WFP urgently needs funding to avert famine, chiefly through life-saving food and nutrition assistance. Humanitarian action will be critical to preventing further starvation and death. The latest Hunger Hotspots report notes that 970,000 people in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen are already facing or expected to face catastrophic food insecurity – ten times more than five years ago. There are 43.3 million people in 51 countries at the "emergency" phase of food insecurity in 2022, just one step away from a declaration of famine. WFP's interactive HungerMap LIVE provides up-to-the-minute metrics on hunger hotspots. This is more than double the rate in all regions, according to the latest edition of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World. While Asia is home to the greatest number of undernourished people at 418 million, Africa is the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment in percentage terms, at 21 percent. Since the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine, WFP has been forced to pay US$73.6 million more a month for operations than in 2019 – a staggering 44 percent rise. At the start of 2022, the price WFP was paying for food was up by 30 percent compared to 2019, and the cost of delivering it had risen by an additional US$42 million a month. These rising costs are also affecting WFP’s work. At the same time, high fertilizer prices are causing a falling production of maize, rice, soybean and wheat. The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then the war in Ukraine, has pushed prices up and put food out of reach for millions of people across the world. Acute food insecurity has reached unprecedented highs, affecting a record 349 million people – up from 135 million in 2019. More than 30 million children in 15 worst-affected countries suffer from acute malnutrition.Ī deadly combination of conflict, economic shocks, climate extremes and soaring fertilizer prices is at the root of soaring numbers. Up to 828 million people more one in ten of the world's population – still go to bed hungry each night. WFP has more than 22,300 staff, of whom 87 percent are field based.1 metric ton of food, typically including cereals, pulses and oil, is sufficient for approximately 1,660 people for one day – meeting their minimum daily energy intake of 2,100 kcal as well as their vitamin and mineral needs.More than 50 percent of the people WFP serves are women and girls.WFP is funded entirely by voluntary donations, with a record US$14.2 billion raised in 2022. At the same time, we keep a sharp focus on sustainable development, providing governments with the support and skills to manage food security in the long term. WFP is among the first on the scene in an emergency, providing food and other assistance to people affected by conflict, drought, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and crop failures, as well as pandemics such as COVID-19. We support people in over 120 countries and territories. WFP worked to save and change the lives of about 158 million people in 2022.
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