The magnitude and severity of food crises worsened in 2020 as protracted conflict, the economic fallout of COVID-19 and weather extremes exacerbated pre-existing fragilities. Forecasts point to a grim outlook for 2021, with the threat of Famine persisting in some of the world’s worst food crises.

One year after COVID-19 spread across the world, the 2021 edition of the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) confirms dire projections. The pandemic and related containment measures have aggravated the impact of pre-existing drivers of fragility, notably conflict and climate change. The resulting economic hardship has widened inequalities and exposed the structural vulnerabilities of local and global food systems, hitting already fragile contexts and vulnerable groups particularly hard. This situation requires urgent and decisive action.

Record-breaking levels of acute food insecurity highlight that life-saving humanitarian assistance is indispensable in mitigating and containing the most severe manifestation of acute food insecurity but that it is neither sufficient nor sustainable. The crisis provides an opportunity to reflect on the effectiveness of the response, drawing lessons that go beyond building back better to transforming food systems to benefit all of society, especially the most vulnerable. A system that has the most vulnerable people continuing to bear the greatest burden of global crises is broken. We must take this opportunity to transform food systems, reduce the number of people in need of humanitarian food assistance and contribute meaningfully to sustainable development and peaceful and prosperous societies. 

The food crises profiled in the GRFC are being driven by a combination of several drivers that were often mutually reinforcing, creating compounded crises:   

• Conflict remained the main driver at the global level, with 99 million people in Crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) in 23 countries and territories where conflict and insecurity were the primary driver, up from 77 million in 22 countries and territories in 2019.
• Economic shocks, heavily related to measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, were the second most important driver, with nearly 40 million people in Crisis and worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 and above) in 17 countries; up from 24 million in eight countries in 2019.
• Weather extremes were the primary driver of acute food insecurity in 15 countries with around 16 million people affected in 2020, showing a decrease from 34 million in 25 countries in 2019.

The GRFC, with its updates, is the global reference of consensus-based analysis and compiled evidence of acute food insecurity in hotspots that require the mobilization of the international community. It is a key resource to inform strategic planning and decision-making to address all dimensions of food crises, from life-saving humanitarian response to longer-term resilience building as well as the transformation of agri-food systems.