Produced annually by Action Against Hunger Italy, The World’s Hunger Hotspots analyses the countries with the highest numbers of people experiencing acute food insecurity, combining data from internationally recognized sources — primarily the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) and FAO-WFP Hunger Hotspots reports — with evidence and operational insights from the countries where Action Against Hunger teams work. 

The starting point is clear: hunger is not evenly distributed. It is increasingly concentrated in a relatively small number of contexts where conflict, displacement, climate shocks, disease, the breakdown of essential services and restricted humanitarian access converge. In 2025, the ten countries with the highest absolute numbers of people experiencing acute food insecurity accounted for 177 million people — around two-thirds of the global total. Three countries alone — Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sudan — accounted for 82.9 million people, nearly one-third of the global total. 

Yet the crisis is unfolding against a strikingly different trend in humanitarian financing. As needs increase and become more concentrated, the resources available to respond are falling. Humanitarian assistance to food sectors in crisis contexts declined by an estimated 59% between 2022 and 20252 , while global official development assistance (ODA) fell by 23% in 20253 . 

The result is a widening gap between what the data identify as urgent needs and what humanitarian organizations are able to deliver. The warning could hardly be clearer. For the first time since the GRFC was launched in 2017, two famines were confirmed in the same year: in parts of Gaza and Sudan in 2025. Both crises were driven primarily by conflict and compounded by restrictions on humanitarian access, displacement, destruction of livelihoods and essential services. Famine is therefore not simply the consequence of too little food. It is often the outcome of human-made conditions — and can be prevented.