103 Humanitarian Assistance FAO kicked off a data-driven monitoring program in 2020— during the pandemic—to assess rising agricultural stresses in countries where food insecurity has become chronic. To monitor food vulnerability and survey the needs of farmers, the team created the DIEM Hub using GIS technology and remote sensing. Food scarcity has historically been connected to government instability. According to the World Food Programme, more than 80 percent of UN mobilized resources went to conflict areas in 2022. The most war-torn countries face perpetual cycles of hunger and instability. “Famines are pretty rare, thankfully, but we do have many situations where people are rapidly depleting their assets in order to get access to food,” Marsland said. “They’re engaging in what we call negative coping strategies, such as selling off their last productive animal or migrating away from the household in a desperate attempt to find work.” Working Where the Need Is Greatest Marsland and the DIEM team monitor 27 countries facing food crises and analyze the connections among climate change, conflict, migration, geopolitics, and economics. Analysts on the team use satellite imagery and GIS technology to create models that can detect livestock hardship and crop stress. Inputs from a network of in-country enumerators add perspective on agricultural production and the impact of storms or pests, helping the team determine what producers may need. When it’s too dangerous to go door to door, assessments are completed through computer-assisted telephone interviews. “They’re telling us they need food, but also other things,” Marsland said. “They need seed to plant the next crop and vaccinations to keep their animals from dying. With GIS, we’re able to map and display this data very clearly. We can compare needs within a country, across time, and look at the needs of all countries.” The DIEM Hub analyzes, maps, and stores the 150 indicators collected during each survey in countries such as Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sudan, and Colombia. The surveys of approximately 150,000 households each year— performed every two to six months—provide an accurate picture of food production trends and volatilities. Since the DIEM Information System was launched, the team has extended its network of partners, including national government agencies in the countries it monitors. Before 2020, the UN did not receive regular updates on how and where food-insecure regions were impacted by crises. Now, through DIEM’s DIEM-Impact, analysts can provide initial impact assessments within 72 hours. This has been The number of hungry and malnourished people in the world had been declining before it began rising in 2016. The setback came with an increase in extreme storms and conflicts. This map shows the 27 countries the DIEM Information System monitors and several more where impacts are assessed. ©FAO.
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