The High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has the mandate and responsibility to identify critical, emerging, and enduring issues, to assist the CFS and its Members to prioritise policies and actions based on existing scientific evidence on the short, medium, and long-term consequences.
The purpose of the Issues Paper is to explore how the international community can respond effectively to conflict-induced acute food crises by providing a series of action-oriented policy recommendations. In this regard, the HLPE-FSN urges institutional cooperation, and encourages political cooperation in response to conflict-induced acute food crises, wherever such crises might occur.
According to the HLPE-FSN, in 2023 nearly 24 million more people faced high levels of acute food insecurity compared to the previous year. This is due to 20 countries where 135 million people are in a food crisis because of war and protracted conflicts including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mali, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Yemen, Gaza and Sudan.
The HLPE-FSN brief analyses the current conflicts in Gaza and Sudan and their impact on acute food insecurity, as well as the risks of starvation and famine. Even though the special circumstances in these two places are very different, the adverse impacts of conflict on food systems and human health are very similar.
Read the HLPE -FSN issues paper “Conflict-induced acute food crises: potential policy responses in light of current emergencies” https://www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe/insights/news-insights/news-detail/new-issues-paper–conflict-induced-acute-food-crises–potential-policy-responses-in-light-of-current-emergencies/en
Past HLPE Issues papers and other publications are available here.
CSIPM comments on the HLPE Issues paper
After internal consultation within CSIPM constituencies, the CSIPM submitted the following comments to highlight issues assessed as missing or that would require to be strengthened in the HLPE Issues paper.