Background
The Global Early Warning – Early Action (EWEA) report on food security and agriculture is developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The report is a part of FAO’s EWEA system, which aims to translate forecasts and early warnings into anticipatory action.
EWEA enables FAO to act early before disasters have happened to mitigate or even prevent their impact. By lessening damages to livelihoods and protecting assets and investments, FAO can help local livelihoods become more resilient to threats and crises.
The Global EWEA report is a quarterly forward-looking analytical summary of major disaster risks to food security and agriculture. The report specifically highlights two types of contexts:
- Potential new emergencies caused by imminent disaster threats; and
- In countries currently in a situation of protracted crisis or already in the response stage of an emergency, the risk of a significant deterioration of the situation with a severe impact on food security and/or agriculture is also covered. For this kind of risk, the analysis will focus on the additional risk factors which would, either alone or in combination with others, lead to a substantial deterioration of the situation.
Countries affected by protracted crises or already in the response stage of an emergency, where there are limited signs of a significant deterioration, are not included in the report. However, an overview of countries with humanitarian response plans or emergency plans is provided on page 24.
The report’s summary is rooted in the analysis provided by existing FAO corporate and joint multi-agency information and early warning systems, mainly:
- Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS);
- Food Chain Crisis and Emergency Prevention System (FCC-EMPRES); and
- Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
Additional corporate information and external sources are also consulted for the development of this report. A detailed list is available on page 23.
Through a consensus-based process countries have been indicated as “high risk” when there is a very likely new emergency or deterioration of the current situation with potentially severe effects on agriculture and food security, and in which FAO and partners should start implementing early actions on a no-regret basis.
Countries listed as “on watch” instead have a moderate to high likelihood of a new emergency or deterioration of the current situation, with potentially moderate or significant impacts on agriculture and food security. An overview of the risk ranking methodology is provided on page 3.