The number of people facing acute food insecurity and requiring life-saving food assistance and livelihood support is growing at an alarming rate. The UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported in April that 193 million people in 53 countries or territories are experiencing acute food insecurity at crisis levels. Price inflation for both food and farm imports and rising transportation costs are impacting politics around the world and worsening conditions could lead to social unrest. There is an urgency for governments, multilateral organizations and the private sector to collaborate to provide emergency food aid as well as address the root causes of the food crises.  

The key drivers behind rising acute food insecurity are the war in Ukraine (and conflicts in other countries), weather extremes and economic shocks and trade disruptions created by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. The nature of the war in Ukraine – between two agricultural production powerhouses – is rippling outward. Three months into the war, exports from Ukraine have stalled, future harvests are in doubt and prices of agriculture commodities and inputs have spiked. Most exposed are countries that rely on agricultural exports from Ukraine and Russia to feed their citizens or fertilizer from Russia and Belarus to produce their own food.