Pakistan among top 10 fragile countries facing severe food insecurity: UN-backed report

A UN-backed report has ranked Pakistan among the top 10 fragile countries facing acute food insecurity, with around 11 million people affected in 2025. Floods, inflation and poor infrastructure are cited as key drivers of worsening food conditions.

Islamabad: Pakistan has been ranked among world’s top 10 fragile nations, where global acute food insecurity is most concentrated, local media reported, citing a United Nations-backed report.

The 2026 Global Report on Food Crises has named Pakistan alongside Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen as the primary centres of acute hunger, Pakistani daily Dawn reported.

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According to the report, Pakistan was also named among 10 nations in the world which faced the largest food crises in 2025, with about 11 million people facing severe food insecurity.

Among those impacted in Pakistan, 9.3 million people were classified in “crisis” conditions and 1.7 million in “emergency”, the most acute categories short of famine.

In the report, the classification system, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), defines a food crisis as a situation which needs urgent action to protect lives and livelihoods. Acute food insecurity occurs when access to food becomes so restricted that it poses a threat to survival.

According to the report, extreme weather was a continuing cause of food insecurity in Pakistan, pointing to heavy rains and floods that resulted in crop damage. “In 2025, severe floods were recorded worldwide, affecting livelihoods and food security. In Pakistan, heavy monsoon rains and flash floods affected more than 6 million people, destroying cropland and infrastructure,” it said.

Pakistan is also mentioned in the report’s nutrition analysis, with Balochistan, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa identified as areas of concern. However, Pakistan does not have adequate recent data to assign a formal severity classification for 2025, putting it among countries with “no severity data” for nutrition outcomes.

Pakistan also appears in the analysis of malnutrition risk pathways, showcasing vulnerabilities related to diet, healthcare access, water and sanitation, as well as disease. The report projects that inflation in Pakistan will increase to 6 per cent in 2026, putting additional pressure on the system, Dawn reported.

According to the report, Pakistan’s mention in the top 10 nations reflects the severity of need and expansion of data coverage. The analysis was extended from 43 rural districts in 2024 to 68 districts in 2025, covering areas of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, resulting in the share of Pakistan’s population included in the analysis increased from 16 per cent to 21 per cent, adding more than 14 million people.