Call to action - Priority Actions for Immediate Acceleration in Response to the Global Food and Nutrition Crisis

Overview

There are significant disruptions in the global food system, food prices are soaring, and climate-related weather extremes are aggravating food shortages and displacing populations. The world is facing hunger on an unprecedented scale: food prices have never been higher, impacting millions of lives and livelihoods as well as the access of children, women and communities to nutritious and affordable diets and essential nutrition, care and protection services. Without these, the vicious cycle of undernutrition and infection – each aggravating the other – continues to go unchecked with disastrous consequences.

The Call to Action addresses the need for a multi-sectoral approach and highlights priority actions across maternal and child nutrition through the food, health, water and sanitation, and social protection systems. In response to increasing needs, the UN agencies identified five priority actions that will be effective in addressing acute malnutrition in countries affected by conflict and natural disasters and in humanitarian emergencies. Scaling up these actions as a coordinated package will be critical for preventing and treating acute malnutrition in children, and averting a tragic loss of life.

The UN agencies call for decisive and timely action to prevent this crisis from becoming a tragedy for the world’s most vulnerable children. All agencies urge for greater investment in support of a coordinated UN response that will meet the unprecedented needs of this growing crisis.