The world is faced with an unprecedented call for action at a moment in which four countries (South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and northeast Nigeria) have been identified at risk of famine. The demand for humanitarian and resilience assistance is escalating. Against this background, informing the global and national food security community on the risk of food crises and on the severity of such crises is of fundamental importance. Although significant improvements have been made over time in the methods and technologies used to improve the quality and timeliness of food security assessments and monitoring systems, a comprehensive global pictures of food crises is still often missing.

The 2016 World Humanitarian Summit sparked a major review of the way response financing is delivered in crisis settings, highlighting the need for more long-term development investments. In line with the indicative framework for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the recommendations of “The One Humanity: Shared Responsibility Report”, the European Union, WFP and FAO have joined forces to coordinate needs assessment to increase the impact of humanitarian and resilience responses through the preparation of the “Global Report on Food Crises”.

This Global Report aims to enhance coordination and decision making through a neutral analysis that informs programming and implementation. The key objective and strength of the report is to establish a consultative and consensus-based process to compile food insecurity analyses from around the world into a global public product. The Report compares and clarifies results of food security analyses conducted by various partners and across geographical areas to provide a clear picture of acute food insecurity situation.

The Global Report on Food Crises 2017 covers the period January to December 2016 and provides food security and nutrition analyses from countries that are chronically vulnerable to food crises and have large populations facing acute food insecurity. The key information sources are the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and the Cadre Harmonisé (CH), wherever these systems are in place. Complementary sources include products from European Union-Joint Research Centre, FAO, FEWS NET, Food Security Cluster, SADC Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis UNICEF and WFP.

The report provides food security population estimates for countries selected on the basis of the degree of risk of facing acute food crises in 2016 and beyond. In addition, a detailed food security analysis is presented for those countries and/or population groups facing high severity and magnitude of acute food insecurity based on IPC/CH classification.