Balochistan and Sindh are two of Pakistan’s provinces having the highest prevalence of food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty. In 2020, the population faced multiple shocks including high food prices, locust outbreaks, rains/flooding/snowfall/drought, all exacerbated by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this IPC Acute Food Insecurity Analysis, ten rural districts of Balochistan and nine rural districts of Sindh were analysed.
In total, around 3.8 million people (26% of the population analysed) are estimated to be facing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) in the current period of March to June 2021, corresponding to the end of the lean season and the beginning of the harvest season. These include around 2.8 million people (19% of the population analysed) in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) and almost 1 million people (7% of the population analysed) in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) across the nineteen districts analysed. At least 5% of the population analysed in all the districts is in Phase 4 in both Balochistan and Sindh, while between 20% to 35% in Balochistan and between 15% and 30% in Sindh are in IPC Phase 3 or 4.
When comparing with the previous IPC Acute Food Insecurity analysis of Balochistan and Sindh, which took place in 2019, the situation appears to have improved substantially, in both magnitude and severity. However, food insecurity remains high, and urgent action is required to protect livelihoods and reduce food consumption gaps of people in Crisis (IPC Phase 3) and save lives and livelihoods of people in Emergency (IPC Phase 4).
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