Updates on Food Insecurity in Five Asian Countries from the 2024 Global Report on Food Crises Mid-Year Update

The 2024 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) released in April 2024, reported that 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. The 2024 Mid-Year Update of the GRFC, released in September, reports an improvement in food security for Afghanistan and Pakistan but further deterioration in Myanmar and Bangladesh.    

Economic shocks were the primary driver of acute food insecurity in Afghanistan in 2023. 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). The Mid-Year Update indicates that better harvest and humanitarian and livelihood support resulted in a decline in the number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity.  However, it should be noted that economic stagnation, localized flooding, fewer remittances, and an influx of returnees continue to hinder access to food.

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. According to the Mid-Year Update, these same regions are expected to see seasonal improvements in acute food insecurity although levels still remain high. 

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 Mid-Year Update reports a deterioration of the acute food insecurity situation owing to the increased intensity of armed conflict and rising numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Despite 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. The Mid-Year Update reports that persistent high food prices continue to limit household purchasing power and the monsoon floods, civil unrest and curfew have severely impacted households’ income-earning capacity in many parts of the country.

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. There was no new acute food insecurity data for Sri Lanka in the Mid-Year Update.

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