In Numbers
22.8 million people – half of the population – are projected to be acutely food insecure in 2022, including 8.7 million at risk of famine-like conditions
4.7 million children, pregnant and lactating women at risk of acute malnutrition in 2022
All 34 provinces are facing crisis or emergency levels of acute food insecurity
Highlights
• WFP has assisted 6.8 million people thus far in April. WFP plans to reach 23 million people in 2022.
• WFP will launch Bread+ this month as part of its school feeding initiative. Bread+ is a new, more nutritious commodity pilot that will replace High Energy Biscuits in some areas, with bread made from fortified wheat flour, dried fruits and nuts. WFP plans to reach 40,606 primary school students (boys and girls) with Bread+ across 185 schools.
Situation Update
• Humanitarian assistance is reaching more people with each passing month, according to the latest Food Security Update (March 2022). One in five households (21 percent) reported receiving humanitarian food assistance in March – mostly from UN/NGOs – which is a notable increase from the previous months. In some regions, this assistance reached as many as two in five households (43 percent in West).
• This assistance is driving down severe food insecurity in several regions (Hirat, Kabul, Northeast and Southeast). Families which did not receive humanitarian assistance in these regions did not see improvements in severe food insecurity levels.
• But this is not enough; the number of people facing insufficient food consumption remains alarmingly high. Only 7 percent of people reported having enough to eat in March. This is a slight improvement of 2 percentage points on the previous month, likely driven by a rise in food assistance, as well as some easing on access to income and markets. However, the situation still remains far worse than in pre-15 August.
• Results of the ongoing Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) assessment are expected in the coming weeks. Currently, 23 million people are acutely food insecure (IPC 3 and 4).