Programme Description

The Challenges
The Global Hunger Index 2021 (GHI) ranked Somalia the lowest out of 116 countries surveyed in terms
of food security, with a GHI score of 50.8 putting Somalia as the only country in the extremely alarming
category. This situation is deteriorating further as Somalia and the Horn of Africa continues to
experience the worst drought in 40 years. The last drought in 2016/17 led to a decline in rural
households’ consumption of 19% (about a 13% decrease in food consumption), corresponding to a 24%
increase in the probability of being poor. Somalia faces a chronic food crop deficit, as local production
meets only 22 percent of per capita cereal needs, according to the FAO, and even in the best agricultural
seasons, domestic production provides only about 40–50 percent of per capita cereal needs.