2022 Global Food Security Index (GFSI) Report

December 15, 2022

The 2022 Global Food Security Index (GFSI) report was released by the British weekly The Economist. In this report, South Africa overtook Tunisia to become the most food-secure country in Africa.

What are the key findings of the report?

Vulnerability to Shocks: The global food environment is deteriorating, making it vulnerable to shocks. Significant progress was made in global food security from 2012 to 2015, with the overall GFSI score increasing by 6 percent. However, structural challenges have caused the growth of the global food system to slow down. The past 3 years witnessed a reversal in the global trend of the overall food security environment.
Affordability: In 2022, the GFSI suffered because of the plummeting of two of its strongest pillars – affordability, and quality and safety. The weakness in the other two pillars (availability, and sustainability and adaptation) continued during this year. Affordability (top-scoring pillar) was dragged down mainly because of the sharp rise in food inflation, declining freedom of trade and reduced funding for food safety nets.
Widening food security gap: In 2022, 8 of the top 10 performing countries are in Europe, with Finland topping the list with a score of 83.7. It is followed by Ireland (scoring 81.7) and Norway (scoring 80.5). These countries have received high scores on all 4 pillars of the GFSI. The non-European countries in the top 10 list are Japan and Canada. The difference between the top-performing countries and countries at the lower rank has been widening since 2019, revealing the inequity in the global food system.
Africa’s Most Food-Secure Country: South Africa, at the 59^th position, was recognized as the most food-secure country in Africa. It made a record leap from the 70^th rank in 2021. This comes despite the various global challenges to the country’s agriculture sectir, like climate change, the fertilizer crisis caused by the Ukraine war, inflation, etc. This is the first time that a country in Sub-Saharan Africa was the top performer in the continent. The second-best performing country in Africa is Tunisia at the 62nd position.