The Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) is an annual benchmark series produced under the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC), with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) coordinating its preparation. Now in its tenth edition, the series has served since 2017 as the world’s primary reference for consensus-based, multi-agency analysis of acute food insecurity, acute malnutrition and forced displacement in countries and territories facing food crises.

What the Series Tracks

The GRFC monitors acute food insecurity across countries and territories identified as experiencing food crises — defined as situations where acute food insecurity requires urgent action to protect and save lives and livelihoods, and exceeds national response capacity. Each edition reports on three core dimensions: acute food insecurity (using the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification [IPC] and Cadre Harmonisé [CH] frameworks); acute malnutrition in children aged 6–59 months and pregnant and breastfeeding women; and forced displacement, including internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees.

The series has maintained consistent country coverage since 2016, with 33 countries appearing in all ten editions, enabling long-term trend analysis across regions. Additional countries are included based on shocks, data availability and humanitarian need. This longitudinal design allows the report to track changes in the scale, severity and drivers of food crises over time.

Methodology

Country selection follows clearly defined criteria, including whether a country required external food assistance as assessed by the FAO Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS), had a Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan in place, or received emergency assistance due to food security shocks or large-scale forced displacement. High-income countries are excluded on the basis that they are deemed able to cope with shocks without requiring external assistance.

Acute food insecurity data are drawn primarily from IPC and CH analyses, supplemented by FEWS NET, WFP’s Consolidated Approach for Reporting Indicators of Food Security (CARI), and Humanitarian Needs and Response Plans where IPC/CH data are unavailable. The report uses peak estimates — the highest level of acute food insecurity recorded during at least one month of the reference year — to capture the worst conditions experienced. Data must meet GRFC technical requirements covering methodology, time frame, coverage, consensus and participation.

Nutrition data are sourced from IPC Acute Malnutrition (AMN) analyses, Standardised Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (SMART) surveys, and national nutrition surveys. Displacement data draw on UNHCR nowcasting estimates, IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix data, and UNRWA figures.

The report is produced through an inclusive, consensus-based process involving a Core Technical Group comprising FAO, WFP, IPC Global Initiative, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and the European Commission Joint Research Centre, with IOM, UNHCR and UNICEF contributing to the displacement and nutrition chapters. A Partners Reference Group reviews the report throughout the drafting process, and it is endorsed by all partners prior to publication.

Key Findings from the 2026 Edition (2025 Data)

The 2026 edition — covering data primarily for 2025 — reports that 266 million people across 47 countries and territories experienced high levels of acute food insecurity, representing 22.9 per cent of the analysed population. This marks a marginal increase from 22.7 per cent in 2024 across 53 countries, and is nearly double the 2016 share of the population analysed.

Famine (IPC Phase 5) was confirmed in two countries for the first time since IPC reporting began: in parts of the Gaza Strip (Palestine) and in the Sudan. Six countries and territories had populations in Catastrophe (IPC/CH Phase 5), totalling approximately 1.4 million people — a more than nine-fold increase since 2016.

Conflict and insecurity remained the primary driver of acute food insecurity in 19 countries and territories, accounting for 147.4 million people in high levels of acute food insecurity. Weather extremes were the primary driver in 16 countries (87.5 million people) and economic shocks in 12 countries (29.8 million people). More than 80 per cent of those facing high levels of acute food insecurity lived in protracted crisis contexts.

Humanitarian and development financing to food sectors declined sharply in 2025. Humanitarian funding is estimated to have fallen by approximately 39 per cent compared with 2024 levels, returning to levels last seen in 2016–2017. The 2026 edition also records the lowest country data coverage in the series’ ten-year history, with 18 selected countries and territories unable to provide data meeting GRFC technical requirements — raising concerns about the integrity of food security information systems underpinning the report.

An estimated 35.5 million children aged 6–59 months were acutely malnourished across 23 countries and territories experiencing nutrition crises, including 9.7 million with severe acute malnutrition. Around 9.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women were also acutely malnourished across 21 countries and territories.

The number of forcibly displaced people in 46 countries and territories with food crises decreased slightly to 85.1 million in 2025 — the first decline in a decade — driven largely by return movements in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Sudan. Displaced populations nonetheless continue to face disproportionately higher levels of acute food insecurity compared with resident populations.

Relevance for Finance Professionals

The GRFC functions as a key decision-support tool for humanitarian and development actors, and its findings carry direct relevance for finance professionals across several areas.

The series tracks external financing flows to food and nutrition crises, including both humanitarian assistance and development allocations to food sectors in food crisis contexts. This data enables analysis of funding gaps, trends in official development assistance (ODA), and the relationship between financing levels and food security outcomes over time.

The report’s analysis of structural vulnerabilities — including sovereign debt burdens, fiscal space constraints, currency depreciation and economic fragility — provides insight into macroeconomic risks in fragile states. Thirteen protracted crisis countries had debt-to-GDP ratios exceeding 50 per cent, and several of the largest food crises are also among the most economically constrained contexts globally.

For those engaged in development finance, impact investment, ESG analysis or sovereign risk assessment, the GRFC provides a cross-country severity framework immediately applicable to strategic planning and resource allocation. Its annual trend data, dating to 2016, support longitudinal analysis of food insecurity dynamics, primary driver attribution and the effectiveness of financing interventions, making it a valued reference for evidence-based decision-making across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.