Over 55 million people are facing acute hunger, and require urgent food, nutrition, and livelihood assistance as the member States of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) grappled with a severe food crisis in 2022 an increase of over 13 million from 2021.
According to the 2023 global report on food crises, the number of Kenyans facing food crisis from October to December 2022 was almost 90 percent higher than in the last quarter of 2021 in the arid and semi-arid lands accounting for 80 percent of Kenyan’s land mass population.
IGAD is a regional economic community forming one of the building blocks of the African Union and is comprised of eight Member States.
The states are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.
In Kenya, the number of people in emergency has been increasing since 2021 from 368 000 to 12 million.
The worst-affected counties were Isiolo, Marsabit, and Turkana.
Speaking at an event IGAD Executive Secretary Dr. Workneh Gebevehu said: “Hunger levels in our region are at an unprecedented high. This situation is inextricably linked to climate extremes and disasters, conflict and insecurity, and economic shocks, which are increasingly intertwined with spiraling negative consequences for tens of millions of children, men, and women.”
“This crisis calls for a paradigm shift. To make advancements towards SDG 2 to End Hunger, we must take bolder action to build resilience against future shocks, including transforming our agri-systems to become more efficient, inclusive, and sustainable. In addition, we must increase our efforts to build and sustain peace. Conflict and food insecurity are intertwined, and this has never been clearer,” Dr. Workneh added.
Projections for 2023 paint a grim of almost 7.5 million people in Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan are projected to face large food consumption gaps and adopt emergency coping measures Phase 4, and more than 83,000 individuals are anticipated to face extreme food lack of food Catastrophe, Phase 5 in the most severe drought and conflict-affected areas.
FAO’s Subregional Coordinator for Eastern Africa and Representative to the African Union and to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Dr Chimimba David Phiri, stated: “This report should serve as a wake-up call for us to take immediate and collective action to change our ways of working to address the root causes of food insecurity.”
He adds that the recent three-year drought across the Horn of Africa highlights the urgent need to upscale and institutionalize anticipatory action and climate adaptation strategies to prevent, rather than just respond to, future climate emergencies. Meanwhile, food insecurity caused by conflicts and the knock-on effects of global economic shocks highlights the critical need for efforts that sustainably build peace, increase domestic production, and reduce post-harvest losses in the IGAD region.
