THE Global Report on Food Crises 2026, which the Global Network against Food Crises released on April 24, has placed Bangladesh among 10 countries that are home to two-thirds of the world’s people who face high levels of acute hunger. The other nine countries are Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen, many of which are war-torn. In total, the report says, 266 million people across 47 countries and territories experienced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2025, representing about 23 per cent of the analysed population, noting that the severity level was the second highest on record while catastrophic hunger is nine times higher than in 2016. Acute food insecurity and malnutrition levels, as the report says, also remain alarmingly high. Despite a notable improvement, attributed largely to the absence of major natural disasters in early 2025, the easing of food inflation and an increase in remittance inflows from abroad, the number of people in Bangladesh facing high levels of acute food insecurity declined by about 7.6 million, accounting for a 32 per cent decrease compared with 2024 figures.
Despite the progress, about 16 million people continue to experience crisis-level food insecurity. Yet, the situation remains fragile. Economic instability, potential climate-related shocks and inflationary pressure on agriculture are viewed to have driven the high food insecurity. Increasing global fertiliser and energy prices threaten agricultural production. The proposition suggests that the government should focus on climate-resilient agriculture by adopting drought-tolerant and flood-resilient crop varieties to withstand climate shocks. The government should also focus more on domestic fertiliser production to stabilise agricultural costs, along with enhancing soil management techniques. The government needs to improve the efficiency of programmes such as food assistance, cash transfers and ‘work for money’ initiatives for vulnerable households. The government should work out policies to curb inflation, monitor food prices and end market manipulation. The government should improve the agricultural supply chain by incentivising private-sector investments. The government also needs to address internal displacement, as displaced people are usually at high risk of acute hunger. A 2025 estimation puts the number of internally displaced people at more or less five million. The government should also focus on strengthening the state’s capacity to prevent acute malnutrition, especially focusing on the most distressed households. The government needs to upgrade disaster management systems by upgrading early warning mechanisms to mitigate risks from climate events.
Whilst the government should take up a multi-pronged approach to increase spending on food systems, climate adaptation and rural livelihoods, and to put in place early disaster warning systems, it should leverage global support by actively participating in international coalitions against food insecurity to secure funding and humanitarian assistance.
