The Trump administration’s steep cuts to foreign aid have hit the tools that humanitarian agencies and governments around the world rely on to forecast and stave off hunger crises before they spiral out of control.
The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development has already shuttered the U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWS NET, the gold standard for forecasting food crises globally up to nine months in advance. Its collapse has also crippled the data-gathering capabilities of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, a U.N.-backed tool used to measure the severity of food insecurity and declare famine.
These systems were the world’s best shot at sounding the alarm on famines — and they’re now barely holding on. With no obvious way to fill budget and resource gaps, the lost funding won’t come back anytime soon. That means artificial intelligence is increasingly in the spotlight.
About the author
Ayenat Mersie
Ayenat Mersie is a Global Development Reporter for Devex. Previously, she worked as a freelance journalist for publications such as National Geographic and Foreign Policy and as an East Africa correspondent for Reuters.
