gardens can play an important role in enhancing national food security and dietary diversity to combat
malnutrition.
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