Food Security Cluster Annual Report 2021 No images? Click here Dear All, After two years of COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 has been yet another challenging year. Hunger reached record high levels globally, millions of livelihoods were pushed closer to the edge of destitution. Whereas the world was hoping to eventually recover from the lingering economic effects of the pandemic, persistent and growing conflicts and a severe wave of climate shocks further compounded the level of food crises, marked by a total of 283 million people acutely food insecure by the end of the year. Our 2021 Annual Report showcases the relentless efforts of the Food Security Clusters in the field, supported by the Global Food Security Cluster, to coordinate lifesaving emergency operations, as well as food and livelihood assistance to palliate the most pressing needs of the most vulnerable population. Humanitarian actors continuously reviewed access strategies to assist populations in hard-to-reach areas and overcome supply chains disruptions. Furthermore, the collaboration with the Nutrition, WASH and Health clusters, both at global and country level, was strengthened to mobilize all partners and urge the global community to step up and proactively face the rising level of hunger. Food Security Clusters also emphasized the importance of providing the global community with key information products to support decision making both at country and global levels: with the support of the global team, reporting processes were streamlined, and detailed dashboards and insights were integrated into global humanitarian tools and analysis. Despite the dedication of our teams on the ground, their interventions too often remained constrained by severe funding shortfalls and their capacity to provide an adequate response was considerably hampered. We do urge the global community to remobilize in 2022 to address the increased level of needs and the correlated operational costs it will inevitably incur. We would like to seize the opportunity of this release to warmly thank all our staff in the field – coordinators, information management officers, communication officers, field staff and all our partners – for their dedication and commitment to saving lives in times of such adversity and challenging waves of shocks. 2022 will be a decisive year to advocate for much needed resources and further strengthen inter-cluster collaboration to foster impact and reverse the trend of food insecurity globally. Sincerely, The Global Food Security Support Team |