TWN Info Service on UN Sustainable Development (Oct26/01)
6 October 2026
Third World Network

UN: Millions more women & girls face hunger as Middle East crisis escalates
Published in SUNS #10527 dated 6 October 2026 

Penang, 5 Oct (Kanaga Raja) -- An additional 11.7 million women and girls could become food insecure by the end of December 2026, as the escalation in the Middle East and disruption to the Strait of Hormuz add new price shocks to an already severe food security crisis, according to UN Women.

In a new report, titled "Food security risks of the Middle East escalation for women and girls", UN Women said that women and girls account for 53 per cent of the projected 22 million additional people who could face food insecurity by the end of the year across 28 countries analyzed.

It said that this is in addition to an estimated 208 million women and girls who were already food insecure or undernourished in these countries.

"We know, as a matter of fact, that when food becomes scarce, women eat less and last. They often shift to less nutritious diets or skip meals altogether to prioritize the needs of others," said the UN Women Deputy Executive Director Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda.

"Gender inequalities dictate who has access to food and the resources to obtain it. Therefore, investing in women and girls is a sure way of ensuring the well-being of families and communities," Gumbonzvanda added.

According to the report, the Middle East escalation is placing additional strain on global food security.

Continued disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz are keeping energy, fertilizer and transport costs elevated and volatile, transmitting the shock into food prices, agricultural inputs, humanitarian operations, labour markets and remittance-dependent economies far beyond the region, it said.

It said that this is affecting countries already weakened by climate shocks and successive global crises, which have disrupted energy markets, driven up fertilizer and food prices, reduced agricultural productivity, and eroded households' capacity to absorb further shocks.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that, if current pressures persist, they could contribute to a severe global food-price crisis within the coming months.

According to UN Women, women and girls are likely to bear the brunt of this shock. They already face higher levels of food insecurity, have less access to secure work, income, land, credit and financial services, and carry a greater share of unpaid care work.

Evidence from previous crises shows that economic shocks widen these inequalities, both within households and across societies, it said.

"When food becomes less affordable, women may eat less or eat last, shift to cheaper and less nutritious diets, or spend more time finding and preparing food."

Women are central to the food systems that are now under pressure, making up almost 40 per cent of the global agrifood workforce - growing, processing and selling food.

The report said in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, agrifood systems account for 66 and 71 per cent of women's employment, respectively.

Higher fuel, fertilizer and transport costs can therefore affect women twice over: through higher food prices as consumers, and through lower agricultural earnings and reduced work as producers, it pointed out.

The report examined the potential near-term implications of this double exposure for women and girls in 28 countries, where food-price shocks intersect with existing food insecurity, import dependence, displacement, humanitarian funding pressures, climate vulnerability and gender inequality.

Even before the Middle East escalation, an estimated 208 million women and girls across the 28 countries were food insecure or undernourished, it said, adding that the current shock therefore risks deepening an existing crisis rather than creating a new one.

Under the moderate scenario, an estimated additional 11.7 million women and girls could become food insecure by the end of December 2026, accounting for 53 per cent of the projected 22 million additional people affected.

In some countries, women and girls are estimated to make up an even larger share of those affected: 60 per cent in Afghanistan, 57 per cent in Yemen and Pakistan, and 56 per cent in Bangladesh and Sudan.

The report said that the shock is most concentrated in South Sudan, where, based on observed IPC assessments, around 852,000 additional women and girls could face food insecurity by December 2026, roughly 14 per cent - or one in seven - of the country's female population.

Lebanon follows, where the additional number is equivalent to nearly 4 per cent of the female population. These scenario-based estimates show how quickly outcomes worsen as the assumed food-price shock becomes larger, it said.

The report also warned that gender inequality can turn price and income shocks into a deeper crisis for women and girls.

"Prices are only part of the story. A woman's ability to keep food on the table depends on whether she has her own income, secure work, savings or credit, and a say over how household resources are used."

According to the report, the cross-country analysis measured three of these economic buffers: access to income, employment security, and financial inclusion. Each shows why many women have little room to absorb another shock.

As regards limited access to income, the report said in Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Sudan and Syria, fewer than one in five women participates in the labour force. In Afghanistan and Yemen, participation falls to approximately one in twenty.

Access to financial services offers another potential buffer, but many women remain excluded. In Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan and Yemen, fewer than one in five women owns a bank or mobile money account. Without an account, women have fewer ways to save, receive remittances or cash assistance, or borrow safely, said the report.

As regards employment security, the report said that in 17 of the 28 countries analysed, at least half of employed women are in vulnerable employment. In Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mali and South Sudan, this share exceeds 80 per cent.

This indicator captures only part of women's employment insecurity, since temporary, informal, domestic and migrant work carry additional vulnerabilities not fully reflected in comparable cross-country data, it added.

More worryingly, the report said women and girls face the greatest food security risks where multiple pressures overlap.

"Rising food prices compound existing pressures on women and girls, especially where conflict, displacement, food insecurity, import dependence, agricultural exposure or humanitarian funding gaps are already present."

This combination deepens the inequalities women already face in access to resources,livelihoods, services and decision-making, raising both their risk of food insecurity and the difficulty of coping with and recovering from it, the report added.

Under a combined stress scenario of sustained food, fuel and fertilizer price pressures and reduced humanitarian assistance, 26 of the 28 countries would face high or very high exposure to multiple, compounding risks, said the report.

"Sudan and South Sudan rank highest overall, with severe food insecurity, displacement, humanitarian funding pressures and structural gender inequalities converging."

The report said Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Haiti, Ethiopia and Palestine also face high exposure, but through different combinations of risks.

For example, in Somalia and Yemen, exposure is driven mainly by severe existing food insecurity combined with low humanitarian funding for food security relative to the number of people in need.

The report observed that populous countries may drive the largest absolute numbers of women and girls facing food insecurity (India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Egypt), yet in each case the increase is below 1.5 per cent of the population.

In smaller or crisis-affected countries such as South Sudan, Sudan, Haiti, Yemen and Palestine, they face more concentrated risk because several sources of vulnerability coincide, it said.

For women working in agriculture, the impact is direct as rising input costs cut into what they earn, not only what they pay at the market, it added.

For instance, in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and South Sudan, around two-thirds or more of employed women work in agriculture.

Higher fuel, fertilizer and input costs can disrupt planting decisions, reduce production and labour demand, and squeeze earnings, it cautioned.

Importantly, in import-dependent economies, global food, fuel and logistics shocks pass more quickly into local prices, it said.

"Women with limited independent income, secure employment, savings or financial accounts have less room to absorb the increase."

Policy and programme responses should be matched to the dominant risk in each context, said UN Women.

Where humanitarian funding falls short of need, it highlighted the need to protect women's access to food, cash, nutrition and protection services.

Where agriculture is the pressure point, the report urged the need to protect women's production, inputs and livelihoods, and where import-driven inflation dominates, there is need to protect household purchasing power and women's access to financial resources.

However, responding to the price shock without addressing the gender inequalities that shape women's choices will leave the underlying vulnerability intact in every context, it concluded. +