Number Of People In Acute Food Crisis Globally Reaches Record High In 4 Years - Report

The number of people in acute food crisis around the world has reached 135 million in 2019, which is the highest in the last four years, the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2020 prepared by the Global Network against Food Crises revealed

GENOA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st April, 2020) The number of people in acute food crisis around the world has reached 135 million in 2019, which is the highest in the last four years, the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2020 prepared by the Global Network against Food Crises revealed.

"At 135 million, the number of people in Crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) in 2019 was the highest in the four years of the GRFC's existence. This increase also reflected the inclusion of additional countries and areas within some countries," GRFC 2020 says.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Phase 3 corresponds to an acute food and livelihood crisis and means that at least 20 percent of households have significant food consumption gaps. Phase 4 is a humanitarian emergency, and the last phase is famine.

The newest GRFC 2020 report analyses data before the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore does not account for its impact on vulnerable people in food-crisis situations.

According to the report, the country with the highest number of people in acute food crisis (based on the 2019 data analysis) is Yemen with 15.

9 million people affected. By percentage of population, the country worst hit by food crisis is South Sudan (61 percent of the population in IPC Phase 3 or worse). Apart from Yemen and South Sudan, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ethiopia, Syria, Sudan, Northern Nigeria and Haiti make up the 10 worst food crises in 2019, according to the report.

Conflict and insecurity were the main drivers of food crises in 2019, but weather extremes and economic shocks became increasingly significant, the report found.

"The report reflects the growing influence of economic crises on acute food insecurity levels, particularly in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Haiti and the Sudan," GRFC 2020 says.

The short-term outlook for 2020 in the report states that Yemen is set to remain "the world's worst food crisis."

The 15-member Global Network against Food Crises is an international alliance working to address the causes of extreme hunger. It was launched by the European Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) in 2016.