For 40 years, FEWS NET has been the world’s most trusted early warning system for food insecurity, providing data-driven, independent analysis to ensure the right quantities of food and humanitarian aid reach the right places at the right time. Through FEWS NET, international and local organizations and research institutions collectively monitor weather patterns, food prices, livelihood data, and agricultural trends to predict when and where people are at risk of food insecurity. Since 2000, Chemonics has been leading early warning analysis for FEWS NET, alongside our partners the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States Department of Agriculture, NASA, and Kimetrica.
FEWS NET’s latest Global Food Security Update reaffirms that conflict and economic instability, coupled with ongoing weather shocks and a rapidly changing humanitarian response landscape, are increasing food insecurity in many countries.
- In Sudan and Gaza, both plagued by conflict over the last two years, ongoing violence, displacement, and humanitarian blockades are rapidly moving these countries towards famine. Violence and political instability, coupled with economic instability, are also driving high food assistance needs in South Sudan, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, the Sahel, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
- Weather shocks, like irregular rainfall, dry spells, and flooding, are negatively affecting crop and livestock production, agricultural labor demand, and associated household income in several regions. Weather-related reductions in farm productivity are of greatest concern in areas concurrently affected by conflict or recovering from prior historic weather events, such as in parts of South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
- Recent freezes and ongoing reductions of donor funding are forcing cuts to food, nutrition, and agricultural assistance programs. At the same time, the uncertainty of trade relationships has led to a downward revision in projections for global economic growth for the year, and there is concern that shifts in agricultural trade flows may place upward pressure on prices even though global commodity markets are well supplied. Amid local and regional conflict, economic, and weather shocks, these combined pressures are increasing the risk of acute food insecurity among many poor households worldwide.
