UN News
The updated Global Report on Food Crises reveals that nearly two million people are now grappling with the most critical level of food insecurity, classified as Phase 5 on the global IPC scale, which tracks acute hunger.
This level represents an “extreme lack of food and exhaustion of coping capacities,” with a sharply increased risk of acute malnutrition and death.
“As well as causing widespread acute malnutrition and death in the short term, it has major human, social and economic impacts in the long term,” the report noted.
The report also found that acute malnutrition among children and women in crisis-affected countries remained “persistently high,” with many families unable to afford a healthy diet.
It also noted that improved harvests helped reduce hunger in several countries, including Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guatemala, Lebanon and Afghanistan.
The report was prepared by a consortium of UN agencies, including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM), together with humanitarian partners.
