FAO’s GRFC 2025: Nearly 300 Million People Faced Acute Hunger in 2024

Current Context: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in collaboration with the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) and the Food Security Information Network (FSIN), released the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) on May 19, 2025.

Key Highlights:

• 295.3 million people across 53 countries faced acute hunger in 2024, an increase of 13.7 million from 2023.
• Catastrophic hunger (IPC/CH Phase-5) doubled to 1.9 million, the highest since GRFC tracking began in 2016.
• 90% of extreme hunger cases were in Gaza and Sudan, with additional crises in South Sudan, Haiti, and Mali.
• 37.7 million children (aged 6–59 months) suffered from acute malnutrition, including 10.2 million with severe acute malnutrition (SAM).
• Nigeria, Sudan, DRC, and Bangladesh had the highest hunger levels, each with at least 23 million affected, accounting for 33% of the global total.

Question:

Q.1 What is the term used in the GRFC report to describe the most severe level of hunger, which doubled to 1.9 million people in 2024?
a) Critical Food Insecurity
b) Severe Acute Hunger
c) Catastrophic Hunger (IPC/CH Phase-5)
d) Emergency Food Crisis

Answer: c) IPC/CH Phase-5 represents the most extreme form of food insecurity — catastrophic hunger. In 2024, the number of people in this phase doubled to 1.9 million, the highest since tracking began.