The food security situation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

Food Security Assessment Situation and Outlook No. (GFA-26) 

59 pp, June 2015

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The number of food-insecure people in the 76 low- and middle-income countries included in this report is projected to fall 9 percent, from 521 million in 2014 to 475 million in 2015. Over the longer term, the food security situation is projected to deteriorate as the share of population that is food insecure moves from 13.4 percent in 2015 to 15.1 percent in 2025.

ERS has developed a new approach for modeling food security that will be employed in the 2016 Assessment.

The number of food-insecure people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is estimated at 254 million in 2015, virtually unchanged from 2014. The share of population estimated to be food insecure is 28.4 percent. 

The food security situation in SSA is projected to deteriorate, as the share of population that is food insecure is projected to rise from 28.4 percent in 2015 to 30.4 percent in 2025. 

• This change is largely driven by countries where civil strife disrupts agricultural activities (i.e., Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Somalia) or where population growth remains around or above 3 percent per year thereby precluding increase per capita food supply (i.e., Burundi, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina Faso). 
• The increases in the number of food-insecure people and the distribution gap nearly match, meaning that there is little measureable intensification in food insecurity, on average. 
• In 20 of the region’s 39 countries included in this study, 20 percent or less of the population is projected to be food insecure in 2015.