Acute food insecurity levels across the IGAD region have steadily increased since the Global Report on Food Crisis was launched in 2016. ©FAO/Stefanie Glinski

10 June 2020, Nairobi: Food security trends for the East Africa region are extremely concerning. Since the first publication of the Global Report on Food Crises back in 2016, we continue to see a steady increase in the number of people in Crisis or worse, and are facing worsening food insecurity each year. The recently launched Regional Focus on the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Member States of the 2020 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) revealed that nearly 28 million people across the IGAD region were facing acute food insecurity or worse on the IPC scale in 2019. This figure represents 20 percent of the total population facing food insecurity that required urgent action across the world.

The 2020 projection indicates that around 25 million people would face acute food insecurity in the region requiring urgent action (IPC Phase 3 or above). However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is likely to push the numbers of acutely food-insecure people well beyond these early 2020 forecasts.

Launched on 4 June 2020 by IGAD and partners, the report is the culmination of a joint analysis led by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN), under the Global Network Against Food Crises, that provides a comprehensive regional context on food security.

"Our region faces multiple threats to food security. We are living in challenging times with extreme climate events and the worst desert locust invasion in decades. Currently, we are grappling with the severe challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread flooding of arable lands. This report provides vital evidence to inform coordinated and cost-efficient strategies to tackle the root cause of the food crisis." said IGAD Executive Secretary Workneh Geneyehu at the launch.

“The food security outlook for 2020 was already of concern, with locust swarms before COVID-19,” said World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Director Michael Dunford. “What began as a health crisis and became a global  pandemic risks broadening into a socio-economic shock multiplying the total number of hungry people in the region.”

 “Our attention must now turn to what can be done to reduce the number of food insecure people in the region,” noted the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) Subregional Coordinator for Eastern Africa David Phiri. “The disruptive impact of COVID-19, the Desert Locust, recurrent droughts and floods, and conflict and insecurity will continue to hamper the availability of food and people’s access to it across the subregion. Building resilient food systems is now more crucial than ever.”

Acute food insecurity on the increase

Acute food insecurity levels across the IGAD region have steadily increased since the Global Report on Food Crisis was launched in 2016. Between 2018 and 2019, the number of people in need of urgent food assistance (IPC Phase 3 or above) increased by 2 percent (about 650 000 people). Weather extremes, conflict/insecurity and economic shocks were the main drivers of acute food insecurity across the region in 2019.

Three East African countries were among the top 10 worst food crisis countries in the world, namely Ethiopia (8 million acutely food insecure people in need of urgent food and livelihood assistance), South Sudan (7 million), and Sudan (5.9 million). The highest prevalence of acute food insecurity were found in South Sudan, where 61 percent of the analysed population was in Crisis or worse (IPC Phase 3 or above), followed by Ethiopia (27 percent), Kenya (22 percent), Somalia (17 percent) and Sudan (14 percent).

Unfortunately, the East Africa region continues to suffer from the cycle of recurrent shocks. Despite generally favourable rainfall during the first half of the year, severe flooding across parts of the region have affected about 1.3 million people. Amidst the worst desert locust outbreak in more than 25 years, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused job losses, loss of access to education and school feeding programmes for rural children, and farmers and pastoralists to lose access to inputs, extension services and markets. 

The cumulative impact is expected to be especially high for informal sector workers, casual labourers, people already dependent on humanitarian aid, informal settlement dwellers and low-income government workers. These colliding challenges require immediate collective effort in order to prevent a worse food crisis from developing, in addition to risk sensitive and shock-responsive social protection programmes to protect incomes and livelihood recovery.

Informing effective programmes and policy decisions

The information in the 2020 report provides agencies, stakeholders, governments and other key stakeholders with reliable data and analysis to inform coordinated and cost-efficient strategies to tackle the root cause of the food crisis. Decisions and programmes can only be effective if we have a clear understanding of the needs of affected communities. Member countries in the region are encouraged to continue working with all stakeholders (civil society, humanitarian partners, development partners etc.) to address the immediate needs of people facing severe levels of food and nutrition insecurity, while at the same time building the longer-term resilience of vulnerable households.