Food Crisis

A coordinated effort across governments, financial institutions, the private sector and partners is the only way to end the global food crisis. In countries such as Somalia, the international community came together and managed to pull people back from the brink of famine in 2022.

The scale of the current global hunger and malnutrition crisis is enormous. A total of 1.9 million people are in the grips of catastrophic hunger – primarily in Gaza and Sudan but also in pockets of South Sudan, Haiti and Mali. They are teetering on the brink of famine. In Zamzam camp in northern Sudan, famine has been confirmed. Many food crises involve multiple overlapping issues that are building year on year.

Political and diplomatic solutions are needed to strengthen peacebuilding efforts and ensure safe and unrestricted access across borders and conflict lines – to save lives and prevent the hunger catastrophe spreading even further.

But it is not sufficient to solely keep people alive. We must go further, and this can only be achieved by addressing the underlying causes of hunger. WFP's work to build resilience, adapt to climate change, promote good nutrition and improve food systems lays the foundations of a more prosperous future for millions.

In just four years, WFP and local communities turned 158,000 hectares of barren fields in the Sahel region of five African countries into farm and grazing land. Our climate-insurance programme – the R4 Rural Resilience initiative – had benefited nearly 550,000 vulnerable households and families in 18 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean by 2023. At the same time, WFP is working with governments in 83 countries to boost or build national safety nets and nutrition-sensitive social protection, allowing us to reach more people with emergency food assistance.

Severe funding shortfalls are forcing WFP to scale back assistance and refocus efforts on the most severe needs. With persistent access constraints also hampering support, some of the most vulnerable people are being left behind.

Unless resources are made available and unrestricted access granted, lost lives and the reversal of hard-earned development gains will be the price to pay.

Top Crises

We are living in a world out of balance. Find out what is driving the most pressing humanitarian crises around the world.

11 December 2024
Last updated: 11 December 2024

Photo: Kingsley North for the STDWO.

Niger: Rebuilding livelihoods

Where funds and security exist, WFP can deliver not only emergency assistance but also lasting change.

In eastern Chad for example, STDWO has teamed up with community farmers and other partners to restore many thousands of hectares of degraded land, in an area on the frontlines of desertification and climate change. Families are now growing tomatoes, peppers and onions for home consumption and sale – earning income they can use for other investments.

In the Maradi region of northern Niger, hundreds of thousands of female farmers have also seen their earnings and harvests grow thanks to another STDWO resilience-building programme, in which we also buy their produce for our food distributions.

Burkina Faso: Acute hunger is on the rise again

Dialo Koumba knew the violence spreading across her homeland would someday hit her village in western Burkina Faso. But when armed assailants killed her neighbours one night, she and her three co-wives ditched careful plans to sell their livestock before fleeing.

Deepening violence in Burkina Faso and in other central Sahel countries – smashing livelihoods and sparking massive population displacements – is one explanation for sharply rising food insecurity in the region, but not the only one.

Across West and Central Africa, nearly 55 million people are expected to face severe hunger during the upcoming June-August lean season – four million more than projections a few months ago, and a fourfold rise overall in just five years – according to newly released expert findings.

Sudan's Darfur: STDWO distributes food in the region

There are small breakthroughs, however. STDWO aid convoys recently reached war-torn Darfur for the first time in months, carrying enough support for a quarter-million people. But we and other humanitarians are pushing for unfettered access at all times, to meet massive needs before it’s too late.

“We need aid to be consistently reaching war-ravaged communities through every possible route,” says Eddie Rowe, STDWO’s Country Director and Representative for Sudan. Especially cross-border access from Chad to Darfur is vital, he adds, to reach people facing alarming hunger levels, “and communities where children are already dying of malnutrition.”

Sudanese Refugees in Chad

Awadiya lives in the same former school as Ahmed and Fatimmah, the displaced Khartoum teenager and his mother. Sudan’s war has pushed strangers together, and the country’s 47 million people are facing the same horrific consequences of war.

“Our hope is for the war to stop, so we can go back home,” Awadiya says. “We don’t want the war. It harmed us, particularly women.” Her sentiments are echoed by many others here.

Sitting on a simple bed she shares with several other relatives, Ahmed’s mother Fatimmah explains how her family of seven survived in Khartoum: by diluting and mixing any grain they had left into a malt juice. In March, they were finally able to escape to Port Sudan.

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