NEAR EAST AND NORTH AFRICA Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2024: Statistics and trends

This report was prepared by Tamás Vattai, Nutrition and Food Systems Officer at the Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa (FAO RNE), under the guidance of Ahmad Mukhtar, Regional Programme Leader at RNE, and the overall leadership of Abdulhakim Elwaer, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for RNE.

Tamás Vattai (FAO RNE) and Youssef Yousri (Policy Support Specialist, FAO RNE) wrote Part I of the report.

Part II of the report was written by Tamás Vattai (FAO RNE) and Mark Brown (Innovative Finance Specialist, FAO RNE). Saifullah Khan (Director, Bizilance Legal Consultants) and Niclas Benni (ESP) provided valuable comments and input.

Support for graphic design and layout came from Angham Abdelmageed, Senior Graphics and Publication Developer at RNE.

Mariam Hassanien, Communications Specialist at FAO RNE coordinated the production and publishing process of the report.

Under the overall guidance of Máximo Torero Cullen (Chief Economist), David Laborde (Director, Agrifood Economics and Policy Division, ESA) and José Rosero Moncayo (Chief Statistician and Director, Statistics Division, ESS) this report benefited from the technical review and clearance of Cindy Holleman, Giovanni Carrasco Azzini, Lucia Latino and Eduardo Nakasone Uechi (ESA); Valentina Conti, Juan Feng, Anne Kepple, Olivier Lavagne d’Ortigue, Sara Viviani, Firas Yassin (ESS); Fatima Hachem, Tomoko Kato, Trudy Wijnhoven (Food and Nutrition Division, ESN); Erdgin Mane (Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, ESP); Monika Tothova (Markets and Trade Division, EST); and Margherita Bavagnoli (Agrifood Systems and Food Safety Division, ESF). Olivier Lavagne d’Ortigue provided support for data visualization.

Support from partner agencies was provided by Fidele Byiringiro (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia [UNESCWA]), and Odai Abdel Rahman (United Nations Children’s Fund [UNICEF]).