Latest News About 2022–2023 Food Crises

Here’s a concise, up-to-date overview of the 2022–2023 food crises based on recent authoritative summaries and reports.

Core answer

• The 2022–2023 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) and related mid-year updates show that acute food insecurity remained very high in 2023, with roughly 238 million people in 48 of the world’s most food-crisis-affected countries facing high levels of acute food insecurity between January and August 2023. This marks ongoing deterioration in some regions and persistent vulnerability overall.

Key drivers and regional patterns

• Conflict and insecurity continued to be the primary driver, affecting eight of the ten worst-affected crises, with ongoing conflicts in places like the Horn of Africa, Sudan, and parts of the Sahel contributing to displacement and supply disruptions.
• Economic shocks and price volatility, including the repercussions from the Ukraine crisis, amplified food insecurity by increasing food and input costs and reducing purchasing power for vulnerable households.
• Climate-related shocks (droughts, floods, extreme weather) compounded existing vulnerabilities, particularly in East Africa and parts of the Sahel.

Regional highlights

• East Africa remained the worst-hit region in 2023, with tens of millions of people facing high acute food insecurity due to conflict (notably Sudan), displacement, and climate shocks.
• Some countries saw improvements in acute food insecurity between 2022 and August 2023, including Sri Lanka and Niger, signaling that targeted humanitarian efforts and resilience-building can yield progress.
• The global food price environment remained uncertain after developments such as changes in grain transport and grain export policy, influencing prices and access in importing countries.

What to watch in 2023–2024 (context and implications)

• The GRFC mid-year update emphasized that despite some country-level gains, the overall situation remained precarious, with millions at risk of hunger and malnutrition if shocks continue or humanitarian access is constrained.
• Preparedness and resilience-building—through humanitarian funding, early warning systems, and social protection—are critical to prevent a relapse into higher levels of acute insecurity.

Additional context and sources

• The FAO and WFP-led Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) and linked updates provide the official counts and country-by-country analyses for 2022–2023, including methodology, crisis classifications, and regional breakdowns.
• A 2023 EU-JRC synthesis (Global Food Crises – mid-year update 2023) reinforces the figure of 238 million people in high acute-food-insecurity states across 48 countries and summarizes drivers and regional patterns.

Illustration (example)

• A simplified snapshot: in 2023, about 238 million people in 48 countries faced high acute food insecurity (roughly 1 in 5 analyzed individuals), with East Africa the hardest hit and conflict as the main driver. Some countries, like Sri Lanka and Niger, showed improvements driven by multi-faceted relief and stabilization efforts.

If you’d like, I can pull the latest specific country figures, create a compact country-by-country table, or generate a chart illustrating regional trends over 2022–2023.