2021 Report on Financing Flows and Food Crises
An overview of external financing flows to all regions with food crises and an in-depth analysis of countries experiencing acute food insecurity.
Over the past five years, the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) has become the reference product to monitor acute food insecurity and provide information on the severity, magnitude and drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition in countries and territories with food crisis contexts. In 2020, the report highlighted record levels of acute food insecurity, with 155 million people requiring urgent assistance in 55 countries and territories – an unprecedented level compared with the previous five editions of the GRFC.
Moreover, it reported that 15.8 million children under 5 are wasted and 75.2 million children under 5 are stunted in these 55 countries. At the same time, that these countries receive 92 percent of all humanitarian assistance worldwide and 44 percent of development assistance to food-sectors, which include food security, nutrition and agriculture.
Having a comprehensive picture of these contexts, both in terms of acute food security and financial allocations, is critical to enable decision making on investments, policy and programs.
This report is intended to complement the information provided in the GRFC and provide decision makers with an analysis of financing flows on food sectors – food security, agriculture and nutrition – in countries with food-crisis situations identified in the GRFC. Its main objectives are to: (i) understand how the international community and national governments are addressing food crises; and (ii) provide evidence-based indications of financial allocations.
The current analysis builds on the technical note “Financing Flows and Food Crises”, released in April 2021, which established an evidence base on financial allocations to food sectors. This report provides updated data and a refined analytical approach.
This report contains: a global overview of external financing flows to all 55 countries and territories with food crises; regional perspectives; and an in-depth analysis of countries that comprise the majority of the global population in acute food insecurity. The ten worst food-crisis countries are home to 66 percent of all people experiencing levels of acute food insecurity at Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) or Cadre Harmonisé (CH) Phase 3 and above.
Key Findings
Countries characterized by food crises receive 84 percent of all humanitarian assistance worldwide – while absorbing 33 percent of global development assistance.
In terms of external financing to food sectors, these countries account for 92 percent of the global humanitarian assistance to food sectors and 44 percent of global development assistance to food sectors.
Despite record levels of acute food insecurity in 2020, humanitarian assistance to food sectors recorded the lowest allocation in the past five years.
In 2020, humanitarian assistance to food sectors in these countries stood at USD 8.1 billion. This represents the lowest allocation of humanitarian assistance recorded in the past five years, despite the fact that acute food security was the highest on record. This decrease has been driven by country-specific issues. However, the two largest decreases in humanitarian disbursements in 2020 were reported in Yemen (a USD 1 billion decrease – or 50 percent from the previous year’s allocation) and the Syrian Arab Republic (USD 147 million – a 16 percent decrease). These decreases occurred while acute food insecurity was very high in both countries.
Although it remained well below the level of humanitarian allocations, development assistance to food sectors consistently increased over the four years of analysis.
Development assistance to food sectors in the 50 countries and territories characterized by food crises (excluding refugee crises) increased each year during the period of analysis, reaching USD 6.2 billion in 2019. These data point to a positive trend, particularly considering that most food crises are of a protracted nature. However, while globally there was a continuous increase in development assistance, regions such Central and Southern Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, and Eurasia showed decreases between 2018 and 2019.
In terms of the balance between humanitarian and development assistance, on average between 2016 and 2019, humanitarian assistance still represented more than 60 percent of all external financing to food sectors. However, while humanitarian assistance witnessed a decrease from 2017 onwards, development assistance kept on increasing year after year.
Significant differences were observed among countries. In 2020 for example, some of the worst food-crisis countries with the highest levels of acute food insecurity, registered the most significant imbalance in assistance, with financing almost exclusively channeled in the form of humanitarian allocations. For instance, countries and territories like Iraq, Palestine, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen received allocations to food sectors almost entirely through humanitarian assistance.
Despite different amounts of assistance registered between different regions, development assistance in Central America and Caribbean countries, including Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, El Salvador and Guatemala, was in some cases nearly four times that of humanitarian assistance. Approximately 80 percent of allocations in this region were for development between 2016 and 2019. However, an increase in humanitarian disbursements was observed between 2019 and 2020, when food-insecurity levels climbed. Haiti was the largest recipient during this time due its record levels of acute food insecurity.
In West Africa, most countries affected by protracted crises received balanced allocations of humanitarian and development assistance – even those affected by protracted crises. However, in East Africa, humanitarian assistance represented two thirds of all funding to food sectors over the five years of analysis. Although development assistance increased slightly in that region, it was often negligible in countries like Somalia, South Sudan and the Sudan, which were affected by protracted crises. These countries received only 20 percent of all development assistance to food sectors in the region.
Conflict-driven food crises accounted for the largest share of humanitarian assistance.
Conflict and insecurity remained the major drivers of acute food insecurity in 2020. This was reflected in humanitarian assistance to conflict-affected countries experiencing food crises, which absorbed 73 percent (USD 5.9 billion) of all humanitarian assistance to food sectors that year. Despite the fact that development assistance was often concentrated in countries with more stable institutional contexts, in 2019, more than 40 percent (USD 2.7 billion) of development assistance to food sectors was allocated to conflict-affected countries and territories. Although this is still a relatively small share of the total, development allocations to countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen slowly increased amid the protracted food-crises in these countries.
Cash and in-kind food assistance was consistently the most-funded food sector for humanitarian assistance, while allocations to the agriculture and livelihoods sector decreased.
In 2020, humanitarian assistance to food security – mainly in the form of cash and in-kind food assistance – comprised 79 percent of all humanitarian assistance to food sectors (USD 6.4 billion). Humanitarian allocations to agriculture and livelihoods represented 8 percent of the total (USD 671 million) – a more than 50 percent decrease since 2016. Countries affected by conflict and insecurity received the lowest share of humanitarian assistance to agriculture and livelihoods among food-crisis countries. On the other hand, agriculture was the most-funded sector for what concern development assistance to food sectors, representing 59 percent of the total in 2019 (USD 3.7 billion).
Regional- and country level-findings confirm this trend. In Africa, humanitarian assistance was significantly weighted in favor of food assistance. In 2020, this sector absorbed, on average, more than 70 percent of all humanitarian assistance to food sectors. At the same time, the share of allocations to agriculture and livelihoods dropped in all three regions by more than 50 percent from 2016, stagnating at approximately 10 percent of the total in 2020. These declines in absolute funding for agriculture and livelihoods are of particular concern since most people in acute food insecurity in these regions are in rural areas and reliant on agriculture for survival. Whereas all African regions received greater allocation of development funding than humanitarian assistance to agriculture, the Sudan proved to be an exception – receiving 25 percent of its humanitarian funding for agriculture and livelihoods, and less than 20 percent of its development investments for agriculture in 2019.
Despite concerning levels of malnutrition in countries with food crises, the nutrition sector received low levels allocations of both humanitarian and development assistance, particularly compared to the other food sectors.
Within humanitarian sectors, funding to nutrition stood at 13 percent (USD 1.1 billion) in 2020, having increased significantly during all years of analysis except that year. In 2019, development assistance for basic nutrition stagnated near 9 percent of the total (USD 579 million).