Key Messages
The Southern African Region is facing serious food and nutrition insecurity challenges that are likely to worsen with the onset of the lean season if current levels of emergency and humanitarian assistance are not sufficiently scaled up;
43 million people from 13 Member States expected to be acutely food insecure at the peak of the lean season in January 2020 calling for urgent resourcing of the interventions planned by both Member States and their humanitarian partners;
With the lean season imminient, large funding gaps still exist for the planned interventions;
Current food and nutrition insecurity exhibiting chronic charactericts and exercabated by adverse weather related shocks experienced in the previous seasons combined with other rapid onset livelihoods disruptions calling for both short-term lifesaving approaches and medium to long term livelihoods resilience building approaches.
High food inflation rates and above average main staple (maize grain) prices already being observed in several areas, including those that are normally stable signifying reduced supplies in the Region.
Continued monitoring of the food and nutrition security situation, delivery of the humanitarian assistance and its effectiveness by Secretariat and Member States urged so as to provide early warning in case of further deterioration of the situation.