49 Million People Across 46 Countries Are at Risk of Famine
A global food crisis brought on by the conflict in Ukraine brings new threats to children.
Skyrocketing wheat prices could put millions of children in the world's most fragile contexts, such as Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria, at risk of illness or even death due to hunger. In places like South Sudan and the Sahel, the ongoing conflict has hindered access to food for years. In Kenya, 3.5 million people are suffering extreme hunger. In Somalia, up to 1.5 million children could be facing severe acute malnutrition by October.
COVID-19 is adding to the impacts of conflict and climate change to push millions of children across the world to the verge of starvation. There’s no vaccine for hunger, but there is a solution if we act now.
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What Is Causing the World Hunger Crisis?
Every day, 9-year old Michelle* takes her baby sister to the health center in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo to receive food supplements. Both sisters only eat once a day.
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A persistent lack of access to nutritious food
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Conflict and insecurity
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A dramatic increase in food prices
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A changing climate, extreme weather events and recent invasions of desert locusts
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COVID-19 and its secondary impacts, including lockdowns, school closures and economic recession
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Gender inequality
The Combined Impact of Conflict, Climate Change, COVID and Cost
The fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine has added to the increasingly devastating impacts of climate change and widespread conflict.
Conflict
Conflict forces families from their homes, land and jobs. Today, nearly 82.5 million people have been displaced from their homes. Unable to find work, many families struggle to afford food for their children.
Children living in a conflict zone are more than twice as likely to suffer from malnourishment. Four out of every five stunted children live in countries affected by conflict. In Yemen, where conflict and economic turmoil are the key drivers of food insecurity, over 2 million children under five are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition.
Conflict reduces access to food sources and significantly increases food prices. Armed violence and conflict-related instability destroy economies and disrupt agricultural production. Ten of the world's 13 worst food crises are driven by conflict.
As conflict and hunger intensify, children will be most likely to face hunger.
Climate
As temperatures rise, crop production becomes more difficult. Large numbers of people in some of the world's poorest regions of extreme poverty depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Floods and droughts, which will continue to worsen due to climate change, can destroy crops and leave kids and families struggling for food.
Climate change is leaving families with less access to clean water to grow food One-quarter of the world's population - 1.8 billion people - live in water-stressed areas. This number is expected to grow to half the world's population by 2030.
Climate change can worsen the nutritional value of food. Recent studies show that higher carbon dioxide concentrations reduce the protein, zinc, and iron content of crops.
COVID-19
Access to food supplies and humanitarian relief is getting harder and harder. COVID-19's impact on food supply chains and humanitarian access is estimated to double the number of severely hungry people to 272 million. This number is expected to rise as the pandemic continues to seriously affect global food systems.
Parents have lost their jobs and are struggling to afford food for their kids. Losses of income are expected to reach over $220B in poorer countries.
School closures have had a huge impact on millions of children's access to enough nutritious food. 370 million children worldwide have missed 40% of in-school meals, on average, since COVID-19 restrictions caused disruption to their schooling.
Cost
The cost of food is spiraling across the world, meaning basic staples are unaffordable for millions of families right now.
It isn’t just food prices that are soaring. The cost of fuel and fertilizers are also rising at an alarming rate, which is set to have a devastating impact on global yields this year. This will further limit the availability of food in the coming months, which only risks pushing global hunger levels even higher.
The cost-of-living crisis is affecting us all. But in some countries, it’s almost impossible to survive.
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Women and girls are most impacted by hunger and malnutrition. They often eat last and eat least, despite playing a pivotal role in securing food for their households and communities.
Girls living in West and Central Africa – a region affected by conflict and climate emergencies, which lead to poverty and food shortages – have the world's highest rates of child marriage.
"Humanitarian crises – be they climate disasters, pandemics, or the ongoing global food crisis – lead to many of the same risks that drive child marriage, like increased poverty and a stripping away of protective systems that should be in place to keep girls safe from violence," said Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International.
How is the War in Ukraine Impacting Child Hunger?
Fighting and sanctions have disrupted grain shipments from Russia and Ukraine. As a result, wheat prices have skyrocketed.
Russia and Ukraine account for a quarter of the world's wheat and half of its sunflower products, like cooking oil. Several African and Middle East countries rely heavily on these exports. In the Horn of Africa, 90% of wheat imported comes from Ukraine and Russia.
The current violence is set to cause a sharp rise in global grain prices, with wheat predicted to rise up to 50% in some countries, which only risks pushing global hunger levels even higher.
This means millions of children in the world's most fragile contexts, such as Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, are at risk of illness or even death due to extreme hunger.
In Yemen, where wheat and bread make up over half of the calorie intake for the average household, 95% of wheat is imported, including more than 30% from Russia and Ukraine.
Food prices in the country have more than doubled in the past couple of years, with families forced to reduce food portions or skip meals completely.
As a result, 8 million children in Yemen are already on the brink of famine.
Afghanistan is a country trying to transition out of decades of war but is now in the grip of an economic crisis, which is pushing millions to the brink of famine.
The economic collapse is compounding an already dire food security situation in the country as a result of conflict, protracted drought and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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