Thursday 12 April, Geneva

Together with the European Union (EU), FAO hosted a presentation of the 2018 Global Report on Food Crises to Member States, UN Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations on Thursday 12 April in the EU Delegation in Geneva.

The report provides a comprehensive picture of the severity and magnitude of acute food insecurity and malnutrition in 2017 in 51 countries and territories, with in-depth analysis of the 26 crises with the largest populations in need of urgent action.

The Report was presented by Luca Russo, FAO Senior Food Crises Analyst, and discussion ensued with a panel composed of Dominique Burgeon, the Head of FAO’s Emergency and Rehabilitation Division, and delegates from ACF, UNICEF, WFP and ECHO. Ambassador Carl Hallergard, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to the UN in Geneva, opened the event by highlighting that food crises remain a major global challenge and underlined that "phenomena such as conflicts and forced displacement, climate change and natural disasters, weak governance and economic shocks as well as demographic changes, can generate devastating effects." 

The main findings of the report are that around 124 million people in 51 countries face Crisis food insecurity or worse (equivalent of IPC/CH Phase 3 or above), requiring urgent humanitarian action to save lives, protect livelihoods, and reduce hunger and malnutrition.

In his address to the participants, Dominique Burgeon highlighted the importance of engaging in stronger partnerships to avert and address food crises and referred to the development of a Global Network on Food Crises for this purpose, the Report being just the first step of a wider process. Mr. Burgeon also spoke about the necessity to work ON, IN, and THROUGH conflicts, as the major driver of food insecurity today. The aim of this three-fold focus is to address conflict drivers, impacts, and conflict-sensitive development to reduce severe food insecurity in the world.

The report is available here:

 http://www.fao.org/emergencies/resources/documents/resources-detail/en/c/1107313/