It's time to step up to fight famine

No one should be fighting famine in 2023. The world produces enough food for everyone. Despite this, millions of people face starvation and death today. We can do better. This cannot be the year when we continue business as usual. 

I would like to start using this platform to share some updates about our global efforts to #FightFamine.

I am grateful for the support of the Global Network Against Food Crises in helping raise awareness about this crisis.

Hunger is on the rise

Over 258 million people were acutely food insecure in 58 food crisis countries or territories in 2022. This is the highest number in the seven-year history of the Global Report on Food Crises (GFRC).

The situation in 2023 is even more difficult. The Hunger Hotspots report warns that acute food insecurity is set to increase in 18 hunger hotspots from June to November 2023. In particular, people in Burkina Faso, Mali, Somalia and South Sudan could face starvation and death (IPC/CH Phase 5). Afghanistan, Haiti, Nigeria, Sudan and Yemen also require urgent attention.

There is one urgent thing to do, now: unlock funding for these countries most at risk. For many people, this could make the difference between life and death.

Lessons learnt: scaling up the response

Throughout 2022, humanitarians delivered life-saving aid and implemented resilience programmes to avert famine. About 157 million people benefited from assistance and protection, including 80 million people in countries where segments of the population were facing starvation or death. Despite record levels of funding, needs quickly outpaced available resources. We need to think about innovative ways to respond to these record levels of needs.

Here are some the ways humanitarians innovated on funding response:

Anticipatory action and timely resource mobilization helped neutralize the 2019 desert locust outbreak across the greater Horn of Africa and Yemen, protecting 41.5 million people from food insecurity, preventing significant losses of crops and pasture, and avoiding $1.8 billion in economic losses.

Multi-year resilience programming, such as climate-smart water harvesting, strengthening women’s participation, and land rehabilitation, boosted capacities to withstand shocks.

The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) unlocked early funding in in February 2023 through a record $250 million allocation to stave off famine.

Humanitarian negotiations supported truce agreements in Ethiopia and Yemen and facilitated the Black Sea Grain Initiative, bolstering efforts to fight food insecurity and enhance access to communities.  

"One child dying from hunger is one too many" - Nimo Hassan

“Viewing food insecurity through a protection lens is key to moving away from a drip-feeding approach to feed the hungry to giving people dignity and choice to decide what to do with their lives.” says Nimo Hassan, Director of the Somali NGO Consortium. When we talked recently in Nairobi, she told me that women are generally the first to be impacted by food insecurity and hit the hardest.

Discussing famine should not be the focus of the 21st century, but it is, so we need to rethink and collectively decide what we are trying to achieve. One child dying from hunger is one too many.

In a context like Somalia where people have effectively been in crisis for some 30 years, localization and gender equity should not be an after-thought or limited to short-term project financing, argues Nimo. Local NGOs, including women’s rights organizations, are best placed to understand and respond to community needs. However, Nimo believes that they are unable to realize their potential in the absence of longer-term and multi-dimensional programming.

Whilst huge strides have been made to ensure local NGOs have a seat at decision-making forums in Somalia and globally, there needs to be mechanisms in place to ensure they are effectively engaged in programme design and able to access longer-term financing, including climate financing. “This approach will help us address the root causes of food insecurity and strengthen people’s resilience to withstand recurrent shocks. It will also enable us to deliver better outcomes and move toward durable solutions.” 

Unlocking finance for food crises: where do we stand

Levels of acute food insecurity are outpacing financial allocations, despite significant increases in humanitarian assistance over the past few years. The amount of assistance per person has decreased by 40%, from US$85 per person in 2018 to US$51 in 2021.

Humanitarian aid alone cannot address the current food crisis. Talking with humanitarian and development experts, we agreed on the need to promote development finance in food crises and resilience programming, among others. Read more in the latest Financing Flows and Food Crises report.

Help us raise awareness on the global hunger crisis by sharing this newsletter and using the hashtag #FightFamine.