Acute Food Insecurity Outlook is Mixed for Several Asian Countries in 2024: Global Report on Food Crises

Around 59.8 million or nearly one-third of the analyzed population across five countries in Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) faced acute food insecurity in 2023 due to economic crises, conflict/insecurity, weather extremes and natural disasters, according to the  2024 Global Report on Food Crisis (GRFC). Economic shocks were the primary driver of acute food insecurity in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka in 2023, while weather extremes and conflict/insecurity were the primary drivers in Pakistan and Myanmar, respectively. Despite improvements for some countries, around 40.5 million people or 30 percent of the analyzed population are projected to face high levels of food insecurity in 2024, including 8.2 million people in Emergency (IPC Phase 4).

The protracted major food crisis in Afghanistan continued in 2023 with 19.9 million or 46 percent of the total population estimated to face acute food insecurity during the 2022/23 winter lean season, including 6.1 million in Emergency (IPC Phase 4). With good harvest, reduced inflation, and humanitarian food assistance, the situation is expected to slightly improve in 2024 with 15.8 million or 36 percent of the total population projected to face acute food insecurity during the winter lean season.

Although improved cereal harvests raised food availability in Bangladesh, food access was still severely constrained in Bangladesh in 2023 due to high food inflation with 11.9 million people (31 percent of the population) were estimated to face acute food insecurity during the lean season. Included in these are 0.6 million Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar.

Although the food insecurity situation improved since 2022, the impacts of the 2022 monsoon flooding persisted in Pakistan in 2023 where 11.8 million people (32 percent of the analyzed population) were estimated to face high levels of acute food insecurity in 43 of Pakistan’s flood-affected rural districts in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh.

Food access issues remain in Sri Lanka even though the number of people facing acute food insecurity substantially declined from 6.3 million people (28 percent of the population) in 2022 to 5.5 million people (24 percent of the population) in 2023. The improvement was due to financial crisis stabilization and falling food prices. There are still pockets of acute food insecurity especially among the chronically vulnerable population.

The food crisis in Myanmar, with 10.7 million people (19 percent of the population) in high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 4), was driven by the impact of conflict, cyclone Mochi, flooding, and crop pest on agricultural production in 2023. The crisis is projected to impact more people (12.9 million people or 23 percent of the population) in 2024 due to intensifying conflict, lower food availability during the lean season, and the high risk of flooding during the monsoon rains.

Five additional countries in Asia -- the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kyrgyzstan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Tajikistan, and Vanuatu -- were selected for inclusion in the GRFC 2024 analysis but these countries had data gaps or had data that did not meet the GRFC’s technical requirements. The report indicates that data gaps may be due to lack of processes to collect information, lack of funding to conduct assessment, and well as lack of access due to insecurity.

Betina Dimaranan is a Senior Research Coordinator with IFPRI’s Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI) Unit.