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STORY: UN / FAO GLOBAL FOOD CRISES
TRT: 01:52
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 24 APRIL 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
24 APRIL 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Máximo Torero, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“In 2023, we saw a continued increase in trend in the number of people afflicted by acute food insecurity for a fifth consecutive year.”
4. Med shot, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Máximo Torero, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“The number that we have right now is 281.6 million people, or 21.5 percent of the analysed population, base-high levels of acute food insecurity in 59 countries or territories. Perhaps an even more compelling statistics than the absolute number is the fact that the reality, for four consecutive years the prevalence rate has remain stubbornly high between 21 and 23 percent, despite record levels of humanitarian funding.”
6. Wide shot, press room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Máximo Torero, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“First, 705,000 people in five countries were facing catastrophe. This means IPC five. And here it's important to understand that this includes Gaza Strip in Palestine, which yes, it is 577,000 people, South Sudan 43,000 people, Burkina Faso 42,700 people and Somalia 40,400 people. And other countries that are in these 705,000 people.”
7. Med shot, journalist
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Máximo Torero, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
“As expected, the major driver this time is conflict insecurity, which has the primary driver in 20 countries and territories, with 135 million people facing high levels of security; weather extremes, which were the main driver for 18 countries and territories, with almost 72 million people facing high levels of food insecurity; and economic shocks, which were the main driver in 21 countries and territories, with over 3575 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity.”
9. Zoom out, end of presser
Dangerous levels of acute hunger affected a staggering 281.6 million people last year – the fifth year in a row that food insecurity has worsened – heightening growing fears of famine and widespread death from Gaza to Sudan and beyond, UN agencies warned today (24 Apr).
According to the latest Global Report on Food Crises, more than one in five people in 59 countries faced acute food insecurity in 2023, compared with around just one in 10 in 48 countries in 2016.
Briefing reporters in New York via video teleconference, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Chief Economist, Máximo Torero, said, “the number that we have right now is 281.6 million people, or 21.5 percent of the analysed population, base-high levels of acute food insecurity in 59 countries or territories. Perhaps an even more compelling statistics than the absolute number is the fact that the reality, for four consecutive years the prevalence rate has remain stubbornly high between 21 and 23 percent, despite record levels of humanitarian funding.”
Torero said, “705,000 people in five countries were facing catastrophe. This means IPC five. And here it's important to understand that this includes Gaza Strip in Palestine, which yes, it is 577,000 people, South Sudan 43,000 people, Burkina Faso 42,700 people and Somalia 40,400 people. And other countries that are in these 705,000 people.”
“As expected,” he continued, “the major driver this time is conflict insecurity, which has the primary driver in 20 countries and territories, with 135 million people facing high levels of security”
Weather extremes, Torero said, “were the main driver for 18 countries and territories, with almost 72 million people facing high levels of food insecurity,” while economic shocks “were the main driver in 21 countries and territories, with over 3575 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity.”
The report – a joint initiative involving FAO, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) – found that although the overall percentage of people defined as dangerously food insecure last year was 1.2 per cent lower than in 2022, the problem has worsened significantly since the COVID-19 crisis.
When the coronavirus hit in late 2019, around one in six people in 55 countries faced worrying food insecurity levels, compared with one in five just a year later, the Global Report on Food Crises indicates.
