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World Vision is responding to the impact of hunger in seven countries across East Africa. Since April 2021, we have reached more than 10.2 million people including 5.6 million children.
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April 2023 marked two years since World Vision declared the East Africa Hunger Emergency Response following the growing food insecurity in the region. So far, more than 10 million people have been reached, including 5.6 million children responding through a multi-sector approach in seven countries ( Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda). In the face of unprecedented global demands for humanitarian funding, crises in East Africa are receiving limited international attention, despite urgent, growing and life-threatening needs. World Vision is calling on national governments, regional institutions, humanitarian actors and donors to urgently address hunger crisis in Eastern Africa and more forcefully communicate its breadth and severity. This is not peculiar to the region as the world is facing its worst hunger crisis in modern times. In Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, there are more than 49 million people at risk of starvation or vulnerable to famine or famine-like conditions
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A deadly mix of conflict, COVID-19, high cost of living and climate change have pushed more than 10 million people across seven countries in East Africa into a deepening hunger crisis. Of critical concern are vulnerable children who are experiencing high levels of malnutrition.
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Conflict is one of the leading drivers of hunger globally. Every country where World Vision has a presence in East Africa is either in conflict or neighbouring a country in conflict. The region has also endured substantial climate shocks, undermining people’s ability to feed themselves.
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The hunger crisis has weakened community livelihoods in the region, and families are resorting to negative coping strategies to survive. Families living in fragile and conflict-affected contexts are at heightened risk of food insecurity. During drought, loss of family livestock and food scarcity puts a strain on economic livelihoods and leads many families to apply negative coping mechanisms such as relying on their children to supplement their family incomes.
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The humanitarian needs are immense and the impact on children, including protection needs, is enormous. This challenging period could also erode human and economic development gains that have been made towards the global 2030 Sustainable Development Goals across the region. The number of children at risk of dropping out of school across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, due to the impact of the crisis, has tripled leaving vast numbers of adolescent girls at increased risk of sexual and gender-based violence including undergoing female genital mutilation and being forced into marriage.