Food is essential for life but the changing climate, regional conflicts, and increasing cost of living are posing threats to food availability for the world population, especially children. The Global Food Crisis is a vital issue affecting a large population worldwide. Though the world is trying its best to counter the extreme hunger situation it becomes necessary to devise a result-oriented solution to break this food insecurity trap.
The Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) for 2024, highlights the prominent areas and challenges leading to this global crisis impacting millions of lives across the globe. In 2023, around 300 million people have been reported under acute food crisis. This year, 203 million people out of a total of 281.6 million facing high levels of acute hunger insecurity were from 41 countries/ territories. Besides this, around 79 million people belonging to this category were concentrated in 18 countries.
The world is progressing over time even at the cost of climate change. This invites unpredictable weather conditions and patterns affecting the production of crops for consumption. Besides this, prevailing social injustice impacts the unequal distribution of food among vulnerable populations globally giving rise to food scarcity.
To add to this, the ongoing Palestine issue and the Ukraine-Russia conflict continuously push a significant population into poverty and impact the global food supply chain. Nevertheless, some individual efforts at the local level have been successfully implemented to address the hunger crisis. But now, the world needs a more coordinated and collaborative approach to break this acute hunger cycle for the well-being of the global population.
The Global Network Against Food Crises is working to bring peacefulness, prevention, and effective development to address acute food insecurity. Emergency efforts are needed to break the ongoing cycle of extreme hunger prevailing among large populations affected by conflicts and displacements.
The dedicated efforts of the World Economic Forum and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization under an integrated roadmap are paramount to boosting inclusive food system transformation. It will bring the vulnerable population one more step closer to the eradication of the acute hunger crises to safeguard the future of mankind.