IFPRI’s  2023 Global Food Policy Report explores a growing body of evidence on how diverse policy responses can reduce both the immediate and longer-term impacts of food crises, and improve livelihoods, incomes, and food security and nutrition for the future. Drawing on research from IFPRI and other CGIAR centers, it provides evidence-based policy recommendations for governments, donors, and nongovernmental organizations.

UPDATES ON AFRICA SOUTH OF THE SAHARA

By Samuel Benin, Wim Marivoet, Harriet Mawia and John Ulimwengu

Frequent and protracted crises including conflict, widespread poverty, and natural disasters are best addressed through a humanitarian-development-peace approach

In Africa, about 282 million people (20 percent of the population) are facing food insecurity and are undernourished, more than double the share in any other region of the world.1 Food insecurity levels vary significantly across and within
Africa’s subregions. As of 2021, countries in central and southern Africa had the largest populations deemed at crisis levels or worse of food insecurity (45.6 million people, 18.4 percent of the population), with 9.9 million at an emergency level
(Table 1; see Chapter 2, Box 2, for a definition of the IPC food insecurity phases).2 In eastern Africa, about 43.6 million people (9.8 percent of the population) are in crisis or worse, with 10.1 million in emergency. In western Africa and the Sahel region, 30.4 million people (8.6 percent of the population) are in crisis or worse, about 42 percent of them in Nigeria.