Increases in conflict, displacement, persistent drought and water scarcity, and spikes in food prices are threatening lives and driving a massive humanitarian crisis across multiple countries around the globe. The global Food Security, Health, Nutrition, and WASH Clusters — humanitarian organizations working together in each of these sectors — are united in calling for all partners to urgently step-up, align on and implement the most pressing interventions required to address the overwhelming increase of needs to save lives and protect livelihoods.
Recent analysis1 shows an alarming deterioration of water, food and nutrition insecurity conditions that are adversely affecting the most vulnerable, including women, young children and internally displaced people, putting them at risk of diseases and malnutrition and adopting extreme negative coping mechanisms. 2022 marked a record-high level of a global food security crisis, with over 40 million people facing emergency or worse (IPC/CH Phase 4 or above)2 conditions. This number is very likely going to increase and put more people living in a highly constrained environment at risk of death and starvation or push them to the edge of destitution. As is, current funding allocated to humanitarian response plans is, on average, below 30% of the amount requested in the most affected countries.
Immediate access to life-saving services such as food and livelihoods, health, nutrition, safe water, sanitation and hygiene, is critical to prevent widespread malnutrition, starvation, illness and death. No sector or intervention alone can respond to the many causes and vulnerabilities leading to food and nutrition insecurity, but combined, our impact will be more effective, efficient and at scale. The four above-mentioned clusters are committed to working together, and with other relevant sectors, to jointly advocate, mobilize resources and coordinate timely and multisectoral interventions to provide life-saving emergency assistance and livelihoods protection to meet the most pressing needs of the most affected.
To deliver on this commitment, the four global clusters have come together under an inter-sectoral collaboration platform to reinforce intersectoral coordination and support a multi-sectoral and evidence-based humanitarian response at country level. To this effect, the four clusters are working collectively to highlight needs and gaps and maximize opportunities for collaboration in those countries identified most at risk, including: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen. This list is not exhaustive, as each cluster will also include countries of particular concern where they can positively impact.
The Global Food Security, Health, Nutrition, and WASH Clusters are united in calling for joint immediate action. We call on all parties to:
- Step up
- Agree on priority contexts
- Identify the most vulnerable & key interventions
- Act now to provide life-saving assistance and invest in durable solutions
Together, we must urgently act to meet the needs of those in crisis and work jointly and actively to avert the global hunger crisis, save lives, and build resilience:
- We call on all humanitarian platforms, including national inter-cluster coordination groups: to reinforce collaboration and multi sectoral response as part of the Humanitarian Response Plan processes.
- We call on all international and local actors: to strengthen collaboration, dialogue, and investment across sectors and along the development - humanitarian nexus for adequate preparedness, including, early warning and anticipatory actions, response planning and implementation.
- We call on national governments and de-facto authorities: to support the humanitarian community in accessing the hardest to reach conflict-affected areas and invest in a strategic multi-sectoral agenda that properly addresses climate-related risks within national frameworks and budgets; and increasing investments in preparedness, emergency response and subnational response capacities to support access to essential services and social protection for the most vulnerable and build resilience to shocks.
- We call on all resource partners: to provide additional funding to protect the most at risk populations in the current context of escalation of humanitarian needs. Such funding should be multi-sectoral, flexible, longer-term, needs-based, timely and geographically coherent to implement joint and coordinated analysis and actions in prioritized areas.
- We call on local communities and affected population: to keep governments and all actors to account, including through active engagement in the response to ensure it is relevant to address their needs and increase resilience.
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1 Including latest
analysis of the Cadre Harmonisé (October-November 2021) in West Africa, as
well as Acute Food Insecurity and Acute Malnutrition Classification analysis in
East Africa and the Middle East Countries
2 https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/manual/IPC_Technical_Manual_3_Final.pdf
The scale of IPC acute food insecurity reference table is figure 27, page 53
.