Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

REPORT + WEBINAR High-level virtual event to release the 2021 Global Report on Food Crises

5 May 2021High-level virtual event to release the 2021 Global Report on Food Crises

Social media:
The Global Network Against Food Crises, set up in 2016 by the European Union and United Nations, also warned that acute food insecurity has continued to worsen since 2017, the first year of its annual report into food crises. Acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse impacted at least 155 million people last year, the highest number in the report’s five-year existence.
  • It warned the situation is not expected to improve this year, driven first and foremost by conflict, but with containment measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic an exacerbating factor.
  • In Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Yemen, 133,000 people were in the most severe or "catastrophe" phase of food insecurity last year, requiring urgent action to avert widespread death and a total collapse of livelihoods, the report showed.
  • At least another 28 million people were in an "emergency" phase of food crisis, meaning they were one step away from starvation and required urgent action to save lives and livelihoods, and prevented famine.
  • The GRFC 2021 estimates that at least 155 million people were acutely food insecure and in need of urgent assistance (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) or equivalent in 2020 in 55 countries/territories that asked for external assistance – the highest level in five years of GRFC reporting. It represents an increase of nearly 20 million people since 2019, when almost 135 million people were in Crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) or equivalent, in 55 countries/territories. Around 21 percent of the analysed population was in Crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) or equivalent in 2020, up from 16.5 percent in 2019.

Programme

Moderator Mr. David Nabarro, Strategic Advisor, Food Systems Summit Dialogues.

Welcome and opening statements 
  • QU Dongyu  Director-General FAO
  • Janez Lenarčič, European Commissioner for Crisis Management, DG-ECHO
  • David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, WFP
Presentation of the key findings of 2021 Global Report on Food Crises 
  • Anne-Claire Mouilliez, Coordinator, Food Security Information Network, FSIN
  • Saul Guerrero, Senior Nutrition Adviser, Emergency Nutrition, UNICEF
Keynote interventions and strategic discussion
  • Agnes Kalibata, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit. - The UNFSS 2021 towards sustainable food systems in food crisis contexts.
  • Maximo Torero, Chief Economist, FAO 
    – What have we learned since COVID-19 first broke and what has been done to prevent COVID-19 from making food crises worse?” 
Interventions
  • Henrietta Fore, Executive Director, UNICEF
  • Nick Dyer, The United Kingdom’s Special Envoy for Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Affairs 
  • Johan Swinnen, IFPRI 
  • Sarah Charles, USAID
  • Marjeta Jager, Deputy-Director, Department of the International Partnerships, DG-INTPA

    "I was particularly impressed by the fact that 39 countries and territories, out of the 55 thatappear in the 2021 Report, have been consistently recorded in all editions of the Global Report since 2017 with a total increase of the acutely food insecure from 94 million people in 2016 to 147 million people in 2020. Clearly there is something structurally wrong in the global and local food systems if 70% of food crises hot spots in 2020 are the same as they were in 2016."

    "We are promoting big transformative initiatives related to food and nutrition security and sustainable agri-food systems through Team Europe. This is the case, for example, with the Great Green Wall along the Sahel-Horn of Africa Belt, and our work on cocoa in Western African countries. This is in continuity with the Team Europe’s response to the crisis, which has raised close to 37 billion euros to help our partners deal with the fallout of the pandemic. The transition to sustainable agri-food systems has a key objective of social sustainability, which means achieving food and nutrition security, and resilience to crises."

The 2021 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC 2021) highlights the remarkably high severity and numbers of people in Crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) or equivalent in 55 countries/territories, driven by persistent conflict, pre-existing and COVID-19-related economic shocks, and weather extremes. The number identified in the 2021 edition is the highest in the report’s five-year existence.

Global Report on Food Crises 2021 - In Brief (English version) 4 pp.
It describes how countries have reacted to COVID-19 and assess longer-term options for agri-food system policies and investments so as to make them more resilient. The whole series consist of more than 20 countries.

Background:
The European Commission for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) and European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), together with FAO and WFP are the co-founding and core steering members of the Global Network.

The Global Network Against Food Crises is an alliance of humanitarian and development actors united by the commitment to tackle the root causes of food crises and promote sustainable solutions through shared analysis and knowledge, strengthened coordination in evidence-based responses and collective efforts across the Humanitarian, Development and Peace (HDP) nexus.

European Union, FAO and WFP launched the Global Network Against Food Crises at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) to respond to the WHS’s call for new approaches to tackle protracted crises and recurrent disasters, reduce vulnerability, and manage risk, by bridging the divide between development and humanitarian partners.

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