Babies born too small. Families baking with rancid flour. Community kitchens shutting down one by one. That’s the reality today in Gaza, where every single person — all 2.1 million — is facing extreme and prolonged food shortages. One in five is now on the brink of starvation, and the worst may be yet to come.
“It’s worse in a way that I don't think we could have imagined a year ago,” Michael Fakhri, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, tells me. He warns that Gaza’s crisis has surpassed the thresholds of catastrophe. The international system, he says, was meant to act before this point — before famine, not after.
Gaza is nearing the conditions required for a formal famine classification, according to a report released Monday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. It already meets one of the three required benchmarks, with signs pointing to the others.
“Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border,” World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain said in a statement. Since March 2, Israel has imposed a tight blockade on the strip, with more than 116,000 metric tons of food waiting just outside.
Local food systems have collapsed. WFP bakeries have shut down. Wheat flour prices have spiked 3,000%. “We have shortages of everything,” Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam’s food security and livelihoods coordinator, tells me from Gaza.
Children and pregnant women are bearing the brunt. Nearly 71,000 children under the age of 5 are expected to suffer acute malnutrition over the next year. “A healthy newborn should weigh around 3 kilograms,” Dr. Amjad Al-Muzaini, a gynecologist in Gaza City said in a statement shared by Medical Aid for Palestinians. “But now we often see weights between 2.3 and 2.4 kilograms, sometimes even less.”
And with kitchens and markets nearly empty, patients often survive on one meal a day brought in by relatives — a can of beans, a small bag of dates, a handful of pickles. Even Israeli military officials now privately acknowledge the severity. According to The New York Times, some officials have warned that unless aid deliveries resume soon, Gaza will run out of food needed to meet minimum daily nutritional needs.
Fakhri tells me the lack of response is not due to missing legal frameworks or insufficient warning. “We don’t need any more international law,” he says. “It’s all there.”
Read: Famine stalks Gaza as Israel blocks aid at border
See also: ‘Nothing is left’ — the collapse of Gaza’s agricultural sector
From the archives: Why famine is ‘inevitable’ in Gaza — and what’s next
+ Catch up on our coverage of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
A ‘micro Green Revolution’
Mariangela Hungria, a Brazilian microbiologist, has won the 2025 World Food Prize for boosting Brazil’s crop yields while reducing farmers’ reliance on chemical inputs. In her more than 40-year tenure at Embrapa, the state-run Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, she has developed dozens of biological seed and soil treatments that help crops draw nutrients from soil bacteria.
Her groundbreaking innovations now power more than 40 million hectares of farmland. Her work has saved farmers up to $25 billion annually in input costs and helped avoid over 230 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions each year, according to the World Food Prize Foundation.
Hungria’s research has improved yields of wheat, maize, rice, beans — and especially soybeans, Brazil’s top agricultural export. At the start of her career, in 1979, Brazil was producing 15 million tons of soybeans. This year, the harvest is expected to reach 173 million tons.
“I still cannot believe it,” Hungria tells my colleague Tania Karas. “When I first got the call … I thought that I would have an opportunity to talk in the [World Food Prize conference].” Then came the real surprise: “They said, ‘Well you can talk, but it’s just that you won.’”
Hungria is quick to clarify that her work isn’t about rejecting chemicals entirely. “I’m not against the chemicals,” she says. “I’m against the use of chemicals where you have possibilities of changing to biologicals.” A single mother of two who faced discrimination throughout her career, Hungria says: “I can be an inspiration to girls and mothers and women, and show how important they are for food security.”
Read: Brazilian microbiologist wins 2025 World Food Prize
+ Speaking of seeds, Tania will be heading to the International Seed Federation’s World Seed Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, next week to cover what’s ahead for crop innovation, biodiversity, and global seed security. Stay tuned for updates and get in touch with her at tania.karas@devex.com if you’ll be there.
WHAt’s on the menu?
The World Health Assembly — the World Health Organization’s annual decision-making meeting — kicks off in Geneva, Switzerland, next week, bringing together global health leaders at a time of shrinking budgets and growing need. This year’s theme is “One World for Health,” and while nutrition isn’t an official stand-alone agenda item, it’s widely seen as a crosscutting priority and expected to surface in key conversations.
