For the sixth consecutive year, the number of people facing the highest levels of acute food insecurity has been rising, while budgets for food aid and development are plummeting. The Global Report on Food Crises, which compiles data from several international agencies (the World Food Program, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), among others), which was published on Friday, May 16, presents a worrying panorama.

In 2024, nearly 300 million people in 53 countries analyzed were facing a food crisis − an increase of 13.7 million compared to 2023. Taking into account the sheer numbers, as well as the prevalence, these figures are unprecedented, even in spite of a slightly more restricted number of countries analyzed compared to last year. "Hunger and malnutrition are spreading faster than our ability to respond," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in the preamble of the report.

While other periodic assessments document chronic food insecurity across the planet, this particular report on food crises focuses on analyzing the most extreme hunger hotspots – often following a "shock" (an armed conflict, an economic crisis or a climatic event) – that require an emergency response. It relies on a food insecurity classification scale that distinguishes five levels before famine.

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