Attachments
TRACKING FOOD SECURITY TRENDS IN VULNERABLE COUNTRIES
The Global Food Security update provides a quarterly overview of key food security trends in vulnerable countries. Information is provided by WFP VAM field teams and partners.
In focus
• Continuing conflict in Syria has led to the internal displacement of 6.5 million people, while nearly 2.5 million refugees live in neighboring countries. Half of the country’s population is now assessed as food insecure. Currency depreciation and supply chain disruptions have led to large food price increases.
Humanitarian access remains extremely challenging.
• Widespread conflict in South Sudan is causing displacement and disruption to trade, in a context where most households are market-dependent. Should the conflict last beyond April, an impact on the 2014 crop is expected.
• Following an upsurge in violence and population displacement in the Central African Republic, food insecurity is rising in Bangui and in rural areas. The population will rely on humanitarian assistance or market purchases until the next harvest in mid-2014.
• In typhoon-affected areas of the Philippines, some 27% of the population remains food insecure, and needs continued food assistance.
• In Yemen, over 10 million people are assessed as food insecure. Political instability, declining economic growth and the volatility in the prices of food and other essential commodities are the main drivers of food insecurity.
• As the lean season peaks in Southern Africa, 2.2 million people are assessed as food insecure in Zimbabwe, and 1.8 million in Malawi.
• Coffee rust continues to disrupt smallholder income and unskilled labor markets in Central America, with impacts on food security.
• In the last quarter of 2013, parts of Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania have been affected by severe rainfall deficits.