Food insecurity worldwide has reached unprecedented levels, with conflicts, economic shocks and climatic extremes that take millions to the edge of starvation, according to the global report on food crises.
The situation is more heartbreaking in Gaza, where the entire 2.1M population faces high levels of acute food insecurity. As of March 2024, more than half of the population qualified for emergency levels of IPC phase 4, while an alarming 50 percent faced catastrophe conditions (phase 5 of CPI), the final stage before the famine is officially declared.
This is not only a humanitarian insufficiency, but also as a result of a deliberate policy and sustained conflicts. Gaza’s economy has collapsed under a 17 -year -old block and repeated military climbs. At the end of 2024, 75pc of cultivation lands, 57pc of greenhouses and 68pc of wells had been destroyed. In the governorates of Norte de Gaza and Gaza, 70 % of the population survived in catastrophe level conditions, almost completely trusting in an inadequate humanitarian aid. Food prices shot, with the prices of wheat flour at 3,000pc between February and April 2025.
Mitigation efforts remain unfortunately insufficient. Humanitarian access has been severely restricted, with help trucks that enter Gaza well below the levels prior to the conflict, and the risk of famine remains persistent during all 2025. The global community must boost a high immediate fire and humanitarian access without restrictions.
While Gaza’s difficult situation is the most severe, Pakistan also faces a worrying food security perspective. Although food inflation fell to 0.3pc in December 2024, below the two digits at the beginning of the year, poverty and unemployment continue to hinder access to food. The floods of 2022 left lasting scars and extreme climatic events in 2023 and 2024 further eroded the livelihoods, particularly in the rural areas of Baluchistan, Sindh and KP. These regions also face deteriorated water safety, further aggravating agricultural losses and pushing subsistence farmers to deeper debt traps.
From the latest evaluations, 11 million people in Pakistan remain in the crisis of IPC phase 3 or worse, with 2.2 million in emergency conditions. The high levels of acute malnutrition are particularly alarming in Sindh and KP, with a significant number of children born with low birth weight and a large load of diarrhea and respiratory infections that exacerbate the crisis. Checking these challenges is the global reduction of humanitarian financing, which has reduced food assistance programs.
Immediate policy interventions are needed. The center and provinces must strengthen social security networks, guarantee nutritional support for mothers and children and invest in climate resistant agriculture. Without a decisive action, Pakistan runs the risk of falling more deeply into a chronic cycle of hunger and poverty.
In a world where millions go to bed hunger, and where children’s futures are changed by geopolitical profits, we must ask: how long can humanity support this?
Posted in Dawn, May 19, 2025