Two nutrition-related resolutions are up for adoption — and both could shape how countries approach food and health in the coming years, writes Devex contributor Rebecca Root.
The first would extend and update the Comprehensive Implementation Plan on Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Nutrition, originally adopted in 2012. With most countries off track to meet the 2025 global nutrition targets, the resolution proposes pushing the deadline to 2030 and adding new goals, including improving dietary diversity, promoting early breastfeeding, and reducing sugar-sweetened beverage intake.
The second resolution takes aim at the digital marketing of breast-milk substitutes. Advocates say such advertising undermines breastfeeding — especially in low-resource settings where formula feeding can be dangerous due to difficulty accessing clean water. If passed, the resolution would strengthen regulations around online promotion and commit countries to better monitoring.
But there is, of course, a $600 million elephant in the room. That’s the size of WHO’s budget shortfall this year — and it raises real questions about what these resolutions and any others will mean in practice, and whether countries will have the resources to deliver. Experts tell Rebecca that might mean WHA takes a more focused approach, zeroing in only on essential actions when it comes to nutrition.
Read: Nutrition issues to watch at the 78th World Health Assembly
Further reading: What you need to know about WHO’s 2026-2027 budget proposal
+ Devex’s global health reporting team will be live in Geneva next week for the World Health Assembly. From May 19-22, we’ll be hosting a journalist-led summit to discuss some of the most pressing issues in global health, including WHO’s funding crisis. Register now to be a part of it in person or online.
For the UN’s 80th, a major makeover
The United Nations may be heading for one of its biggest shake-ups in decades. Secretary-General António Guterres this week proposed sweeping reforms that could eliminate 20% of civilian staff in key departments and force the U.N. to shutter or consolidate programs it can no longer afford. The push comes as the Trump administration proposes slashing U.S. contributions to U.N. agencies by as much as 87% — though final numbers remain uncertain.
Bringing home the bacon
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Dubbed “UN80,” the reform drive is tied to the U.N.’s upcoming 80th anniversary. Guterres said the system is overloaded with mandates, bogged down by bureaucracy, and stretched beyond reason. “Make no mistake — uncomfortable decisions lie ahead,” he told member states. Operational agencies including WFP may be among the first hit because they rely on voluntary contributions, writes my colleague Colum Lynch.
Support is mixed. The U.S. welcomed the effort, urging more action on staff cuts and cost savings. Others, including Ethiopia’s envoy, speaking on behalf of the African Group, warned against short-term budget fixes that risk undermining the U.N.’s impact. Some pushed back on proposals to move jobs out of New York and Geneva to cut costs.
Seven working groups are now tasked with drawing up detailed proposals across peacekeeping, development, and humanitarian operations. But many of the reforms — especially large-scale job cuts — will require buy-in from member states that have historically fought to protect their preferred programs. That makes for a tough road ahead, with plenty of resistance likely.
Read: UN chief outlines ‘painful’ survival plan for world body
See also: To cut costs, UN urges Geneva, NY offices to move staff to cheaper cities
And ICYMI: WFP to cut 30% of staff amid aid shortfall
Explore the data: How different US administrations funded the UN system (Pro)
+ A Devex Pro membership offers deeper analysis of the evolving development sector, exclusive events and briefings with sector leaders on timely issues facing the aid world in these dire times, access to the world’s largest global development job board for career resources, and more. Try it out today by signing up for a 15-day free trial.
Chew on this
Brazil, host of this year’s U.N. COP30 climate change conference, has called for a shift from climate pledges to action. Its “Global Mutirão” initiative invites contributions from across society, such as farmers adopting regenerative agriculture with community support. [Devex]
Farmers say water bodies are drying up in northern Nigeria, threatening harvests in the region that supplies much of the nation’s food. [AP]
At its annual meetings in Italy, the Asian Development Bank barely mentioned climate change — a shift that’s sparked questions about whether it’s backing away from its self-anointed “climate bank” identity under pressure from the United States, one of its biggest shareholders. [Devex]
The climate crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean threatens the banana, the world’s most popular fruit. [The Guardian]
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.
