World Food Programme's HungerMap

Hunger reporting gets boost with new reliable, real time data tool
If tariffs, the price of gas, climate migration, or crime had increased 15-fold, the world’s media would be in an uproar, splashing the sensational details across pages and banners and TV screens daily, even hourly. Yet, IPC5 food insecurity – the most severe form of hunger - has increased 15-fold from 85,000 in 2019 to 1.4 million in 2025.

How often have we read about this?

When it comes to reporting about hunger, all too often, traditional media leave audiences wanting more.

First, food security crises are grossly underreported. For example, in Zimbabwe, drought threatens the food security of millions, especially in rural areas. “It was heartbreaking to see the severity of the 2023/24 El Niño-induced drought in Zimbabwe affecting millions of people in Zimbabwe so widely overlooked by the media. Communities struggled to access clean water and sufficient food. The lack of international attention is hardly helpful when families in urgent need are hoping for support,” says Charlene Pellsah Ambali, Assistant CARE Country Director in Zimbabwe. (CARE report) 

When it does get reported, hunger is all too often framed as episodic—a short term famine that occurs as the result of a war or natural disaster. Yet, hunger experts know that the factors driving hunger are often long term or systemic. Also, media often attribute hunger to poor individual choices or bad luck, again rather than as a systemic issue. Those experiencing hunger are portrayed only as helpless victims, stripped of their agency, in ways that reinforce harmful stereotypes that lead to compassion fatigue. (News Media Framing of Food Policy; WorldHunger.org; Investigating News Media and Third Sector Views on Food Poverty; Global Investigative Journalism Network). 

On top of this, journalists who want to responsibly report about food insecurity can find it difficult to get the real-time, updated information they need. That problem, however, has been solved by a new online tool from the World Food Programme. 

HungerMap is a new tool that “offers AI-assisted forecasting capabilities of projected food needs in WFP designated Hunger Hotspots – 16 countries with populations already struggling with catastrophic hunger. Studies have shown that early warning of emerging food security issues can reap tremendous cost savings and operational efficiencies…HungerMap Live platform brings together data from WFP’s extensive network of more than 300 analysts working on food security monitoring and mapping with information from dozens of trusted partners. This includes the global benchmark for food insecurity data (known as IPC), government validated statistics, climate, market, agricultural and economic data…HungerMap Live answers three critical questions: What is the current state of food security across the world? Which countries and regions require urgent attention? And what are the underlying factors contributing to food security needs?” (WFP press release)

Armed with reliable real-time information, journalists now have the ability to give world hunger the attention it deserves. One only hopes that they will have the desire to do so.