Oxfam response to Global Report on Food Crises

“It is deeply concerning to find extreme hunger increasing to a magnitude never seen before with a surge of nearly a 25 per cent since last year, and 80 per cent since 2016. But tragically, this comes as no surprise.

“All the warnings are there for countries facing famine-like conditions such as Ethiopia, South Sudan and Yemen - yet governments across the globe continue to choose not to act fast or adequately enough.

“Global crises, worsened by the economic turmoil of COVID-19 and more recently by the Ukraine conflict, have pushed food prices to an all-time high - putting food ever more out of reach for millions of people.”

“Hunger, in a world of plenty, is an avoidable tragedy. Rich countries can save millions of lives if they immediately fund the UN global appeals. G7 governments and the EU have pledged $2.6 billion to date but these pale in comparison to the promises they made last year to commit $8.5 billion to end famine."

Ends

Notes to editors

• The Global Report for Food Crises is an annual report published by The Global Network for Food Crises which is an international alliance of the United Nations, the European Union, governmental and non-governmental agencies working to tackle food crises together.
• New OECD data shows that overall aid spending from 30 OECD members summed 179 billion dollars in 2021. Rich countries only committed 0.33 percent of their gross national income (GNI) to development aid, the same as 2020, and well below the 0.7 percent they promised back in 1970. In 2021, just 5 countries – Luxembourg, Norway, Germany, Sweden and Denmark – have lived up to this promise.